Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Life] >> College - Career



Message

cih92 -> Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (5/31/2008 1:36:00 PM)

I used to work as an electronics technician and most of my time was spent sitting by a phone waiting for service calls. Many times my boss would have nothing for me to do except to sit by a phone and wait for service calls. I would hardly get a service call. During those times my boss would allow me to watch movies, read books, play games, and so on.

I used to have other jobs like this as well. I remember working as a computer operator and there wasn't that much work to do. I would have to answer the phone, but I would hardly ever get a phone call. I had to run various jobs on the computer, but there were not very many jobs to run and it did not take that long to run those jobs. Because of the small amount of work I had to do, my boss allowed me to read books or newspapers, watch TV, and so on.

Has anyone ever had a job like the ones I have had?

Currently, I work as a software engineer and I am constantly busy. I am busy from the time I first sit down in my cubicle to the time I go home. My job is not a working vacation like my previous jobs.



Brandy -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (5/31/2008 2:11:42 PM)

welcome to the real world.

I had one cushy job like that right out of highschool while working for a temp agency.

Every job since then has expected production.



Miss Giggles -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (5/31/2008 2:15:30 PM)

I have one right now at most times. We aren't that busy in the summer.

It pays well for what I am doing, so I can't complain and I like my bosses. Job market isn't that great right now so I will just to try to save some money for when its time to move on. Cause someday it would be nice to busy :)

You could be the night security guard somewhere. Now that would be boring.



eaglelady11 -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (5/31/2008 7:59:31 PM)

Ive had two jobs like that. One was a temp secretary gig and I brought in my homework and did my homework at work and looked busy. I was able to type up a term paper.

Then I had a really boring job with a company and did the same thing, did my home work, wrote papers, got on the forum boards, and read books online.

I was getting sober during that one, so by odong my homework during the day, I was able to go to AA meetings and do service work at night. I guess it was imrpotant to God too that i get sober and get my life together. I used to complain about the boredom, no more. and i will go around and ask my coworkers if I can help.



Roberta_ -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (5/31/2008 9:06:55 PM)

I had a job like that once. I really didn't like it because it took me two long hours to get there and back (by bus) and my boss did not allow us to do anything else during that time. No reading, etc. It was for a newspaper, so I could have one of our newspapers out to read. When I complained about the boredom, they moved me to an office closer to my home. Half the bus ride, about $2/hour more and co-workers suffering from extreme exhaustion. Not sure which was better.



humbleinspirit -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (5/31/2008 9:49:09 PM)

Earlier jobs allowed me to just do things as they came and sit around if there was nothing to do. None of my jobs since 1999 (except one) has been that way at all, but especially my most recent job where if you are not doing 2 or more things at a time, you are not working hard enough.



APZR -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/2/2008 12:22:25 AM)

Nope, I wouldn't last one day in a job like that! ADHA, ADD, DYSLXA, and any other acronyms you can think of. [8D]
In high school I worked for a family owned antique shop, building replicas, rebuilding originals, etc. In college, I worked for our family biz... real estate, appraising, and building. Since then I've owned my own biz, and it's been non-stop. But I love my business!! Even on vacation, I'll stop at a job site to talk to the superintendent to chat shop. Used to drive my wife crazy. [:@] Now she just hollers that she'll see me later... because she knows I'll either build up repor to get a ride home, or get a taxi. [:D]



debilyn -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/2/2008 8:31:31 AM)

I filled in for a fellow co-worker one summer for a couple of weeks as a receptionist, where I was there to answer the phone and greet visitors. It could be very boring on days when there were not many visitors. I would volunteer to stuff envelopes for other departments to keep myself busy while the phone was silent.

There are occasional days like that in my current job, but I usually find something I can work ahead on or I take time to go through old files to stay busy.



cowgurl4christ -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/4/2008 11:09:06 PM)

Blaah sounds like my internship. I work at a studio, and I feel like I'm always slacking off, but really, my boss just has no work to give me. Thus I have nothing to do, while everyone around me is trying to finish projects on time! I repeatedly ask for work and end up getting jobs that take like 2 minutes to do. [sm=worried.gif]
Partially, the reason I haven't gotten a lot of work is because the company does a ton of 3D, and I am not yet familiar with the program they use...I'm still working on that part. I'm more accustomed to video editing in After Effects & Final Cut, and they don't do a lot of work involving that.

What do you all do to pass the time, yet not get in trouble? I think my boss would be at least somewhat upset if he caught me playing around on a computer instead of working...
I personally do online crosswords, bring a book to read, check my mail 1.2 gazillion times, and dddrrraaaggg out the projects I am actually given.

It's kinda making me reconsider what I want to do in life, or at least how often I'd want to do it (part-time/full-time) [sm=icon_smile_faint.gif]



cih92 -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/5/2008 12:56:25 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cowgurl4christ

Blaah sounds like my internship. I work at a studio, and I feel like I'm always slacking off, but really, my boss just has no work to give me. Thus I have nothing to do, while everyone around me is trying to finish projects on time! I repeatedly ask for work and end up getting jobs that take like 2 minutes to do. [sm=worried.gif]
Partially, the reason I haven't gotten a lot of work is because the company does a ton of 3D, and I am not yet familiar with the program they use...I'm still working on that part. I'm more accustomed to video editing in After Effects & Final Cut, and they don't do a lot of work involving that.

What do you all do to pass the time, yet not get in trouble? I think my boss would be at least somewhat upset if he caught me playing around on a computer instead of working...
I personally do online crosswords, bring a book to read, check my mail 1.2 gazillion times, and dddrrraaaggg out the projects I am actually given.

It's kinda making me reconsider what I want to do in life, or at least how often I'd want to do it (part-time/full-time) [sm=icon_smile_faint.gif]


You could read something that is job-related or you could have someone train you to do something else.



ajidil -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/5/2008 3:46:01 AM)

I had a job like this for about 2 years. I worked in a small town bank at an out of the way branch, and I worked the drive-thru. Sometimes we were swamped, like Friday afternoons, but other times, like all day on Tuesdays, it was so slow. Our manager didn't care if we did other things as long as we didn't neglect customers (and we weren't allowed to use the computers for anything other than business). I became a regular at our local library and read about 2 books a week because of this. I felt a little bit bad sometimes doing this, but it did keep me from partaking in the trash talk and gossip, so that was good.



redeemedsaint -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/6/2008 8:09:44 AM)

I had a temp job for three weeks when I was also answering the phones and taking appointment leads. At times, it was boring and I kept myself busy by answering and responding to my emails. I had permission to do this and I could not wait until the assignment was over.



9drtr -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/21/2008 3:45:40 PM)

A friend used to work as an accountant for a large firm. One week a month she drew 40 hours overtime, and the other three weeks she had nothing to do, but she had to be at her desk. They didn't care what she did as long as she was there. Three weeks of surfing the internet and playing solitaire every month drove her nuts. But it would have been perfect for me. I'm a writer. I can't imagine getting paid to write and research three quarters of the time.



humbleinspirit -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (6/21/2008 4:11:13 PM)

If I had that chance I would be on forums all day! [:D]



princeqaz -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (7/1/2008 8:56:17 AM)

i really understand what you bear now

my friend ,life should be interesting ,do what you want to do

just take action ,i think you will find surprise

wish you good luck



beachcooky -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (7/5/2008 11:41:30 PM)

I work at a daycare & I come in while the kids are sleeping. So, most of the time I have nothing to do. But when I work overtime, I have plenty of things to do when the kids are awake. So it's in between.



Annie64 -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (7/7/2008 1:35:56 AM)

I found this thread and had to laugh. I'm at that kind of job, right now, and that's why I have time to be on CW forums. I'd never have time to do much of this at home! I work as an alarm company dispatcher, so I have to sit at a computer. Let's see, it's 1:12 AM. The last signal we got that had to be acknowleged was 1:02, and that one didn't require a response. The last signal where I had to call someone isn't even on the screen anymore. Okay, as I typed that I did get an alarm. Somebody accidentally hit their panic button. It took me all of about a minute to take care of it. For an alarm to mean anything real is so rare that whenever there's an actual fire, or a true burglary where someone gets caught, we get a bonus! I even have a co-worker! He's at the other end of the room right now doing something at his own lap top. He laughed, too, when I told him the topic of this thread. I work ten hour shifts and spend most of that time on CW, or reading, or whatever. There's even less to do because I work third shift. Since I got this job last September, I have completed an elaborate cross stitch project I had started years ago, finished writing a novel that nobody but me is likely ever to read, nor am I entirely happy with it yet, so I'll probably work on it some more, and read maybe 20-30 Christian novels. I usually pay my bills at work, too. I've thought of this job as a great blessing because it gives me time to do other things besides work that I might not otherwise take the time to do. It's not a high-paying or glamorous job, but I like it's easiness, the opportunity to do what I want to do, and it pays my kids' tuition to their Christian school.

But every now and then, usually during a thunderstorm or a power outage covering at least an entire neighborhood, we get "slammed" with alarms, the screen fills, and we may spend an hour or more making call after call after call, and customers are angry because they aren't getting called right away, not realizing that there's only two of us and we have a lot of calls to make. This hasn't happened for a few months. It happened once when there was an earthquake. I live in Indiana, and it was the first earthquake I'd ever felt. That night, I was working alone, and my building shook, and suddenly there were a bunch of alarms at once on my screen. It was an interesting night!



hjemerson -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (7/7/2008 8:59:55 PM)

I have had a couple of job office type, had things to do a few things and then just in cause some one DID need any thing. Some of these were before Internet days , Radio.music.reading.cross words.knitting was all well worth my time!!! then life chaged and I had 29 yrs in early education.social work never enought time. So i had the best of both worlds I guess!God has been good!



blueshadow -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (7/11/2008 12:50:17 AM)

My work study job is like this...then again, it's a work study job - it supposedly comes with the program. I work at my university's library, and if I'm watching the desk I have lots of time to do homework. If I'm shelving books, shelf-reading, or shifting, I actually have to work. There's no telling which I'll be doing on any given day.

I'm currently "working" for my grandmother, which means I spend the day at her house and fetch her whatever she needs/do whatever she needs done, which is surprisingly little. It's not an official job, though.

My only true job was at a grocery store, as a courtesy clerk - that would be the person who runs around doing at least five things at once....Later I became a checker, which was somewhat easier because I only needed to do three things at once.



Roberta_ -> RE: Jobs where there is hardly any work to do (7/11/2008 1:00:05 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: blueshadow

My only true job was at a grocery store, as a courtesy clerk - that would be the person who runs around doing at least five things at once....Later I became a checker, which was somewhat easier because I only needed to do three things at once.


I worked Courtesy Desk for a while at Wal[:'(]Mart. After a few minutes of that job, one doesn't feel too courteous anymore, so I could never figure out why it's called the "Courtesy Desk" [8D][;)][:D]



Page: [1]



Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.5 ANSI