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Some of you may have read some of my threads in the past about my lack of work to do such as this one: Work: Always Too Much Downtime
And it continues to be a big issue for me (currently going insane sitting around here today).
Its been suggested to me that I need to learn to create my own work. And I can honestly say that I do not know how to do that. I can create small projects that may take up small pockets of time in the day but nothing substantial enough to keep me as busy for hours/days/weeks on end.
What perplexes me more is that this seems to be such a unique problem, I seriously don't know anyone who has had this problem. Most people with full-time jobs seem to have a steady stream of work and some are never caught up.
So my question to all the busy people is where does your work come from? I'd just like to get a better idea of how it happens for everyone else...with normal jobs!
I've never had an office job besides one call center (and they never had downtime.) For retail and production jobs I'd sweep or clean other departments when there was nothing to do, make coffee in the break room, ask my supervisor about learning on machines I didn't know how to use yet, etc.
When I used to be a paralegal (I guess my last "traditional" job) there was never downtown. There was always something that could be done on the files or even filing itself. There was always something that could be checked, followed-up on, organized better, that probably applies to most office type work. One place I even started a procedures manual and updated it during down time.
Work was sometimes given to me, and clients would call and that would result in work, or emergencies would happen, but otherwise I just was in charge of all the cases and keeping them moving, meeting all the deadlines, and doing this kept me busy :-)
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The only time I had that situation was in college working at a liquor store, and was able to use the time for studying. Your biggest problem is that if your superiors realize you have so much down time, and they have budget issues, you could be on the short list for layoffs. I have a backlog of work that I rarely get to, such as re-writing procedure manuals, and re-creating system reports with new software. Some problem or another always comes up that takes my time, and when added to the regular duties it's impossible to get to the lower priority work. The people I manage are in a support group and their workload depends on what those others have going on, with peaks and valleys, but when they do have quiet time they catch up on lower priority work such as filing documents, original paper versions and scanning into Sharepoint.
Some of my work is externally derived, some from projects I set up myself to better the organization.
External sources would be work that I do to meet regulatory requirements, budget reporting, HR responsibilities, meetings with my boss, my reports, various and sundry committees, managing projects that are important to my organization.
Coming from me, I constantly review procedures to make sure that we are efficient, and I reengineer processes if we are not. I make sure that we are taking advantage of technology to effectively communicate internally and externally.
most of my work is ongoing things, like payroll, putting data that comes in regularly into spreadsheets or databases, updating things, keeping track of people's projects and attendance and things. also filing, electronic and physical. ordering things that we regularly stock.
then there are things that come up - scheduling meetings and interviews, answering questions, resolving problems, helping people with computer stuff, pulling data for my bosses, designing forms and things for them.
i do have trouble filling my day even though my predecessor did like 1/3 of what i do and was reportedly always busy.
in my down time i organize things that get messy (my files & e-mail inbox as well as everyone i work for's physical files, my drawers, etc). one big thing i came up with on my own was making a database of employee info so i didn't have to pull it together from a zillion different places anymore. this took up a lot of time as i was making it, but now that it's done i have even less to do!
my bosses realize i'm not working every second of the day, but they're fine with it because i'm so productive, and i will help anyone if they need it, even if it's not technically my job. and i have to be there in case something does come up.
Some of you may have read some of my threads in the past about my lack of work to do such as this one: Work: Always Too Much Downtime
And it continues to be a big issue for me (currently going insane sitting around here today).
Its been suggested to me that I need to learn to create my own work. And I can honestly say that I do not know how to do that. I can create small projects that may take up small pockets of time in the day but nothing substantial enough to keep me as busy for hours/days/weeks on end.
What perplexes me more is that this seems to be such a unique problem, I seriously don't know anyone who has had this problem. Most people with full-time jobs seem to have a steady stream of work and some are never caught up.
So my question to all the busy people is where does your work come from? I'd just like to get a better idea of how it happens for everyone else...with normal jobs!
I work in a petroleum refinery as an outside operator. I also work the board, which is the program used to control the process.
Now, normal as an outside operator, you make a round, which is you walk around the unit observing things, if you work the off shift, there usually isn't much to do unless there is an emergency on the unit.
Now as an outside operator you can create work, you can change out steam traps, try to locate loose asbestos insulation, try to identify the source of steams or water leaks to get them repaired, clean pump or compressor bases, change out lube oil on pumps or compressor, change filters, and a lot more.
Now most of the time, I don't do this, but if it is a particularly slow day, sometimes I'll get out there and do some of those things.
If I am on the board and it is slow, I can go through all the screens and identify alarms, I can attempt to maximize the heaters, I can attempt to tweak the units so I am meeting all the various product specs more closely, I can attempt to identify transmitters or control valves that aren't working properly, etc and so on.
I generally don't do that either, but again if it is a particularly slow day, then I'll put in that effort.
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