Slashdot Mirror
Down Time At Work — What Do You Do?
An anonymous reader writes "I work in IT and find fairly often that I have 'down time.' I'll usually browse the web (Slashdot) or try to find something informative or educating to read. Sometimes, I even get caught up working on my personal webpage or other project that isn't exactly work related. What does everyone else do during these times, and how much time do they spend on non-work related things while at work?"
...is a very serious sport.
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
What IT does with Downtime? You must be new here
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
I research things that will make my company perform better, or I educate myself so I can perform better for the company myself. Have fun working on that website while you're out of work ;)
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Talk about self-selecting for "I read web forums"...
Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
A) Read Slashdot.
B) Submit stories to Slashdot.
C) Play video games stored on thumb drive.
D) Avoid getting more work.
Anything else?
I read and post on Slashdot, you dolt!
Enlightenment is a pipe dream. So where's the pipe?
read a book for fun. whether fiction or non, whatever it is that takes you away from the day-to-day BS.
pr0n
I browse Slashdot, of course, and also other news sites. I also will work on personal stuff and read webcomics. But I don't much in the way of downtime usually so this is a rarity anyway.
Here I come to save the da... *thud*
I gotta get me a shorter cape.
#258908 +(12416)- [X]
: If they only realized 90% of the overtime they pay me is only cause i like staying here playing with Kazaa when the bandwidth picks up after hours.
: If any of my employees did that they'd be fired instantly.
: Where u work?
: I'm the CTO at LowerMyBills.com
*** Ben174 (BenWright@TeraPro33-41.LowerMyBills.com) Quit (Leaving)
Documentation documentation documentation and more documentation. I always bitch I never have enough time for documentation and then I find myself trolling /.
It's not the most fun thing to do but it certainly something that can always keep you busy and you can never have too much of it as long as it is well written AND well organized.
"Keep at least 3-6 full bottles of hard alcohol on hand, a 2 week resignation notice,..." - Poetmatt
I honestly can't imagine what it would be like to have a job where if what's immediately in front of me is blocked, then I am blocked from working. I battle to keep my workweek hour-count at something reasonable, and have never once lacked for (way too much) to do. Tool isn't working? No worries, I've got a huge list of things to do using other tools. Hardware problem? I've got an extra box. Power failure in my wing? Sounds good: Ive got loads of people I need to meet with to hash out problems and sync up with. Fire alarm goes off in the building? I'll hang out in the parking lot with my coworkers and have some impromptu talks on things I'm working on (thank god this happens less often now that we have heat sensing, instead of smoke sensing, fire alarms).
:P )
The idea of having a job where a blocking problem means its time to browse websites, or percieving that my job would allow for that, is totally foreign to me. Seriously - are you honestly saying that in these situations that there is literally *nothing* work related for you to do?
(for those noting the time of day that I'm posting this response, I'm on vacation right now
I fold pizza boxes. Also, be sure to tip your pizza deliverer well.
What else?
I read Digg.
/.)...
(and wonder how moderators will interpret posts on
I do this.
Well, I try to do the same thing I do with any downtime. I try to create or improve something. Usually I'll end up configuring vim or writing some shell script to automate a task. It's not directly business related, but it makes me a better potential hire, thus a better (already hired) employee.
It's ridiculous to be expected to concentrate on one project for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. So I don't hold myself to that expectation. I work in spurts, and so far my employers have been very happy with me. That includes working on personal projects and the like.
In balance, I often think about work outside of work. I've thought up many designs outside office hours, and would have implemented them, if I wasn't hourly.
But apparently right now I'm reading slashdot.
"when life gets complicated, I like to take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner" - Hobbes.
and other BS work that the PHB's push on workers most people just like taking long bathroom / smoke / bakes to get out of it others just space out at there desks it looks like they are working and the PHB's just pass by there desks.
browse WoW forums, check out slashdot, and if my supervisor is around I pop in certification training CD's that I download off mininova. I've gotten 3 certifications this way... nothing quite like getting paid to become a more valuble (and better paid) employee :)
In Soviet Russia Slashdot reads YOU!
1. Submit story to Slashdot
2. ???
3. Profit!
Seriously, I have a variety of toys to play with. Techie stuff, like GPSs and little embedded Linux computers.
...laura
Fr1st Ps0t
That's right, I go take a three hour shit (at a minimum). I bring some reading material and I challenge myself to see how long I can stay in there before my I lose all feeling in my legs and have to leave.
It's better than surfing the web or doing personal stuff at your desk because you could never be fired for taking too long to shit; that would be discrimination.
If you use the David Allen "Getting Things Done" system (I thought all IT professionals had read that book), then you just open up your @Work, @Anywhere, @Phone, @Online, @Computer lists and pick something out of there. You can't seriously have NOTHING to do, can you?
I would think that having nothing to do is like winning world of warcraft.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I'm a web developer at a medium-sized (county) municipality, and I don't encounter too much downtime. However, when it does happen, I usually try and brush up on the latest security news (Slashdot counts!), check server logs, clean out unused files from the web directory, etc. to keep me busy. They're all little things, none too terribly important, but it helps to keep things running smoothly. I try and keep personal stuff to a minimum, since I'm being paid with tax dollars, and will eventually have to pay for any of my 'goofing off' with my own taxes. I'd like to think other civil servants think the same way!
I'm here aren't I?
By "downtime", I assume you mean "run out of things to read on slashdot". I generally head to the water cooler/coffee maker to observe others engaged in "conversation". I never participate, as I am still learning the concept of social interaction using oral communication.
If I need a short break from work, I'll just wander to our cafeteria and do a round of bowling on the Wii at the corner, and after 10 mins go back.
:)
If there is no work available, such as projects on hold due to waiting for somebody else (tech support, delivery, steering board decision, project member on vacation, whatever), I'll check if there's some low-priority stuff that I might do. Usually there isn't.
Otherwise, I'll just head home. My contract says I must 7,5 hours per day - on average. Not that I must stay at office 7,5h pretending to be working when there's nothing to do. Of course, it also means that I occasionally do the 10-12 hours/day crunch through weekends when stuff finally gets moving - but you didn't ask what I do on "uptime", did you?-). (And yes, I keep tab on the hours - if I get more than +40 hours on my flextime account I either get paid the 200% overtime bonus (has never happened, they haven't needed me THAT much) or stop right there).
(Yes, our project management could use refinement - usual situation that there are 5 projects on hold and the next week all five of them start up simultaneously - but that's another issue. Personally I'm comfortable with this - once you get into the "rhythm", it's much easier to just go on with the flow and do an "all-nighter"-style session - and once stuff is done, you can again have a few 2-hour workdays which consists of lunch, checking e-mails and do nothing more than say "hi" to buddies...)
Now, this model works for me. For someone with a family a more stable 9-5 mode might be more preferable. For me with my 15 minute commute it's just about perfect (means that if there's a meeting from 9-10 am and another at 3-4 pm and nothing else to do, I can stop by at home). Also my employer trusts me and my coworkers - on my first day at job, my then-manager said "we have a trusting environment in here - if you want to punch in or out for tracking the hours, go ahead, but we don't require it.".
My comment is focused on the downtime, as stated in the question. There's plenty of uptime to go around
What do you do with down time?
Down what?
Down time.
What time?
Down time.
What what?
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Damn...tried to rate this -1 score post "Overrated" but the moderation system wouldn't let me. I guess "-1, Overrated" is not possible.
I spend my free time asking other people what they do in their free time.
This really needs asking? Like when DO you post here?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I Cry, and pray to the computers gods, that once down time is over, things get back normal.
It depends, of course. If I have a lot of downtime, I find myself doing something related to work in one way or another. If we're just talking about the fifteen minutes you sometimes get in an otherwise hectic workday, I relax read the sites I usually read on my free time. Great for maintaining your sanity, not so great if it happens to be the only time during the day your supervisor checks in to see how you're doing with y on project x.
For the unsupervised - Palm Pilots and Pocket PC's are awesome for reading (get materials from Gutenberg or textfiles.com or where ever) and you can do some light gaming on them. Emulation can happen, too. From there, Game Boys or PSP's rule for the semi-serious gaming, or you can get an LCD screen to attach to your XBox, Gamecube, or PlayStation variant. Of course, an MP3 player droning in the background over some re purposed computer speakers is a must (the radio plays commercials and fucks with my chi).
I'll just start doing whatever gets modded highest here.
I too have occasional downtime. The nature of IT is a lot like being on call - they only need you when there's a problem (aka "request"). If you do your job well, there's few problems, and they're solved quickly, which only leads to increased downtime.
I use this time to improve myself as much as possible. This can be through research, reading, testing, organizing, documenting, standardizing... etc... work related or not. As long as you're achieving some form of progress, and aren't negligent in your duties, there's little for your employer to gripe about. That is, unless he/she's a total headcase.
On a side note, it has always amazed me how, as an employee, there is little incentive to be your best. The more you do, and the quicker and better you do it, the more they give you. Now, SUPPOSEDLY, such people should be promoted/compensated. But there are only so many positions to be promoted to, and lots of eager people waiting for them. Few who work in such a fashion actually receive just compensation; this results in resentfulness and laziness. If everyone were payed on a performance basis, that would be great... but too often hard workers are taken advantage of by our broken form of hourly wage/salaried work.
I honestly can't imagine what it would be like to have a job where if what's immediately in front of me is blocked, then I am blocked from working. I battle to keep my workweek hour-count at something reasonable, and have never once lacked for (way too much) to do. Tool isn't working? No worries, I've got a huge list of things to do using other tools. Hardware problem? I've got an extra box. Power failure in my wing? Sounds good: Ive got loads of people I need to meet with to hash out problems and sync up with. Fire alarm goes off in the building? I'll hang out in the parking lot with my coworkers and have some impromptu talks on things I'm working on (thank god this happens less often now that we have heat sensing, instead of smoke sensing, fire alarms).
Ha! no downtime? try doing a PhD and you will find plenty of "downtime". I learnt the meaning of the word "procrastinate" in the middle of my PhD. It was fine because that way I could refute when someone said "but you do not know what you are doing!". I also remember that some other PhD students (here in the UK) did not know the meaning of procrastinate. Of course, I learnt it in PhD Comics...
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
I find I rarely run completely out of work-related tasks, but I can understand sometimes needing to unplug from strictly-related work to reset the brain. When I need some "brain reset" time, I try to read up on something that at least tangentially relates to work, for example, I've been meaning to learn more about Ruby on Rails and some other newer (at least to this old guy) technologies.
I feel the more I learn and the more current I stay, the more valuable I am to my employer (and myself/future employers). Plus, if anyone were to ask, I can honestly say "I'm researching some possible implementations of the new [insert project name] system."
I should point out that this kind of pure guilt-free downtime is rare. You can always be updating that documentation *groan* or working on that nagging system with the logfile that always fills up the disk that you've been meaning to fix for months now...
I blog about how work is completely wasting my time and their money. underexploited.
Biggest I can think of. Also, any "on call" job will have down-time.
Install Windows updates
:) :)
Err..wait, you didn't want what creates the downtime?
I'll have to agree on the self-selecting comment
Besides online forums? Buying sf books on ebay perhaps, usually my last hour which is 5-6pm and usually noone left
If I have enough down time to get wrapped up in my own personal projects, I better start looking for another job. Positions with full-time pay and part-time work get out-sourced or eliminated, I'd expect.
Besides, while I don't like having way too much to do, being busy providing value to your employer and yourself is more rewarding than being paid to be paid.
Sounds like you don't like the down time or feel guilty about it. Go find another job or create a better one where you are.
I find that Empire helps any downtime that I may have. Of course the big problem is trying to make sure that it doesn't eat into the time when I really should be working...
Until the coffemachine breaks. That means panic.
Other than that it is just slow response from the system.
Usually that clears up the downtime. When it doesn't, and most of the time when it does, I drink.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
What's "downtime"???
:)
I'm in IT and our shop has NO downtime. We're all busy. In fact, we could clone ourselves, hire the clones (send in the clones?), and we *might* be close to getting all the projects done that the business wants us to do.
Ping pong?
Must be nice...
Karma? We don' need no steenkeeng karma!
How about "reverse downtime". I.e., you work on your workstation at home using a secure ssh tunnel, because the stuff in the work place leaves much to be desired ?
How about disk space (my case: 60 Gbyte vs 20 Gbyte; was 2 Gbyte until a month ago).
AMD 64 processor instead of this lame 32-bit stuff we have to make do with.
Bah.
What's down time?!?!
Research and Development.
/., etc...
/., read about some new tech, etc... you will have earned it.
Always it's this.
Things don't reach a state of running very well without people thinking about how to get there. Your downtime is a chance to explore an idea, setup test environments, write scripts to nail annoying and recurring problems, work on your budget justification, yes --surf some
Ongoing investment in these things pays off. You are surprised less, plan better, and leverage your people, hardware and software better.
Don't worry, you won't get all the way there. Software update cockups, user error, and entropy in general will keep you busy. But, having done these things, the real downtime you get after that is rock solid! Listen to a few mp3's, surf
Blogging because I can...
But honestly: You have downtime in an IT related job? WTF is that? How about automizing your workflow or that of your team? If your downtime amounts to reasonable slices of time talk to your boss about which processes you should look into to speed things up. Learn a new PL, check out neat new technologies and products that could help you, your team or your company. Train interns and get them on the right path and away from the dark side of the force (Windows & Closed Source).
Downtime - there is no such thing. And if it only is that you train yourself for a broadened set of work-related skills.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Play WOW of course!!!! How do you think got all that rep! At home? With a Wife? No way in hell!!!
It's left blank because I have nothing to say to you punks!
In almost 2.5 years in my current position, I don't recall more than about 10-15 minutes of downtime in a single "event". Moreover, there have been precious few of those events per week (as in, less than 5). You wouldn't survive a month in my environment....
Feed me!
I have to agree with (6350' (936630)) completely. If your in a position where your work hours are not PMP related or project based and you do a flat 9-5. As a IT manager, if you have more then hour of 'downtime' where your not doing anything job related, I would start a process of giving you more work or dividing your work up amoung other areas and move you to a different area, or get rid of you.
Most of the time I put my head down and cry...
I used to work for HP at a large outsource customer's site. I looked after a select group of users. After a few months, myself and another guy, managed to get everything so down pat, that requests for assistance dropped dramatically, and our quality of service was pretty high. The manager was happy.
He basically let us do anything we wanted, preferably to educate ourselves or help other team members, as long as our requests for help or special projects were attended to first, which we always did. Reading teh internet because boring after a while, because you can do all that in an hour, then you run out of things of interest to read.
I learned and managed to introduce Linux into the environment. We also developed a sophisticated network interrogation tool to gather infomration about a user's environement, applications and PC status: basically about 3 of us worked out that if we have enough information, most of the time we can fix a user's PC remotely, or do preventative maintenance prior to problems occuring. All this was done via Windows scripts which dumped data into a central folder, then another perl guru in our trio did some parsing of the reports and populated a database. This database was visible on a web site searcheable by host name. It was so useful and successful, that word reached the upper echelons of the company. We did not charge the customer anythign for this. It was all to help us do our jobs quicker. Pretty much two or three times a week we'd go out for a 2-hour lunch, and the boss sometimes joined us. On quiet days we used to even play networked games, and before the manager's responsibilities grew drastically, he used to join in.
After six years, the contract was terminated, and so the team got disbanded. That was the sad thing, the team as a whole, I later found out, was number one in terms of SLAs and customer satisfaction in the whole Asia Pacific region. It also had the lowest ratio of admin to technical staff at about 1 to 20 or so. The average in AP was about 1 to 5 and for some customers it was close to 1 to 1.
On a side note, when word reached the top of the management chain about the tools we've developed, they tried to make us stop using it because it threatened the potential sale of a "management" tool that they were trying to sell to the customer.
Back on topic, it all depends on what your manager can tolerate. A good manager would let you do whatever as long as your work comes first.
Since I was hired to help understand the systems better, I spend a lot of time poking around and seeing what's what. Generally I find more work (like drives that have been complaining for 2 years).
:) ).
:)
I also document and help others on the team document their knowledge.
There's nothing worse than wanting to advance in the company and not being able to because you're the only one that knows the super secret way everything works together (or you're hit by a bus
I do a lot of reading as well. Slashdot being one but I also have a subscription to Safari so I can keep up on books without having to overload my library.
But I also pop out to hobby forums or read non-work related text. I have pdfs of most of my RPG books so I can have it open in the background and poke around in there. I also work on my web site from time to time. Since it's somewhat technical anyway, I can generally get away with it although I try not to be too obvious about it
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I load my 16 gig IPOD Touch up with 100-200 podcasts, both video and audio and head to the can. I could watch video podcasts all day in the crapper.
Downtime is for those projects that nobody will officially let you start, nobody "wants" and nobody will pay you to implement. Then, when you spend all that downtime putting it in, you pretend that you did it in your own time alongside your normal work, and people suddenly discover that all the projects that they considered a waste of time become something that they can't live without.
At least, that's how it's worked everywhere I've ever been employed.
For example, in a Windows-only school at which the only person who'd ever heard of Linux (the IT manager) treated mention of it like some kind of first word from a child ("Oh, you use Linux. That's cute. Tell me when you make something 'useful' out of it."), I had a few hours of downtime. Found a spare "obsolete" PC. Found a couple of network cards. Was tired of the "Linux being nothing more than a toy" digs.
In three hours (including install, configuration and a lot of testing) I implemented a caching, transparent proxy/filter which to this day is still filtering the Internet (with zero configuration changes either on the clients, servers or any other devices) for over a thousand users without anybody noticing any difference and saving the school in question several thousand pounds on buying their own filtering appliance (from the prices we were quoted). I implemented it in an afternoon and it went into full live service when school finished that day and is still there churning away. It's zero-maintenance (unless someone wants a particular website blocked, in which case they just stick its name into a plain text file), "invisible" to the network users so, unlike some of the other network equipment, the kids don't try to "hack" it and even if they do only the squid port actually does anything.
It's never been rebooted, never caused a problem, is the only thing standing between the kids and the nasty side of the Internet, is now the de facto and only Internet filtering within the school and if it ever "breaks" it has a Cat5-coupler taped to it with instructions - couple the "In" Ethernet cable to the "Out" cable and, without doing anything else, you bypass the filter without anyone noticing more than a seconds downtime. Obviously, it's in a secured cabinet so that only the IT manager can do that, but the demonstration of "now we're filtered, *click*, now we're not, *click*, now you're running off my proxy, *click*, now it's all back how it was before today, *click*"... was enough to silence the Linux-critic once and for all.
Then there's the school running a Jabber IM system that they "would never use". Then there's the school running the PHP helpdesk for which they had no use. Then there's the one whose IT department are running their own recording CCTV computer which nobody but the IT department know about, which emails them movies of any movement in the IT office overnight or when nobody is supposed to be in - it's already caught several "wanderers" who just happened to walk through the locked IT office when they had no need to and "just looked" at the pile of laptops hidden away. That system later got re-used to record classes for approximately £500 less per camera then our usual CCTV supplier.
All the best projects are done when you let the people who know how just let loose with their own ideas and not worry about whether the end product will be useful. Downtime is perfect for this and turns the most boring moments into the most interesting, especially if you have a large IT team who can all "show off" to each other.
What's that?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Most of the time, when I closed my door it was to get work done, undisturbed.
But sometimes, I closed my door to eat, nap, or occassionally even rub one out.
(Sounds good, until you realize that when you're the second-highest ranked, there's not much room to rise. I left there to go work at a place where some upward mobility remained. And even the VPs work in cubicles here.)
I can see the fnords!
Negative reinforcement sucks but after taking crappy jobs and leaving IT several years ago it made me realize how lucky I had it.
..". It motives me to appreciate my boss and work to make sure I stay where I am and give them my best even if its not ideal. There are lots of crappy things you can be doing for little pay which is true even with a college degree.
Whenever I goof off at school or work I just think "well I am sure OfficeMax or that amusement park I used to work for picking up trash at 5:30am needs my help. Maybe I should give them a call
Perhaps your job is not ideal which is why you keep daydreaming? Or your unchallenged? Then you need to accept more responsibilities at work or try something different elsewhere? Life is too short.
http://saveie6.com/
Close enough, though.
When taking a break from Surfing the web, walking around the office, surfing the web, going to the water cooler, and surfing the web, I do some work. I figure, on any given day I do about 15 minutes of 'real' work. -peter gibbons.
I write stupid scripts to help me increase the amount of time I don't have use to do something.
I would have included my top-n script, which shows the top N instances of values learned via STDIN
complete with last-seen timer, but perl code doesn't pass the lameness filter.
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
-It's the only way to stop my chair rusting.
Downtime?! You get downtime???
I work IT for my local Provincial Government so I do get some downtime on occasion and I usually spend it on slashdot or the various other Tech and game news sites I have bookmarked, surfing random forums (WoW), and I have recently found that Tower Defence is a good time waster during the last hour of my day if it is slow.
Heh. My employers are great. We've got a lounge with a big 1080i plasma screen and a 5.1 surround system. It's got an XBox 360 hooked up to it, and two "Xplorer"-model Guitar Hero guitars.
When more than one of us has downtime at the same time, we actually play "Rock Band"! There's no room for the drum kit, but we routinely have three people playing at the same time. The addition of vocals (compared to the Guitar Hero series) means we actually get a lot more of the ladies at our office to participate. (Though sometimes they force me to try and sing "Roxanne".)
(God, I love my job sometimes.)
...wake up as it must be a dream. Always have more projects then I have time.
...girl who has downtime too.
Thanks to our management, I've got regular downtime due to so many developers quitting that there's often nothing ready to test. I've started spending some time trying to fix the bugs that I really don't want to test myself, as our methdology states that development, testing/release and live confirmation all have to be done by different people. I get a nice change from my normal work, help the department a bit, and with a single line changed in a config file for an existing piece of work can avoid a 5 hour release.
Either that or read Slashdot.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
I telecommute on those days. Seems there's always something work related to do at home.
Since I don't write code anymore (haven't for 10 years), I try to stay up by hacking my TiVo or scripting/automating things around the house. The company gets a happier worker and my blackberry keeps me connected.
This is Solo. Open channel B.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Because if I have free-time, it means program budgets just got cut again.
I play World of Warcraft. I work at a manufacturing company, and there's only one other person here with an IQ higher than that of a brick. I can have it completely hidden away from view with a terminal server window in the blink of an eye and none of these idiots would have the first clue.
Screw documentation!
That is a little pretentious of you. It sounds like you feel your job is stressful, since you don't feel like someone else could hack it. Parent apparently found a job with some downtime. That doesn't say anything about whether he would thrive or wilt in a high stress job. But if he has such an accommodating job, why on Earth would he want to deal with your situation? We don't all have to tolerate bad working conditions.
Sort of a "me too". I'm a UI designer (notice I didn't say GUI designer). I live and breath good design. Naturally everything I do including downtime is going to reflect that in some kind of way, even if I'm just painting a picture.
Dude, calm down. Perhaps if you took a break from your work once and again, you wouldn't be so stressed out. I work 50 hours a week on average, and sometimes in the middle of the day, I'll take a break from working (oh noes); sometimes when I've worked 4 12 hour days in a row, I'll take a day off, a weekday! Work is not slavery, nor servitude; you provide a product to your employer, for which you are duly compensated - that's it.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
Sincerely,
Dad
I find something to make better, break it in the process, and then fix it. Remember, if it ain't broke, you're not trying hard enough! (--Red Green)
I'm usually writing and editing my short stories during the downtimes. The hours before and after lunch go by really fast. I just wish I was writing full time instead of writing during my full time job, nights and weekends.
Soon your boss or your co-workers who are picking up your slack will discover your downtime too. They will be happy to give you more permanent downtime and hire someone a little more ethical. Get used to working meaningless jobs, for substandard pay for the rest of your life. you reap what you sow. p.s. downloading linux iso's all day long may throw them off track and also let you know if they are really paying attention! :)
At most places, if you have down time, management thinks 1 of 2 things: 1.) You're job is too easy and you need more work, or 2.) you're not working at all and you get yelled at.
During down time, try to look busy.
I used to work for a guy who was the president of the company, and thought of himself as a sort of royalty.
I was a Unix/windows admin/helpdesk/database admin/tech support.
I would come in at 10:30 and finish my daily workload around 3:30 including daily projects he would give on a whim, such as "design this database for me".
Usually, I would stick around until 6:00 to finish up extra projects he asked me to do.
He thought because I was coming in at 10:30, I was cheating him out of work. He then made me punch a time clock just to punish me.
Any time after finishing tasks, I had to look busy, he really thought I wasn't working hard enough.
Since it was a medical billing company, he started asking me to fill in my down time by doing data processing.
What a tool. Goes to show you, down time can really be rough.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Mass disk eraser, "borrowing" the video machine, giving users "more disk", lending out the 120VAC->RJ45 "this will fix it" cord. Stuff like that.
Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
I don't work in IT, but somebody always mentions Nethack http://www.nethack.org/in the comments of these kinds of stories. They often also mention that you can always tell your boss it's a "vi training tool" (if you use vi-keys, which I don't even though I do use vim) Might as well do it myself.
Subject says it all. I'm not a game developer or anything. I just like playing around with something that I can see immediate results for. Over time, I've developed a fair bit of a library that can help me with all sorts of stuff. I also like to play around with numerical methods on the GPU as well. Although, it can be a little tricky.
.
I kid you not, there was a man in our department who would take his laptop into the bathroom.
I'll let you imagine from there.
Because I know what he looks like and it makes me vomit a little. In my mouth.
And yet, the original poster said no such thing, and you were the only one to mention it so far, which strongly suggests that you can, in fact, imagine such a thing.
"Could have sworn I heard somebody GURGLE something"? Thinking as an ex sailor, I'd say that if you work at an academic institution, that would give new meaning to "headmaster"...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I've had lots of free time as of late. Not long ago there was a meeting about communication and how we could collaborate/communicate better, not only inner department, but with outside vendors. My immediate boss was brainstorming ideas with me and Wiki's came up. Running a Wiki on our intranet became a real thought to me. Have used my ample down time these past couple weeks to evaluate the different Wiki's available. I knew I wasn't going to install any of these on my machine just to test, which lead me to learn about Virtual Machines and Virtual Appliances. I put a very intuitive Wiki beginning of this week, my immediate boss took this communication idea, working up his presentation on my "still in testing" VM Wiki, the Big Guy really liked it, even grabbing the mouse and essentially taking over the presentation to edit a page, in front of everyone, then tells everyone to register and start making use of it. So now I am busy again :)!!!
This all happened because I took the initiative, on my own, to run with an idea. An Idea that would've gone nowhere if I used my free time for other less fruitful endeavors. This has also given the opportunity to expand my linux knowledge.
That's hard to believe, either you're fresh out of school with no responsibilities or are headed for getting laid off. Seriously, there is always something to do. Sometimes you need to take a break, that's different. Let me put it to you this way, you had better find something to do or your boss will. The latter, no matter what it is, you won't like it and may involve things like, "Nothing to do? Oh really, I've got a great project for you. First I'll take those keys and swipe cards. Next I'll get someone right over to watch you clean out your desk. Don't forget to stop by HR and sign a bunch of documents before we send you your last check. Have a great weekend!" Oh and please don't apply to my company when you're looking for a job, I don't need deadbeats like you.
I depends on if the job is accommodating or if the worker is just slacking. Even if there is no immediate issue that needs attention or long term project to work on, you can normally be doing SOMETHING useful for the company. And maybe that is trying something / learning something new, but it certainly isn't posting on slashdot.
Where I work we play Halo (we even have our own clan and an internal dedicated server to play against other staff members from across campus).
I read short stories. The less like my work the story is the better. Its nice to have that mental switch off from work. PS: one of my side projects is a short story website called EveryDayFiction.com
---- EveryDayFiction.com - Read short stories daily
for example i wrote a benchmark script for our website because i wanted to know how our code changes
perform. fortunately (or unfortunately) this tool got more popular, and i had to add more features,
but didn't really have the working time, so the new features were added quick and dirty. the script became
unmaintainable. oh well =)
that shows that you can do something really useful if you get the time for it from your boss.
i have fun writing such tools because it's always like a little project where you do a technical concept
and implement it yourself. you can write it quick and dirty but also have the chance to try out
new tools, modules.
write incendiary comments on slashdot and try to skirt that fine line between insightful and flamebait during what little downtime I have :)
1) I used to work at an ad agency (a quite cool agency, as such things go, by the way -- see t-3t-3.com), where I worked mostly on projects that came in feast-or-famine style; there would often be stretches of hours where we were mostly in holding mode, waiting for writers to write, managers to manage, lawyers to dissemble, etc. At this time, I was living in a house in Austin where the other three guys in the house were two computer science students and an engineer; they showed me Slashdot, and I was hooked.
2) Then, I got a job with Slashdot, which paid somewhat more and had some other benefits as well, like getting to meet in person some of the geniuses who pump out the free software I like to use. (This step won't work for everyone, though.)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Okay, so I've been reading a lot of stories from people talking about their jobs. Their experiences. Their takes on the state of affairs in the IT Sector.
Bottom line is, regardless of *where* you work, and *how* you work, you are getting paid to perform a task. So, while you're at work, there's always something to do. "Down time" is essentially your lunch break and other mandated break times. Spend it as you will, but that's, what, less than an hour a day?
If you're "bored", and have "down time", do some cleanup, administration, whatever else you have to do. Because you *do* have stuff to do. Just like the scrubs at McDonalds, when there are no customers, are supposed to be sweeping and cleaning something...you should be as well. Unless you want to be a lazy sod like the people that work at the dirty McDonalds do. Your choice.
The older I get, the less I like everyone else.
My employer requires several goals (approved by manager) each year (used to be quarterly) like doing a research, presentation, taking classes, reading books, etc. related to work and how they can useful for the company.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Of course I spend much more time on football, which I admit has no positive influence for my employer whatsoever.
I've worked for a lot of failing companies. I'm not management so I didn't have anything to do with the failures. Usually what will happen is the work volume slacks off but they can't get rid of me because I know important things so it'll limp along like that for a bit before deteriorating finances force a layoff.
During the normal workday, it's always nice to check the news for a few minutes between tasks. When a company is in the death spiral, it's tempting to do nothing but. But that's the time when study becomes the most important. With the last couple of death spirals I've been in, I've self-studied to the point of being able to land the next job with the skills I picked up while on the clock. If the company isn't wanting to pay for new kit or approve new systems, there's still plenty of skills that can be picked up via simulation or installing the packages on VMware.
If I'm honest with myself, I have to admit I was on the lax side with the self-study. I picked up my skills and got my next job after the layoff but I could have advanced the time table a bit. But I'm in a better position than other co-workers I've been with who have let their depression with the job turn into paralysis and then the layoff comes out of the blue and they have no prospects, no current skills.
So yes, there is the temptation to goof off during downtime but you're not cheating the company -- they'll fuck and chuck without a second thought, you owe them nothing -- but you will cheat yourself. In this economy, you should keep one eye on your current job and one eye on what you plan to do next after you get laid off from this one. If your current job has you working with hot shit technology, no worries. If you end up in a tech ghetto with skills that won't be applicable on the general market, make the time to self-study.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I work on my website, browse slashdot, look up deals at tiger direct. Sometimes I worry that my supervisor will catch me ( he sits right behind me ). But I figure that he doesn't really care as long as I get my work done ( processing RMA's and answering the phones -- I'm in tech support ). Especially since I heard him once say "damn. nothing left to read on fark".
God is dead -- Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead -- God
Zombie Nietzsche lives! -- Zombie Nietzsche
Absolutely the best reading anywhere.......Guaranteed!
http://attrition.org/postal/
No hour on a horse is ever wasted. Winston Churchill
I work at a nuclear research lab providing physics support to one of the reactors on site. When the reactor is up and running I'm usually fairly busy, but when it goes down for routine maintenance (usually every 3 weeks or so), there isn't much to do. So I usually surf the net, read Slashdot, read the news, email friends. My employer blocks access to webmail sites (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.), but they usually allow access to most other stuff (except pr0n, gaming sites). They must block any URL with the word 'game' in it, because clicking on gaming related stories on Slashdot gets me blocked.
when ur brain got down, ur servers go up
when ur servers got down, ur brain goes up
what do u want
How come people seem to take pride in "not having downtime"? Talk about workaholics. Personally, my thought is that the ideal situation for IT is that things are humming along and no one is screaming for my attention. Sure there's stuff I could be doing, but not right this minute, because I'm competent enough to have my bairns and processes operating properly.
Hmmm well i work a lot of overnights and when there is downtime i open up my file cabinet and pull out my sleepingbag and sleep.
I would advise spending all that dead time looking for a new job before your boss realises you're leeching money out of his pocket to screw about on Slashdot. But that's just my opinion.
Geez. It's like the company sport. We have a freakin' webcam in there so you don't have to gather 3 other people up only to find the table is in use.
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
pocket pool
My last job was as a pipe fitter on a 220' research vessel. We had lots of downtime due to the incompetents of the management.
One day a coworker purchased a cheap taser to play with. We killed hours zapping other people and ourselves with it. I guess after years of getting zapped while welding in the rain has had made us able to deal with 50000 volts.
On a side note, a taser works great to light a cutting torch.
Math is like sex. People who get it are popular in class, people who don't are not.
I work in a warehouse at the moment. When, for example, the computer system goes down, there's only so much we can do. Usually I go grab a tea or a bite to eat, or grab a broom and tidy up.
Slingbox!
"The Waiting Game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos" used to get trotted out a lot during downtime. Then we actually bought the game.
The only problem is those hippos are so loud that people come to investigate. We have to play in a meeting room.
We call it Hippo Stadium.
I'm in tech support. During my downtime (which is long) I usually just play World of Warcraft.
We usually end up playing some split screen Halo 3, and more recently Call of Duty 4.
Fragging co-workers is always fun.
At the moment I'm fighting with LDAP, AFS, Kerberos, Cyrus, Postfix, Sendmail, Exim, Kolab, Apache, SASL, Webalizer, VMware, Terminal Services, VNC, IPTables, Routing, Rack Mounting, Domain Migration, Bind and "Calendaring".
The life of a SysAdmin.
Downtime is utterly necessary - one just *has* to do something else, for a while, let the frustrations ebb, let the brain cells cool, remind oneself that one *can* make things work, if not right now.
Downtime for me comes in different levels - there's the interest/work version, which would be SlashDot/The Register/Whatever Google Desktop Suggests (Wired/ZDNet/etc.) and the entertainment/informative version (BBC News, random trawls on Wikipedia).
The special downtime is reserved for the cubicle with the white porcelain, and Zelda's Phantom Hourglass.
Quality.
I try to manipulate my downtime so that I have free time 1 hour each week to act as a mentor at a local school.
I don't truly rate as a geek, so I typically have more down time than everyone else (you can't be writing requirements and testing all the time, but if you can do it, someone always needs something fixed). So I work on my geek blog for non-geeks, where I try to make ordinary people think about trying out some arctic men's formal wear.
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
If its not within my area of responsibility, I write up a suggestion and fire it up the management chain. If its something in a nearby group, I'll ask management if they'd mind me 'loaning in' to help out.
Back in 1995, I was working in a group that depended on a crappy DOS-based system for delivering engineering data to the shop floor. It was pretty crusty and subject to lots of user errors. Users had to open up one flat file index, look up a document number applicable to a certain product version and write it down. Close that app., open another and type in the number (with no errors) to fetch the document.
I was looking at some slack time, so I told my boss that there was this thing written by NCSA called a web server. I thought I could make a much more user friendly (and idiot-proof) system. It took about two weeks and, when finished and presented to the shop floor management, we were given responsibility for shop floor data delivery, document configuration management, huge raises, nicer offices and the eternal gratitude of the manufacturing folks.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'm simply amazed that you guys are occupied all day long with real work.
I do industrial process control for an automotive plant. If things are running well, which is 99.9 percent of the time, I do absolutely nothing.
I watch movies, read, work on personal programming projects, built robots, play Wii, whatever I want to do.
The catch is, when someone calls on the radio I absolutely have to respond immediately.
I knit.
I work on client projects for my side job...and I ... wait the boss is coming ...
Before I became a freelancer I worked for a software company and had downtimes from time to time.
;)
/. , webcomics and NWS things (I always take care that my monitor faces a corner).
I often used this time to find and work of subjects which interested me personally and professionally, and I would often find myself coding and implementing random ideas.
I can say that in my case about 1/3 of those downtime-projects evolved later into a means for my company to make money or to make my life there much easier (== faster and better work) or would keep me my guru-status
Another 1/3 of these 'projects' would pose a good library of do's and don'ts and are general viability studies..
the last 1/3 might have been
When I was involved in the hiring process I was recommending against people who don't have downtimes (too slow, or too hung up on what they know rather than developing themselves) as in my book a good developer has downtime he can and will use to develop him or herself - to have more downtime in the end.
AS my old work pal, Doktor Bob so succinctly put it, that time is spent going nuts and wishing you were dead.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
As a senior sysadmin I have a good deal of "down time" to deal with every day. In my fresh-out-college years I hardly had any free time on my hands: like an idiot I would always find some work-related project to work on. But no more. The work of a sysadmin is an emotional roller coaster. One moment you are sitting in your office picking your nose and the next moment you are running around the datacenter trying to put some Solaris humpty dumpty back together.
They pay me my salary so that I fix their outdated crap quickly and get them back in business. Whenever stuff breaks - New Year's Eve, my birthday party, 3am on Saturday morning after hours of heavy drinking at a local bar - they expect me to be fresh as a daisy and to know my shit. I always am and I always do. And if my boss ever has a problem with me playing Tetris, he can kiss my fat Russian ass. I'll find another job by the end of the week and get a raise out of it too.
Sorry sir, but you have a Sweet Deal (TM).
Now it's only a question to decide what to do with it. Can you get permission from your bosses that "personal stuff you work on will not be commandeered by the company"? (The usual problem with employee projects). If you're safe from that Grab attempt, then you basically have Paid Vacations.
I had something like that once back in my early temp days. After getting over trying to "look busy" for hours, I went back to my love of books. I still remember: I got half way through the Greek/Roman volume of Durant's multi volume history set.
If you're stuck in a rut of surfing, then you need to step back a minute and declare to yourself that the large swath of time is there, and do something really neat with it.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Now see, I can't directly address this question, since I don't now, nor have I ever worked in an IT environment. However, I can speak directly to the issue of downtime.
For you see, I'm an EMT. Some days, I walk in the door, clock in, have no calls for my 8, 10 or 12 hour shift, and clock out. (To balance this, some days I clock in, run straight out for 35 hours, clock out and have to sleep for an hour before I can bring myself to drive home.)
Now, just because I don't have any calls doesn't mean it's all downtime, there is necessarily a certain amount of maintenance type things to be done, but honestly, even if you try your best to stretch them, you can't make it last for more than a couple of hours.
So, assuming that I'm working a dead 8 hour shift, and I've stretched my chorse for as long as possible, I'm left with 6 hours.
Okay, well, in health care, as in IT, there's always something else to be learned. (IT may develop faster than medicine, but we've been working on it a hell of alot longer.) So I'll try to do something educational, be it reviewing some current journal articles, or perusing through some of the reference books we have lying around, or doing some online CEHs. I, however, cannot successfully sit and read material for more than a few hours and have any hope of retaining anything useful, at least not for more than few days running.
So now we're down to 3 hours.
Now what? I've done everything I can directly do for the company, I've done all I can to make myself more valuable to my patients, my company and my future employers, and I'm still waiting to hear a damn set of tones come in so maybe I can actually do my job, because believe me, by this point I'm bored out of my mind.
This is what I call my true downtime, and you know what I do with it? Any damn thing I can think of to ease my boredom, whip out my palm pilot and read an eBook, go take a nap (Ah yes, EMS, the only job I've ever had where not only can I sleep on the job, but they give me a bed to do it in.) or, say, browse the web.
When I first got into this business, I used to feel quite guilty about that last stage, but slowly I came to realize that at that point, slacking off was the best thing I could do for myself, my patients and my company, because when the tones finally go off fifteen minutes before the end of my shift (as they are wont to do), if I've been going around making busy work for myself for those last 2.75 hours, I'm tired, irritable and discombobulated. If, however, I've spent that period slacking off, I'm ready for it, my mind comes to the problem I'm presented with fresh, my body is well rested (I would imagine this is more of an issue in EMS than in IT, but still not to be discounted), and I can generally slap a smile across my face (Which sometimes is much more important than any skills I might perform.)
So, I guess all of that is just me saying that with your downtime, you should definitely find something productive to do, and there's always SOMETHING that's been neglected, and you should work to educate yourself, but sometimes you should just play a stupid flash game.
That's just my 22 cents worth. (Sorry, didn't realize I'd be so verbose.)
I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
During downtime I am commonly told by my boss to "CLEAN SOMETHING".
If every thing's clean (which it usually is during downtime), new and inventive cleaning tasks can be found. Like scrubbing the inside of the oven chimney.
Of course, I deliver pizza for a living.
Legalize recreational marijuana. Seriously.
Evil plotting against co-workers that might challenge my goals for world domination. I mean, that's what everyone else does, right? [Especially those bastards down in HR who have been gunning for me since day one. You know the type: snotty, I-know-everything, we-own-you low-lifes. Now that I come to think of it, that guy across the street always seemed a bit shifty, too, and it wouldn't surprise me if he
If that's true, you (and your kind) may actually be the phantom shitter (what with having nothing better to do and time to waste). By this I mean those who are anally agile enough to deposit a semi-solid mass on the backside of the interior of a toilet bowl that doesn't get washed away by normal flushing.
I've seen this phenomenon on a few occasions and have never been sure if it was a religious thing, a college prank intended to send the message "I am here", some sort of weirdly-oriented sphincter or evidence of shitting aliens in our midst. Screw SETI, solve the phantom shitter mystery first!
I'm in Johannesburg, South Africa. The country is having massive problems with the electricity supply, with rolling blackouts resulting in at least 2 hours without power *every day*. Sometimes it's 5 hours.
:(
When the power goes down at work, most people are on laptops so they can continue working for another hour, maybe two. I'm on a desktop with a UPS, so I get maybe 10 - 15 mins. (I have to have a UPS because the power quality is so poor that if I didn't use one, I'd get random reboots three or four times a day.)
So, yeah. When the power goes down, I go home (10 mins commute), connect to t'internet, set up a 'ping -t myworkplace.com', and cook some food.
Sux0rz, but there it is
That's the time I have to work even more, since I'm probably to blame for it.. :)
the drive for more efficiency in its excess may affect efficiency negatively. //
If I could I would mod you up.
I'll usually browse the web (Slashdot) or try to find something informative or educating to read
Interesting that you put those in (presumably mutually-exclusive) categories
I caption a few photos at http://www.clevercaption.com/. Its a brainless waste of time, so perfect for brain downtime.
Because I'm lacking downtime, I came to this /. thread late, which means this comment will never be seen or moderated. This leaves you (the moderator) with a decision: do you increase the score to prove me wrong?
As a contractor, I am paid for my time. If I spend time NOT working, I don't charge for it. When I have downtime, I keep a list of customer-approved research projects handy. These are typically things that make my or somebody else's job a bit easier. (such as a new software that can fix a workflow problem, or creating a technique that can provide us a new capability) A few of these side projects have made big impacts, and I look good for "taking the initiative."
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Down time?, what the hell is that? Seems, I'm just left to do less competent people's work when I'm done with mine it seems. My company (more specifically my it group) believes in nepotism like a religion and hires people for technical jobs who have horrid technical skills, developers included. They also seem to hire project managers and business analysts who aren't up to their jobs. As a result those of us who are competent (or only mentally incompetent) don't really have down time. Sad but true.
I am in charge of a group that is responsible for production work that has to be turned around in 24 hours. This takes between 75% to 150% of our work hours. We also get stuff tossed over the fence at us by the salespeople where we have to "prove our product works" despite the fact that we do this stuff in production all day long. The salespeople figure if we can turn around production in 24 hours, we ought to be able to do the same for their work, which is in some unknown format and is about the same seize as our normal production run. This happens two to three times a week.
Once in awhile we have one of those days where the production work only takes us 75% of the day to complete. So we have downtime. What do we do during the downtime? That is when we go and try to clear the bugs up in bugzilla. I have bugs that are 7 months old that haven't been opened yet. I know that sounds bad, but production has to come first, and unfortunately, the salespeople who are incapable of selling the product without showing test data come second. So fixing bugs, which might make both of the higher priority items take less time, are hardly ever addressed.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
It's interesting that you assume I have not worked "efficiently" in the IT field. True or not, that is irrelevant to my point.
If I can do a "average" IT or programming or knitting or lawn care or whatever job in only 20 hours a week instead of 40, I should fill the other 20 hours with productive activity to provide even more value to my employer (and myself). If I am very efficient at my job, by boss should give me more to do and I should find more to do. The more value I contribute, the more valuable I am to the company and to my resume. If the company will not or cannot give me more to do, that is a strong indicator that my position is not on a growth curve. Occupying a stagnant position is not a good place to be. Stagnation will be lopped off at the first sign of financial difficulty or re-organization.
There can be many reasons why a company will keep paying someone for 40 hours of work even though they only deliver 20. But I cannot think of a good long-term reason why they would or why you would want them to. Perhaps you could enlighten me?
It would appear that all you hard workers who claim to have no downtime at work have plenty of time to check up on slashdot considering most of the posts for this thread occurred during work hours.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
what's up-time?
When I have downtime, I usually surf the Internet. I mostly browse Reddit and Digg, and sometimes Slashdot. I also hit up regular news sites, like CNN or BBC, and blogs. Ironically, I often read self-improvement blogs about how to be more productive. Sometimes I always squeeze in a bit of time to work on a website that I maintain for a club. After work I probably wouldn't have the motivation to work on the website.
Much of the downtime I have isn't really downtime. I could spend the time working on ongoing projects (most of which don't have a strict deadline), writing documentation, improving the way things work, thinking of improvements, reading a work-related manual that I should read, or developing my skills, but I'm lazy. If I actually worked efficiently and polished off the projects I have on my plate, I would probably go with little downtime for a while but eventually still end up with a some free time.
I AM FORUM WHORE!
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
I would, but my attention span's been fried from years of slacking off on the internet.
Seriously, the OP's right: I'd rather be busy than bored. Sure, bugger-all workload sounds great, but it's really not much better than too-much workload. The boredom/guilt's a killer.
GTD is one of many ways of procrastinating the day away. You're not meant to actually *benefit* from it, it's just something you can adopt as a mini project to play with to while away the day until you get bored.
Man you need a break! I find that the guys that work four hours after work and then on the weekends accomplish LESS than me. I go home when I'm done for the day, not the project or whatever, and I take breaks as I need them not on a schedule. Learn some personal time management skills. Learn to take deep breaths. Learn that people work harder for rewards and respect than yelling.
Currently researching an Arduino-based 'cruise control' for my manual transmission car using a stepper motor instead of the usual vacuum system. -- gives me something different to think about when I'm not writing document manipulation code.