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White Lies Help Stressed Computer Users

An anonymous reader writes "Simple tricks allow one to appear to be hard at work in the office while actually forwarding calls, e-mails and instant messages to your mobile phone. One can backdate e-mails through rolling back a computer's built-in clock or use background phone noises to concoct convincing excuses not to go to work."

13 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. WHA?! by b0bx13 · · Score: 5, Funny

    People are lazy?!

  2. Yeah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A (semi)-respected publisher puts out a book on how to shirk actual work?

    Like any of you losers works anyways.

    Back in my day, we had to walk 10 miles uphill in the snow wearing a sun dress, just to submit our punchcards to the mainframe guy! And you complain about a little typing.

    -- Lost the password to my two-digit uid.

  3. people have been lazy long before tech by ibanez16 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    People have always been finding ways to cheat work. Whether its longer breaks, sleeping in the bathroom, yeah i know people who have done it, or god knows what else. My favorite though is the george costanza's method, building a bed under your desk to take naps in.

    God i've thought about it myself a few times......

  4. You're in the wrong job. by onion2k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're resorting to lies and trickery to avoid the work you ought to be doing, then you should quit. If your job is so bad, don't carry on with it. Find one you actually like, that you enjoy, that isn't something you want to avoid. You'll be a lot less stressed and you'll find life a whole lot easier.

  5. Re:Why?!!! by Living+WTF · · Score: 5, Funny

    > Even then, why does the SMTP server accept e-mails from the past?

    Yes, that's ridiculous! Imagine it would also accept a fake sender address...

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
  6. Message from the past by Lord+Dimwit+Flathead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hello, I am sending this into the future from 1908! How are you? I hope things are well in the 21st century! Anyway, I just wanted to say "hi". I'll let you get back to maintaining your underwater habitat and defending the Earth against the Martian aggressors now.

    This message was sent from planetary node Alpha-7 at 15:27 on March 17, 1908.

  7. Obligatory Quote by Living+WTF · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work."

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
  8. their ignorance is your bliss by FoxAche · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I like surfing the web with Lynx under Cygwin with the colors set to grays. To the average person who walks past it looks like I'm working. They think I'm doing some work using the command line. As the IT area in my office is too full I'm sitting in accounts where they have no clue what you are doing, but had I opened a web page in a regular browser it would look bad.

  9. Re:Backdate e-mails by BiDi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do you think that bosses know how to check e-mail headers? 90% of them only know how to start Outlook if the icon is sitting directly on the desktop.

  10. George Costanza's First Law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Always pretend to be annoyed. People think you're really busy when you look annoyed.

  11. I waste my employer's money the old fashioned way by museumpeace · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to rename all the executables for my playthings to the application names for editing, compiling, archiving and so on. [Its good to have privs.] If they sniffed my processes, I look like I'm bustin my hump for 'em

    --
    SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  12. Re:When you're already there, it's too late! by swiggidy · · Score: 5, Funny

    My friend's dad ran a company that had sick days and personal days. One dude was out of personal days and called in.

    "I'm sick"
    "What's wrong"
    "Something is wrong with my eyes"
    "What's wrong with your eyes"
    "I can't see my ass coming in to work today"

  13. How to appear busy by Odiche · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was working for a startup company, and had been shunted into the role of network administrator. Not something I was fully qualified for, or even wanted.
    But at one point in time we ran into cash flow problems, big surprise right.
    So after about a month of not getting paid I decided to take some time off until the paycheck arrived in order to do some side jobs. I did not tell anyone else, I basically just locked up my office, and did not show up for a little more than a month. (Hey I needed to get food on the table, and I was pissed as all hell by that point)

    I come back just to check on the server, which was still running ok, and I find out that everyone thought I was extremely busy and running errands or doing something around the office. (Since my office door was locked)

    So I get my back pay, pay for the full month, a raise, AND a bonus.

    For some reason I could not be bothered to correct their mistake....