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Slow days at work...

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entremet

entremet

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Anyone else feel guilty during slow days at work. Right now, I'm my department, it's the slow time. I do have some long term projects to work on, but I work so much better in the ''busy'' season as it were and have a greater sense of urgency.

Any else feel bad about slow days?
 
I tend to feel a bit bad at the end of the day if I haven't gotten much done, yeah. I do feel moderately accomplished when I have an especially productive day.
 
entrement said:
Anyone else feel guilty during slow days at work. Right now, I'm my department, it's the slow time. I do have some long term projects to work on, but I work so much better in the ''busy'' season as it were and have a greater sense of urgency.

Any else feel bad about slow days?
Click to expand...

I am in the same position. Even right down to the long term projects thing.

I do feel guilty browsing my life away but hey, money is money.
 
Yes and no. I do feel bad when it is slow but there isn't really anything I can do about it. I just try and enjoy the slow periods because I can remember the crunch times, just part of my industry.
 
Currently posting at work.

They're pretty cool/reasonable here with internet use. No crazy over-the-top filter. No gaming/gambling/or NSFW sites - but otherwise, all is open. Most everyone works 50-60 hour weeks on salary, anyway; so they don't really care if you spend a few minutes every once in a while just clicking away to keep your sanity.

A few people abuse it; but I don't except on the extremely rare "super slow" day. But at that point, I'd probably just take PTO, instead.
 
This week has been slowwww after a few weeks of high octane productivity. I feel kind of bad right now with an hour left but it will all be better when I destroy my chest/biceps.
 
As a reporter on a low-budget radio station, I only need to attend an event or an assignment, write a quick note, go into the air and have a little interaction with the anchor.

Then I repeat it for the 6PM news.

I get to come home earlier and I can work from here, but I do miss being the producer since shit was balls insane and time went by so goddamn fast. I get paid more and all, but yeah, I miss the whole "hurry the fuck up" mood.
 
I just started a new job yesterday (doing contract work for BoA) and I've literally done nothing but read every single article on CNN for 16~ hours. I have no idea what I was really hired to do (they don't seem to know either...lol) aside from doing QA for some massive project that's starting its development cycle in 2014 (leads back to why the hell did they need someone now). Too bad everything is blocked and filtered out the ass so I'm stuck using my phone for entertainment...sometimes I miss my old job lol. I get paid stupidly well to do absolutely nothing.,.its nice but im already contemplating "searching" for jobs that require the use of my brain.
 
Yeah, I got a ton done at my job early on, so I'm really just waiting on other stuff from people to get started again. Slow day today for sure.
 
I'm having a couple of slow days at one of my projects. I'm really ahead of where I need to be so I'm waiting on other people, worst of all: no internet. So I'm just re-reading and re-reading the same documents to improve them.
 
Feel the same way. Huge project that won't be finished for a while but I have so much free time. I program on the side so I don't feel unproductive for days where it's slow.
 
My job has peaks and valleys, and is very cyclical. The peak work weeks are absolutely bonkers, so our team as a whole savors the periodic slow times when we can.
 
I don't have a fancy desk job. Rarely slow where I work, and if it is, I'm real bored and makes me wish it was busy. I'll usually try and go home early, as I can't stand not being productive at work. When I'm home, I'm highly unproductive.
 
No, not at all since in my profession you have to read A LOT in order to keep up with latest trends. That's what I do when it's not busy.
 
I used to spend ~12h/day at work and most of that on gaf. Didn't feel guilty at the time, as the job didn't require too much investment on my part. Nowadays it would be impossible, but keeping busy makes the time go by faster, so.
 
I rather have a slow day where i can get everything i need to get done completed. than a day where i have to much and don't get anything completed.

Linkhero1 said:
Feel the same way. Huge project that won't be finished for a while but I have so much free time. I program on the side so I don't feel unproductive for days where it's slow.
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hey man, you got a job lined up? congrats!
 
This has been a slow week for me. I am literally doing nothing every day. I don't feel guilty, because there's not really any work to do. The only problem is that I just don't know what to attribute my time to on my timesheets.
 
Ultima_5 said:
hey man, you got a job lined up? congrats!
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No not yet haha. I'm staying with my current employer until we launch our product in a few months then I'm bailing. I've been getting lots of calls and emails from different companies so I'm not too worried about finding a job after this current project is done :)
 
thecouncil said:
This has been a slow week for me. I am literally doing nothing every day. I don't feel guilty, because there's not really any work to do. The only problem is that I just don't know what to attribute my time to on my timesheets.
Click to expand...

"GAF posting" see what the reaction is.
 
Whenever its slow at work, I just either study, play games on my Mac, whatever console games they have here, work out, or read a book. There are always things to keep people occupied if they get bored or its slow.
 
Waiting for data is always annoying. I've gotten to the point where I'll write my own queries but for anything remotely complicated or locked behind a limited access wall (we don't have enough licenses to grant everyone access to everything) requires me to wait, often for days, as I essentially twiddle my thumbs.

In free time I basically make work, usually experiments with forecasting models. Sometimes they prove useful.
 
entrement said:
Anyone else feel guilty during slow days at work. Right now, I'm my department, it's the slow time. I do have some long term projects to work on, but I work so much better in the ''busy'' season as it were and have a greater sense of urgency.

Any else feel bad about slow days?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Anything else you'd like to know?
 
Whenever I was bored I would optimize excel documents and try and automate as many calculations using matlab.

Standard templates with comments are awesome to have with you.
 
My office has busy and slow seasons too. We're right at the start of the slow season and it's such a major change of pace coming down from the busiest time of year. We tend to use this time to do training and such, so yesterday all of management was out for the entire day in training and today most of my coworkers are in training, so it's been an extremely quiet and slow week.
 
Nah, I'm not bothered by this in the slightest.

Then, I worked call center gigs for four years, where you virtually ***never*** have down time, and this is the first job that really breaks that rule, so maybe that's a factor.

As long as everything is dealt with in time, why worry over anything else?
 
I feel guilty that I'm not more pro-active about finding stuff to work on. There's always something I could be doing really.

They recently cut all our cubes in half to have an open floor plan which I though I would hate but I actually kind of like it because it forces me to do work as opposed to just browsing the web when I don't have anything urgent pending.
 
Linkhero1 said:
When your pen runs out of ink, is anyone there to supply you with a new pen?
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Yes. I have a coworker who goes out of his way to make sure I've got a reserve of at least 5 pens at all times. (3 black / 2 blue). He also orders me ink reserves. I'm not quite sure why he does it, but if it makes him feel like he has purpose here at work, who am I to deny him that?

Anything else?
 
I have a pretty chill part time job at dinner theater for extra money while in school. (Set design, waiter, busboy, janitor and house managing) I've worked there for 6 years and always feel bad when its slow and I'm getting hours. I know how much the place makes during these months and look at my checks and feel like I'm taking profits. I know what I do is necessary and I'm a hard worker and part of the owners family practically. But still feel bad...
 
I work at a plasma center, and if it's slow in the lab, packed in reception, and I'm closing I dread working. The other thing about slow days is you can easily be accused of standing around doing nothing when there is most definitely nothing to do. That happened working electronics at kmart.
 
Definitely slow here. I've been on GAF/reddit for at least half of my work days lately. I feel a little guilty because I could be educating myself or bettering my career, but oh well.
 
I never feel bad. I guarantee you that the stockholders and big bosses on the top floor don't feel bad when I have days when I stay late or work on a Sunday afternoon. It's all part of the deal IMO. Some days I post on GAF and leave at 4:45. Some days I get here at 7:30 and work through lunch.
 
nullset2 said:
Nah, I'm not bothered by this in the slightest.

Then, I worked call center gigs for four years, where you virtually ***never*** have down time, and this is the first job that really breaks that rule, so maybe that's a factor.

As long as everything is dealt with in time, why worry over anything else?
Click to expand...

Yep, had a support/call center job for 5 years before this one and I rarely had downtime. There aren't really any projects right now and shit isn't breaking so I don't have much to do.
 
I hate slow days with a burning passion. I much prefer to be kept busy as to make time go faster. Nothing worse than a nine-hour shift seeming longer.
 
I'm on my feet the entire day busting my ass, dammit. >:| I've always wanted one of these jobs that lets me sit around and play on the internet, or maybe as a road worker pulling $25/hr to hold a 'slow' sign.
 
Nope. Our company is pretty shitty in that there's a heavy firewall and web filter that essentially limits (non-management) employees to the company Intranet. Our break area is the hallway outside our work area where a few old steel chairs are lined up against the wall next to a microwave and an ancient coffee pot. The unspoken expectation is that employees with idle time will either clean their work area or read company material.

Management threw a fit about our "time on tools" hours and launched a huge task force to see what other work could be added to the job posts to boost productivity. Well they've shored that up so well that now our T.O.T. hours is often greater than the 12 actual hours we spend on shift. Of course, there's been no task force to cut back on that.

We're a 24-7-365 operation. We have to be there (and be paid to be there) whether we're balls-to-the-wall busy or dead slow. That's just the price for around-the-clock production so management's obsession with "efficiency" seems sorely misguided.
 
Nope. I welcome the slow days because when it gets busy around here, it gets killer.

Enjoy the quiet moments gentlemen. You could be busy 24/7.

Baraka in the White House said:
Nope. Our company is pretty shitty in that there's a heavy firewall and web filter that essentially limits (non-management) employees to the company Intranet. Our break area is the hallway outside our work area where a few old steel chairs are lined up against the wall next to a microwave and an ancient coffee pot. The unspoken expectation is that employees with idle time will either clean their work area or read company material.

Management threw a fit about our "time on tools" hours and launched a huge task force to see what other work could be added to the job posts to boost productivity. Well they've shored that up so well that now our T.O.T. hours is often greater than the 12 actual hours we spend on shift. Of course, there's been no task force to cut back on that.

We're a 24-7-365 operation. We have to be there (and be paid to be there) whether we're balls-to-the-wall busy or dead slow. That's just the price for around-the-clock production so management's obsession with "efficiency" seems sorely misplaced.
Click to expand...

Do you love it?
 
Mesoian said:
Do you love it?
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The work itself I'm pretty indifferent toward. I'm good at it and the skills I've picked up are ones that will probably be in pretty high demand for the foreseeable future. It's not my dream career by any stretch of the imagination but it pays well enough that I don't mind. Work to live and all that...

I absolutely abhor the aforementioned policies and priorities of our management, however. It sends morale into the shitter and just encourages minimal expectations from employees.
 
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