People with office jobs - what's your day like?! (companies, tax, salary)

[TheEarthBeneathMe]

I would love to hear how people with office jobs spend their day. Is there down time, is it constant intense work, do you get to travel to various locations (and do what there?), ..just what's your daily routine like.

Personally I'm a nurse (and yes I'm male), my parents are both teachers, and I kind of always wondered what people in those big buildings with their own cubicle/office spend their day on.

Leaving specifics out is fine of course.

[azspeedbullet]

i sit in my cubicle for 8 hours and do nothing..yay..lol

[VJP]

I spend my day talking to customers about their wireless network needs and then designing those solutions. That involves using various pieces of design software, pricing solutions, allocating internal resources, and assisting as a technical expert for sales presentations.

[Albuquerque101]

I am pretty sure desk jobs vary significantly in terms of what people do all day, but I spend most of my time at my desk, reading/writing (mostly on the computer). I also spend 20-30% of the time talking on the phone to clients, going to co-workers' offices to discuss projects we are working on together, and traveling for work.

[ragnarkar]

Writing and testing code
Updating spreadsheets

All from my desk.

[ShellNic]

I've been at this job for about 10 months...it's drastically different than my last job doing the same type of work. This new company seems to be about 10 years behind the place I left so my days are not as busy as I would like. Don't get me wrong, I don't really like it when the workload is so heavy you can't think, but not having any work day after day is the most mind numbing thing. I try helping other departments but my boss gets jerky about it and he knows I don't have anything so what can I do. In about another month, it will pick up.

So, when I'm busy, I file personal property tax returns. Woohoo. I daydream all day long about not being tethered to an office. Although, in the summer, I would dread being outside in the extreme heat. I'm confident there is a happy medium.

[Ohiogirl81]

I yap on the phone, do research on the computer, write write write write, go to meetings so I can write write write write some more, drink tea, and take 10-minute breaks every couple of hours.

[Z3N1TH 0N3]

Emails, emails, emails galore! I do a lot of communications between our clients and vendors. I have to review several reports throughout the day. I take a few phone calls here and there. But it's mostly emails. I probably get 150-200 a day to sift through, some relevant, some not so much.

[Garfunkle524]

My girlfriend's a nurse and I envy you people!! Hourly pay that adds up easily more than I make on salary (as an engineer) and if you take on a 60 hour week you get compensated HANDSOMELY for it. She tells me about a lot of the stresses of being a nurse, though, and it certainly justifies your compensation.

I start my day with about an hour of reading/responding to important emails. The rest of the day my tasks vary. Sometimes I'm in the lab experimenting with prototypes, sometimes I'm designing things using software, sometimes I'm sorting through/writing documentation. I do all sorts of stuff during the day. Generally it's a constant flow of work with only occasional down time. The worst part is that companies all over are cutting back on compensation/benefits, so we get paid worse for doing more work and pulling 50+ hour weeks consistently. Overall I enjoy my job, even if compensation isn't the greatest.

[Suncc49]

Do what suits you..... Someone used to nursing would be bored with a desk job...