Ever work at a position where you do absolutely nothing?
- Thread starter Itlan
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
- 46,691
- 99,583
My last 8 months in the military I was 100% useless. Sucked having to constantly look busy or try and hide out somewhere so you didnt get either yelled at or slaved out.
McCheese
SW: Sean, CW: Crone, GW: Wizardhawk
- 6,921
- 4,324
Whether having no work is a good thing or a bad thing entirely depends on what kind of blocks your job places on the Internet. I'm lucky that my IT department is fucking retarded; they have no website blocking in place and they give everyone admin rights on the work laptops. This means I can do whatever the hell I want, and I try to use my free time constructively by studying foreign languages, researching stuff for various reasons, planning my weekends/trips/whatever, and so on.
If your place has strict controls on what you can view on the Internet, then yeah, it would suck.
If your place has strict controls on what you can view on the Internet, then yeah, it would suck.
Neki
Molten Core Raider
- 2,726
- 397
If you were working as a security guard, I think you should be pleased that there wasn't anything to do
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 4,994
- 744
I think it's just a statement on the general intellect and workmanship of the average American. Sometimes I say something to my boss and he has no idea wtf I'm saying, so I have to break it down like I used to for my 5th graders. And my coworkers are no different... if I leave a post-it showing 4 names attached to a hotel charge, my accountant will come back and say "well I'm confused." What the fuck are you confused about? There's a hotel charge, I divided it by 4 for each fucking guest, and attached four different dockets to show the vouchers I placed the god damn charges in. How is that confusing?! ADD THE GOD DAMN NUMBERS. YOU'RE AN ACCOUNTANT.
I need a hobby.
Gravel
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 40,124
- 132,582
My job requires that everyone has a degree and it's got a certain number of business and math credits too. I was doing an analysis on a contractor's proposal and used standard deviations compared to other current contracts as a comparison. He looked at it for review and just had no fucking clue what I was doing. He was like "Well, you should really just use this other method instead since that's just what most people do." The worst part is I know he's an above average performer since he's mid-30's and already a GS-14 in a management position. I was just fucking shocked that someone with a business degree who's apparently smart doesn't get basic statistics.
- 16,905
- 7,913
Void
BAU BAU
- 9,901
- 11,894
This is entirely true. If I didn't have free access to the internet (and at times things like my Steam library, but only simple games like Dredmor and such) I wouldn't be able to survive doing as little as I do.
I work in a construction-related field, but sit at a desk and use a computer. The task I do is incredibly specific, and no one else at the company does it. There are times when I am incredibly busy, but that time is significantly less than 5%. Most of the rest of the time, I do like Elurin does and just finish it and then wait the approximate amount of time I know everyone else thinks it will take. There is not a single other person there with a college degree, and every time I talk to one of them I realize just how far beyond them intellectually I am. They have no idea what I do, or how to do it, and that doesn't even begin to include the "computer tech" work I do for the company for free (well, part of my normal salary anyway), which is so far over their head it isn't even funny. Which is why I am 100% confident that I am not being monitored while I waste all this time. Anyway, so not only am I working with several high school dropouts, but most of the rest of the people I work with just aren't the brightest bulbs overall. Getting someone to learn how to save a blueprint to their computer once they've printed it to the plotter is a monumental undertaking. Printing to a PDF to save something is beyond 50% of the employees.
What it really comes down to is that I am vastly over-qualified for my job, but I'm so lazy that I sort of just got sucked into the industry, and now I don't want to leave because I have it so easy. I'm also getting older and jumping to a new job gets more and more difficult every day...but I'm sure I could if I tried, I just don't want to have to make the change, particularly knowing that I probably won't make a lot more money unless I'm really lucky. All of my friends either take their work home with them or worry about the fact that they are behind all night. I leave at quitting time and promptly forget I was at work. There are weeks where I literally do no more than an hour or two of honest work.
My biggest problem now is trying to convert that free time into something productive vs. reading this board, watching YouTube, etc. I have always wanted to write a book, so I keep telling myself to do that, particularly since that would be one of the easiest things of all my bad habits to hide, but it is almost like I get to work and immediately can't concentrate, even if it is something I'm interested in. I have Work-onset ADHD or some shit I think.
Quineloe
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,978
- 4,464
Deepwater Horizon stuff?
Only if you can't get the point across that you're leaving again because you're unworked due to mismanagement. HR is usually afraid of hiring the exact opposite of you. It is far more dangerous to be there for a few years, and when asked about what you did there you start lying or stammering.
I am a senior network administrator in a state gov't position.....my work comes in bursts with a lot of downtime in between. I get paid to surf the web most days!
I had a job as a full time tape operator (3rd shift) once. I would check in to make sure everything was good, then go out to my car and sleep or go home and sleep until paged. $12/hour to sleep, with an occasional page. I was able to pull off a full time job in addition to the tape operator job. So I could say to people that I had 2 full time jobs (which was true). That only lasted for about 3 months until I gave it up.
My job right now is cake. I do one of 2 things for 90% of my day. Either watch the machine (you press go and at the end of the day press stop) where I read a book all day, or I watch the bander (make sure it doesn't snag up) where I read a book all day. We make decorative concrete landscaping block ie: pavers for walkways driveways and roads as well as retaining wall block. I openly tell my boss I do nothing and he laughs. In fact just promoted me so now I'm sitting around doing even less. All of this time thinking makes me want to write a book... but then I get home and here's the internet...
Sylverlokk
Golden Knight of the Realm
- 1,554
- 492
Pigbenis
Molten Core Raider
- 679
- 279
I actually just went through the this. I would work at most 8 hours a week out of a 40 hours week. To make it worse sites like fbook and Pandora were blocked. I was bored out of my fucking mind and couldn't take it so I left. During my interviews the question would come up I just said they weren't utilizing my skills, I'm a go getter type person, blah blah blah. It really wasn't a big deal. I just started my new job this week and I got a 3k raise out of it. I say do it before you make yourself obsolete.
I'm a blue collar worker for a company with absentee ownership. There is atleast 30 other places just like us in the immediate area and too many people with my job title in the building for the amount of business we get. I can generally play eq 5-7 hours a day. I could play longer, but even the most hardcore gamer has to take a lunch, amirite!? I would be afraid of being let go, if I didn't come so cheap for my level of expertise.
Adebisi
Clump of Cells
- 27,736
- 32,841
Buddy and I used to work in a small office with fogged windows and controlled entry. Very few people could get into our office. We had a whiteboard that we always filled up with tasks that we were "working" on. People thought we were insanely busy :S
Instead we would browse MMO forums, sleep in our chairs, listen to music, sneak out the back door early, take long lunches. Plenty of hangover days during the summer months.
Protip: throw a bunch of paperclips on the floor behind the door and lie down on top of them and have a nap. If someone comes through the door they should bump into you. Just say you were picking up the paperclips.
Instead we would browse MMO forums, sleep in our chairs, listen to music, sneak out the back door early, take long lunches. Plenty of hangover days during the summer months.
Protip: throw a bunch of paperclips on the floor behind the door and lie down on top of them and have a nap. If someone comes through the door they should bump into you. Just say you were picking up the paperclips.
Drajakur
Molten Core Raider
- 569
- 462
This is not me but it is someone I knew - a very senior Network Admin guy for a company that got bought out. Because they got bought out no one at the new organization knew what my "friend" did. So he proceeded to do exactly nothing at his joband then went to work on contract at exactly the same time for a competitor doing the exact same thing.So he had two jobs, two incomes, and having both of them depended upon not actually doing anything at the other. Sadly, he was a greedy fuckhead - he got caught when he bought all these assets for a huge server farm and then proceeded to lease bandwidth out to other businesses in the area. He got caught in a company wide audit of assets and that's when both companies realized they were paying the same guy to apparently do nothing.
Kovaks
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 2,358
- 3,147
Had a job like that, the first year was crazy implementing a new system i was working like 16 hour days, then all of a sudden it was maintinance and minor enhancements and there was nothing to do. If i did have anything it rarely took longer than an hour or so. The first 6 months was hell i hated being bored and faking looking busy, when i aksed for more to do they just told me to enjoy the down tome but it never really picked up. It got way better when i convinced them to let me telecommute i basically got paid for 3 years to answer email and call into the occaisional meeting while playing games,watching tv and napping. And they kept giving me exceptional ratings for some reason. I finally left because as sweet as it was and i was paid pretty well there was no room for growth or learning. Now i work my ass off but it is exciting and rewarding. Benefits to both sides.
Maybe the accountants hobby is wandering aimlessly too ask stupid questions , so they get paid for 40 hours a week instead of 7