Ever work at a position where you do absolutely nothing?
- Thread starter Itlan
- Start date
Gravel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Some days. Monday-Wednesday this week I literally just spent all day surfing Rerolled and BB.com. I told my team lead that I didn't have anything to do, and it wasn't until Thursday that she actually gave me something.
Used to bother me, but now I just say fuck it. I'm Federal Government though, so I don't think I'll lose my job. Hopefully.
And before anyone pitches a hissy fit about government workers, I was able to get away with the same thing in the private sector.
Used to bother me, but now I just say fuck it. I'm Federal Government though, so I don't think I'll lose my job. Hopefully.
And before anyone pitches a hissy fit about government workers, I was able to get away with the same thing in the private sector.
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Fifey
Trakanon Raider
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I got hired at a place once that was busy but right after slowed down, I would do almost nothing but sit and villager for about six hours a day, was supposed to work right but got tired of being there so left early. Left not long after because it's awful to do nothing at work.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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You got in before I could respond.
I worked for the US Forest Service two summers while in school. They created a job because my boss was convicted of stealing $400k of timber. They didn't fire him, he just couldn't go out to the forest anymore. I was supposed to go out and look at it for him. I wound up sitting around 90% of the time. Job got on my nerves to end because of it. It paid 2x minimum wage which was pretty good in school and met my graduation requirements of having two summers of internship.
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Basically this... I have literally nothing to do for hours, and it's not as enjoyable as I once thought. I literally sat here the other day and watched a movie, but I think all office jobs have downtime I guess.
Maybe I'll write a book... "Itlan and His Chode." Would you guys read it?
Haast
Lord Nagafen Raider
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One of my friends I worked with during college figured out there was a gap in the cube grid he could lay down in undetected. So he got paid to take a nap whenever he was tired.
Oddly, he was far from the laziest employee at the place.
Ever remove a floor tile from a server room, go to lunch and come back to learn that the IT director had fallen through it?
Good times
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
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I just started, I don't think looking for a new job after 4 months looks good on a resume.
Gravel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I think this is part of my problem (although I am lazy). The vast majority of my coworkers are dumb or really slow at their work. What takes them a day+ I can knock out in 1-2 hours. So I run through what I've got really quickly. The lazy part comes from the fact that I'm not about to start turning shit in early just so they can give me more to do (and since I'm government, it's not like they can give me a raise because I'm more productive). But knowing how crappy my coworkers are, means I can very accurately pace my work out so I'm accomplishing the same amount and just screwing around for most of the week.
The shitty part is it's crushingly boring. Pretty miserable overall.
khalid
Unelected Mod
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When I was between ships in the Navy. I would be handed a stack of papers representing duty transfers. My only job was to then type that person's name and their new duty station on another form, and then hand both of these things to someone else. It was completely worthless, as the information I was duplicating was already there and the new form I created was then instantly discarded by the next person. If anything it increased the chance of error, as instead of looking at the original they would look at my manual copy and sometimes I made mistakes. Probably shipped some poor fucker off to the south pole without knowing.
Also in the USN, when my second ship was going to be scrapped, we had to get it ready for a final inspection. So for months you do all these maintenance checks, replace defective equipment, paint and polish everything. Then the ship was sent to scrap. Months of wasted money and time for nothing.
Also in the USN, when my second ship was going to be scrapped, we had to get it ready for a final inspection. So for months you do all these maintenance checks, replace defective equipment, paint and polish everything. Then the ship was sent to scrap. Months of wasted money and time for nothing.
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, I use the side door, so my boss can't see me, and after that I just sort of space out for about an hour. I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I have been in both situations and I think having nothing to do is worse. I was a security guard in college and I worked in a warehouse from Noon to Midnight on Saturdays and Sundays. The warehouse closed at 2 on Saturday and wasn't open at all on Sunday so I was literally just supposed to sit there alone all night. It was good when I had school work to do. I couldn't save enough homework to do on the weekends, but it was just soul crushing when I didn't bring any form of entertainment. I did everything you could imagine down there. I got so I would go by the library and check out a couple books and read them both over the weekend. I once kicked a hole through the wall while having a temper tantrum over a portable video game I was playing and patched it with white tape which stayed like that for 2 years. I built a 7 story house of cards once, you name it, if there was a way to entertain yourself I did it at that job.
Later I worked for the government and while there was work to do, nobody really gave a shit if you did it or not. One of the most demotivating things ever at that job was one year when I felt my performance had really slid from the previous year, they gave me an "outstanding contributor" rating. I should have been happy but I knew I didn't deserve it and it just kind of brought home that nobody was really paying attention or gave a shit how much work I did. It got to the point where I could accomplish what was considered an acceptable amount of output by working about 25% of the time I was in the office and I spent the rest of my time posting on my EQ guild board and The Steel Warrior. It sounds nice but it was slowly sucking the life out of me. There were people who got more done than I did but there were a lot that did less.
Now I am self employed so I always have more to do than I can get done and anything I don't do today I have to do tomorrow so I keep moving most of the time. I like it much better that way.
Later I worked for the government and while there was work to do, nobody really gave a shit if you did it or not. One of the most demotivating things ever at that job was one year when I felt my performance had really slid from the previous year, they gave me an "outstanding contributor" rating. I should have been happy but I knew I didn't deserve it and it just kind of brought home that nobody was really paying attention or gave a shit how much work I did. It got to the point where I could accomplish what was considered an acceptable amount of output by working about 25% of the time I was in the office and I spent the rest of my time posting on my EQ guild board and The Steel Warrior. It sounds nice but it was slowly sucking the life out of me. There were people who got more done than I did but there were a lot that did less.
Now I am self employed so I always have more to do than I can get done and anything I don't do today I have to do tomorrow so I keep moving most of the time. I like it much better that way.
Gravel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Holy shit, this just happened to me in October when we had our annual reviews. My supervisor asked me how I thought I'd done. I said for my first year, I think I got a lot of good experience but that around January - March I had asked for extra work and never gotten anything and that that wasn't great for my development. Later he got to his assessment of me and said I'd been doing great. I probably bertstared at him or something since I figured I'd get called out on doing jack shit all year. I couldn't believe it, so I started poking with leading questions like "Well, what would you say I need to improve on in the next year." I was literally stonewalled and told to keep doing what I had been. Fuuuuuuuuck dude, really? So me giving almost no effort exceeded your expectations? So now this year I'm going to try even less. Thanks.
Security Guard at an abandon Steel Mill 15 miles out of town, working graveyard shift. Laptop + Movies = entire job.