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Ok, you guys are going to hate me for saying this.
IMHO, what you do with your down time shows what kind of worker you are. Are you a go-getter or are you a mediocre worker?
I always have something to do. My profession has a lot of down time, especially in the winter time. I don't just sit there and surf the web. I do other kind of work. For example, last winter I really had a lot of down time. I was assigned a small design project for the winter. It took me no time to finish that, double check, and triple check. Then I got 2 months left of nothing to do. So, every day I would come into my office and work on my mobile apps. One of these apps that I created during this long down time is now earning me $300/month. All my mobile apps combined give me about $1200-1500/month.
Anybody can do an assignment they are given. It's what they do when they are not assigned anything and/or the quality of their work that determines whether they are a go-getter or not.
Well, I hope that you're not using company equipment or resources. That would be a fireable offense in a lot of companies, including mine.
Location: When things get hot they expand. Im not fat. Im hot.
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How about writing up a training manual. I'm retired now. My old job was pretty technical. In my down time I wrote up training manuals with a flow charts and step by step instructions with examples. I also wrote up examples of problems I encountered and how to solve them. Again with step by step instructions with examples. Gave me something to do and I was doing something productive. I got a bonus and they're still using my stuff to train newbies. I was offered a promotion but I turned it down. Supervising was not my thing.
Sorry but I'm old school. If you're at work you should be doing work stuff not writing your next novel and watching cat videos.
Heck yes there is. Not getting paid enough to live on, no benefits, a micromanaging jerk of a boss, working in a sweatshop, call centers where you listen to people's complaints all day and can't respond with a witty/rude retort, I could go on.
I had a job working for the toll road as a toll collector from 5:30 PM-1:30 AM. I got the job during the mortgage crisis of 2008, and I really liked it, because it was a mindless, simple position which was a welcome respite from my high tech, high pressure medical field in which I worked for years. I chose that shift on purpose so I would have my own downtime and could do my own thing. I watched Star Trek on my DVD player, played on my phone, listened to classical music, and read. After about 7:00 PM, 30 minutes would often go by between customers. Few people have jobs that were as quiet as this was.
yes, typical 9-5. the work is very cyclical so there are stretches of busy time and stretches of down time.
i want to do something productive/learn something new. but i don't know what. i've surfed the internet a million times. i take 45 minute walks at lunch but i can't take more than an hour on my lunch break. it's the company policy.
i thought of starting a blog but i'm not the kind of person who thinks other people care about my thoughts/ideas. i'm at a loss... i wish i could do billable hourly work for someone or something.
I think a blog would be best! You can't make that statement until you tried, and targeted your readers demographic. As in, write your blog about things that you want to talk about, then promote it on Twitter/etc. and hashtag it with whatever is in it...It won't happen overnight, but you also never know until you try!
Heck yes there is. Not getting paid enough to live on, no benefits, a micromanaging jerk of a boss, working in a sweatshop, call centers where you listen to people's complaints all day and can't respond with a witty/rude retort, I could go on.
I had a job working for the toll road as a toll collector from 5:30 PM-1:30 AM. I got the job during the mortgage crisis of 2008, and I really liked it, because it was a mindless, simple position which was a welcome respite from my high tech, high pressure medical field in which I worked for years. I chose that shift on purpose so I would have my own downtime and could do my own thing. I watched Star Trek on my DVD player, played on my phone, listened to classical music, and read. After about 7:00 PM, 30 minutes would often go by between customers. Few people have jobs that were as quiet as this was.
As much as I hate tolls I'm glad you found something for yourself that just pays you for your time and doesn't subtract years from your life
I had a job working for the toll road as a toll collector from 5:30 PM-1:30 AM...
I had a job like this in High School at a gas station. I worked in a 4' x 6' glass box with a sliding door from about 4p-9p when we closed. I bought a big tv (back when big was 32" and weighed 80lbs) and played video games, watched movies, took naps, homework, hung out with friends and got paid.
Pretty much the best job ever as far as doing diddly squat...paid diddly squat, too. But I was already working another job and going to school full-time so it worked out well.
I started an inventory control position with a large corporation, where I was told I would have to work several hours of overtime every Friday and there was no other way to get the job done, I specifically asked in the interview if I would be able to be kept busy all day because if I'm at work, I would rather be working. I was told that I would always be busy, there was so much to do there. After a month, I streamlined my job to the point where there was no OT each week and on a daily basis, I ran out of work by noon. I wrote my procedures, complete with screen shots and the other facilities were directed to follow the procedures I used, saving them lots of OT too. Because of this I received larger pay increases than was standard, 1.5% was standard, I always got over 3%, which was unheard of there.
I am like this everywhere I work, always got a big % raise and promotions even when there were wage freezes, I don't know how to be a slacker at work.
Management advised me to start learning the AP and Purchasing functions so I could be backup for those who were overwhelmed, it was funny, none of those people wanted my help but they complained daily that they had so much to do. (perhaps they were afraid I would take their job) I wound up doing all of the filing and menial tasks in the office for everyone, I still wound up with about 2.5 hours to kill each day.
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