I Always Find Very Difficult to Kill Time When No Work Is Being Assigned to Me at Office!

Fellas,

Shed some lights on this! What is the best way to kill time whenever we ran out of official work at office.

Comments

  • +17

    Eye shades that look like open eyes and sleep facing the computer screen.

  • +2

    Smoke a … no wait that's probably not allowed, never mind!

    • +3

      Lol.

    • +1

      do it anyway

  • +12

    Meditate

    • I try some breathing yogas sometimes but couldn't concentrate.

      • +9

        That's no reason to stop trying ;)

        • This, don't give up and you will find over time it gets easier. But it helps to close your eyes, maybe open for 10 and closed for 20?

  • +2

    Saw this on Reddit last week. Here you go..
    https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5gzzwb/what_is_t…

  • +54

    Ozbargain.

    • +1

      Lol

    • +1

      Ozbargain

      Came in to post this. That's all you need OP.

      /thread

    • +2

      On some days, OzBargain is pretty dry when there are lack of actual bargains.

      • +7

        That's when you head to the forums to read about the trials and tribulations of your fellow OzBargainites.

        • Then you can post some new deals for the rest of us

        • the trials and tribulations

          We need a new forum category, perhaps even a new site?
          "Help! I did something illegal, help me get out of it!"

  • +3

    It depends a lot on your workplace obviously, but this may work - ask for more work. I related this story in another thread which happened at a place I worked before. Eventually, it worked out well for her. She even got wage rises quite quickly when responsibilities/duties increase.

    Initially, manning reception, she was so bored, she read novels when nobody was around. She was not blatant about it, hiding the book when anyone turned up. We used to exchange books.

    • This is really interesting one! Lemme think about it!

    • +4

      This. I'm glad people at my work place tell me when they are available to take more on.

      Whomever assigns you work may simply not be aware you are seemingly not working…

      Ask for more work and responsibility. You are at work, too work after all :)

      • to not too

        • +3

          Congratulations on finding my mobile's spelling mistake!

        • +2

          @DrDollar: the ole blame the mobile trick.

  • +2

    Browse OzBargain?

  • +6

    Work out if there are any efficiency gains that can be made in the organisation and put together a power point to show the boss. Either he/she will be impressed with your initiative or will quickly find more for you to do.

    • +1

      Such a Hermione thing to do. lol.

      • +2

        Not the first time I've been considered a girlie swot. Actually if you are one of those people frustrated with how things are happening in at work this can be a very liberating thing. You get it all down in the power point then hand it onto your boss. You can then say "it is in my powerpoint" everytime someone higher up the tree complains about something, or says they weren't told about it. You've highlighted it so you don't need to worry about it anymore. The only downside is when they take it seriously and expect you to do something about the issues.

    • -1

      Err.. PowerPoint makes me feel nervous 😕

      • Just make sure to use the typewriter animation effect on every text box and you're gold!

        • +1

          Does PowerPoint still have that annoying laser sound effect? Who remembers applying it to every word with the volume way up high? Every school presentation 15 years ago. Pew, pew, pew!

    • +12

      "Thank you Mr Sowny for your submission on job efficiency. In light of the evidence you have provided we have identified $43k per in salary savings and $14k in benefits. Please collect your belongings and surrender your work Id at the front desk. We wish you all the best in your future endevours."

      • Lol 😝

    • +3

      I suggested a few times the idea I had to increase efficiency by varying amounts but generally more than 25%, even brought it up at Enterprise Bargaining and some people were horrified at it

      Quite simply it was to bring an end to the office culture of constant meetings

      No other industry needs all these meetings so why should desk jockeys have them?.

      Imagine putting your car in for a service and when you go to pick it up everyone is at a meeting or go down the local shop and find them in the "break out room" having tea and cake and a "bonding" session.

      Ridiculous that office culture has been allowed to develop like that in times of productivity increases

  • +1

    Reddit? Interspersed with some upskilling. :) If you're in technology, you should be learning something new.

    • +1

      I read crash.net sometimes

    • I know I have to learn VBS eventually for my role but every time I try I feel myself dying on the inside… It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring and the tutorials are all for websites when I just want to do a couple things here and there.

      • +1

        That's why it's called Visual… I'll let you work out the BS bit.

      • What about learning python? Or Powershell?

        I'm getting rekt because my powershell is rusty af, and I need to "massage" some public-domain powershell scripts to do my bidding.

  • Youtube

    • Not allowed mate.

      • +7

        use your phone, and take 30 minutes poos

  • +2

    reddit.

  • +3

    QWOP

  • +1

    Piss off co workers

    • Haha. Yup, that's interesting…

  • +2

    There's always something that could be done. Even dusting.

    • -1

      Tried everything mate. And especially the December sucks.

      • +1

        If you have tried "everything" then logically there is nothing else possible and thus your question has no answer.

        Yet, I don't believe it. You say you are an App Developer. Find something to automate. Learn a new language or tool. Come up with a utility to enhance productivity. You have a multitude of options. There is always something that can be done.

        Are you a professional or just a clock watcher?

        • proffesional clock watcher?!?! is that even a thing?

        • The subtleties of the word "or" appear to escape you.

  • Take up drawing and use the spare time to enhance your skills. Draw that girl or boy that you like in the office, sitting at their desk.

    • What if they think that I'm harassing !?

      • Then draw them when they are in toilet. Such improve

        • Phew!

        • +6

          Instructions unclear, drew them in the toilet, hr now calling.

          Now what? ? Pls respond

        • @smpantsonfire: draw 'em all

  • +2

    Fantastic problem to have. Ask work if you can do a distance education course on downtime. There are plenty of courses that are online only, some need to do a test onsite at the end of course. Win / win = you get more qualifications, work gets a more skilled employee.

  • I'm in the same position…

    What industry do you work in?
    Can you do an online course to learn new skills in the area, or another that you're interested in?

    • I work in IT. I'm an Application Developer!!!

      • +12

        Among all occupations, this is probably the best to face your kind of problem :-). You can learn a new language, develop an app, learn a new tool. Develop something useful for yourself. Furthermore, you probably can do this at your desktop and not look out of place. The IT field is moving so fast, there is not enough time to keep up. Why, this is a good problem, if you ask me!

        Other suggestions: for the project/code you are developing, think of enhancements, ways to improve the product, infrastructure/tools to improve the development environment which can benefit you and collegues, or scripts etc to help automate tasks; and suggest them.

        • +5

          This. Just upskill / research in a manner which is close enough to your current work to be able to defend the use of your time if caught.

        • +3

          What bluesky said. You could even learn some sysadmin skills by running another OS in a VM on your desktop and you might be able to take on sought after devops positions in future.

        • -3

          @greenpossum: yup. I did write selenium code to automate my application and I was so interested for a week but again I lost interest in it :(

        • +4

          @Sowny: Maybe you're in the wrong job or occupation.

      • +2

        Same same! As bluesky says below, this is one of the best fields for this.
        Here's how I've approached it: if my employer doesn't have/is not going to give me work to do, what can I do to add to my resume to show off skills for my next job?

      • +3

        Upskill mate. This is the best opportunity you have.

      • +1

        And yet you cant find things to do? Better lower that self title to coder…

      • +1

        Mate, I sometimes have the same problem. I decided to read quite a bit about financial market.

  • +3

    Play Football Manager. I'm 3000+ hours and counting

    • iOS game ?

    • +3

      Football Manager is bad mmmk. Don't do drugs.

    • +1

      DOTA 2 4700hours. Apparently it takes 10000hours to become proficient in a language….

      • I hate the friend who introduced me to DOTA.

        • not really. I love the game.

  • +1

    go to toilet with phone - play your choice of game / look at 9gag posts

    • +1

      Lol yeah. I do that often but I find the toilets are jam packed during 3 to 5.

      • +1

        every office has a secret toilet where no one knows or goes.
        this also applies to airports, i have a ripper toilet in sydney airport that i swear no one knows about

    • 9gag? Ew. Deserves to be in the toilet

  • +5

    why don't you just ask for work to do or just start doing somebody else's work?
    If you can't do that, just start browsing seek and look for another job.

    if you stay in this state for too long you won't be worth much as you are not growing your skills, learning from mistakes and producing something of worth…

    They are literally paying you to be stupid… you can only go so far in life by being stupid.

    • Good point though. However, I don't always sit idle all the time. I would say one or two days in a week I will have less than 1 hour of work to do. That's the main concern mate.

  • +2
    • Udemy course bingo. Bonus: Watch at double speed.
    • What free Amazon book can I read today?

    Make it work related. Win for everyone. You can very rightly argue you took it upon yourself to do some training. Your skills improve. You may apply them and find a job with less downtime if you wish. Getting caught doing self-study at work is going to be a hell of a lot better than getting caught playing a computer game. And if you were to get let go over it you've just improved your chances of getting the next job.

  • +1

    i know your pain….

    i copy movies/tv shows into my phone and watch in office when i m out of work…keep phone in corner !

  • +3

    Take a nap under your desk like George Costanza did.

  • +2

    What a great problem to have.

    If my dev staff are light on for work, I would have them…
    Ensure automated testing is in place(a never ending battle for us)
    Code peer review
    Research and development / POC
    Process review (streamline)
    Automate

    Unfortunately, we always have bucket loads of project work on, and we find it difficult to get time for these tasks.

    • +1

      OP clearly isn't a very motivated app developer.

    • write blogs
    • learn a programming language (if you have interest)
  • Become a consultant. Every hour must be billable. Welcome to my life. FML.

    • What you normally do in your current role? Are consultants also play the role of architect?

      • I'm an engineer.

  • +1

    Reddit. Create an account and unsubscribe to ALL or close to all the defaults, they're shit. Find some other subreddits you're interested in. There's tools available if you google or you can use search. There's some toxic-ass bullshit on that site but it's easy to avoid once you know how.

  • Imgur.com

    Reddit.com

    Those two sites have endless hours of browsing pleasure, between the endless memes of imgur and broad topic coverage on reddit you cant get bored

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