Office jobs: Is your day mostly just sitting around trying to look busy?

[Fallout-NL]

This, plus I don't think work is spread out/designated in a good way, in some cases. I sometimes feel bad when someone in another division is working so frantically when I'm waiting on a new assignment.

....I do want to get paid for a full day though, since being on "standby" is still something. Not "get paid less hours for doing less hours of work". I think everyone would be poor, by that measure (if not salaried).

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As a freelancer, I can tell you that this is indeed an issue. Really hard to try to come up with 40 hours of real actual work that a. someone wants to pay you for and then b. find the energy to actually do all of it in those 40 hours.

You get paid, but it can make you irritable by lack of stimulation...

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Trust me, lack of money makes you even more irritable. Read a book or something if you're bored.

Though taking a wider view, I do understand. These bullshit jobs people are describing are killing us. The idea that everyone should work is idiotic in my opinion.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

I wish.

Most of us are working unpaid overtime (which is actually illegal for junior level employees, but an open secret) to make our numbers.

 

[Freakzilla]

I don't even try anymore

 

[Curler]

Work on a side project of your own. You can find ways to not get bored at the office.

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Depends how your office is set up. I can't imagine those with those "innovative, open-concept offices" can really do much like that. The psychology in those is to get people to work harder, in fear of being judged around them since there are eyes everywhere that can see what you do. Well, something along those lines, at least.

 

[Falchion]

My work ebs and flows but for a solid 5 months out of the year we're pretty crushed all the time.

 

[Curler]

As a freelancer, I can tell you that this is indeed an issue. Really hard to try to come up with 40 hours of real actual work that a. someone wants to pay you for and then b. find the energy to actually do all of it in those 40 hours.

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Exactly. I mean, some countries are playing with the idea of less hours and less days and things, but in THIS country, I can see it happen only if it means less PAY. Paying by the hour can be difficult if you get your work done fast and such. It's no wonder why so many people just screw around in the meantime.

 

[____]

In the afternoon, yes.

In the morning, I'm doing SO much shit.

 

[SpitztheGreat]

Most of my day is spent on Era. It's the best fucking job ever...at least until I get bored.

Thanks Era!

 

[Pilgrimzero]

More or less.

I used to know a guy in the IT Dept at a place I worked at that just watched Netflix all day.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

No, if that happens I just leave.

 

[Doc Kelso]

I have about 3 months per year where I have almost nothing to do and I'm browsing the internet on my phone from 8:30-4:30. Outside of those 3 months in typically pretty busy, but I also make it a point to begin shutting down by 4:30pm. I won't start anything new and won't reply to any emails that aren't urgent.

 

[Stryder]

I work in games. So I'm either busy or I'm looking at game stuff, or I'm on here arguing with people about something. Boss doesn't mind.

 

[finalflame]

No? I have work to do. Usually ~40-50% of my day (on a good day) is taken up by meetings or planning. The rest is varying degrees and types of work like roadmap planning, feature specs, discussions with engineers, PRDs, etc.

But to be fair .. I am on ERA right now :P

 

[Lucreto]

Wish I had some down time.

I work accounts payable and every day is like spinning plates. Too many jobs too little time. Do one thing get in trouble for not doing another.

 

[jon bones]

I'm so glad this thread exists. My days are a sine wave - some are relaxed, some are chaotic. Often, I just feel grateful I get paid for what I do, but it makes me nervous about the future.

What happens when we are 55? Do we all just get laid off?

 

[Bio]

Most of my day is actually spent working. Friday afternoons, and big corporate meetings I'm required to attend but not required to actually participate in (like where I am right now) are the only times I get to goof around on the internet.

 

[Rhowm]

"
Is this normal? If it is then I guess I need to get out of this field because it's maddening. I haaaaate having nothing to do and constantly feeling irrationally paranoid that I'll get in trouble for it.
"
In that case, one option is to become a medical resident. I just finished a 7 day work week with 14 hr days, moving ocnstantly on my feet and barely having much time even to eat, lol

 

[TaterTots]

I work from home so I don't have to pretend to be busy. I kind of do...nothing and get paid for it.

 

[SeanBoocock]

No. I always have more than I could ever hope to do individually and am often involved in facilitating/managing other work.

 

[kubev]

Not at all, but the workflow in our office is terrible. We use some of the worst software I've ever used, and nothing's particularly well-integrated with anything else. There's a lot of redundancy to the work we do, as a result.

 

[Mattakuevan]

Sometimes, and its the absolute worst. I have to keep myself occupied with other things or I go insane.

 

[tiebreaker]

There is always stuffs to do.
Maybe one or two days a month where I thought I've done a lot for the week and just take it easy.

 

[Soda]

I have unlimited work. I can work at home, I can work at my work, and I can work when I'm sleeping. There is no limit to how much I have to do.

<--- I'm a scientist

 

[Gaf Zombie]

Edit: I got a phone call!!! .......it was google maps asking if our company is opened Christmas... sigh....

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Wait, what? Google calls companies to find out if they're open on holidays?

 

[VorpalNonsense]

It can be. Until it's not. Depends on the day, the week, the month. There are ups and downs.
Sometimes office work can be more about being paid to remain available and present for anything needed at a moments notice, than it is about being constantly busy. Paying for your availability and attentiveness. But then other times you're so busy you'd swear your hair is visibly turning grey throughout the day.
Right now as we approach Christmas it's slowing down a bit as a bunch of staff are out of the office for business travel or vacation.

 

[Illusion]

I work from home so I don't have to pretend to be busy. I kind of do...nothing and get paid for it.

Click to shrink...

What job is this. Please let me know.

 

[cyress8]

Kinda, my job is part white and blue collar. About 80/20.

When caught up in the office I help get some vehicles ready to sell or help pickup parts on a pretty busy week

If slow that day and not much to do, I will just work from home and do the office shit there. Play some games and chill with my 3 dogs while I wait for the rest of the family to come home.

 

[PhilosopherDirtBike]

100%. On an average day, I probably do 2-3 hours of actual work. I've even told my boss I have the bandwidth to pick up more work and was straight up told that I already had too much on my plate. I feel bad because a lot of my coworkers appear to actually be busy and I spend most of the day resisting the urge to pick my phone back up one minute after I just put it down.

Also we switched to an open office plan and it was sooo much fucking easier to pretend to be busy when we were in cubicles. My days are excruciating now.

 

[BanditoMac]

what bugs me is that it seems like coworkers are getting stuff done or always busy, but i'm over here with a poker face

but review time rolls around and everyone is saying how great i'm doing so i have to keep reminding myself that or else I'd be so paranoid

 

[Xita]

Some days yes. Some days no. It's funny because on the former days I'm itching for something to do and on the latter days all I want to do is go back to the office.

 

[Strangiato]

I worked for a fortune 500 company for about 9 years and yes, 80-90% of people spent about 80-90% of the time pretending to be busy or socializing (unless of course you were a smoker and then didn't have to pretend for 15 minutes at a time many times a day). After enough time it actually wears you down more than you would expect.

 

[Vinc]

It's hit or miss at my job. At peak there's not enough hours in the day. Then for weeks or months at a time I'm starved for something to do.

 

[onyx]

Even when I worked helpdesk, call center, and NOC jobs there were days or even weeks where I had nothing to do.

When I worked in QA I swear I went an entire month without working. Now as a problem manager my work is done in a few hours each day. I jump in to do the more hands on IT stuff too but even then I'm usually done in a hour or two.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

That and meetings

 

[Mendrox]

Rarely in my case, but I am doing IT administration, license management, accounting and a bit more so lots of different stuff to do every day. On my down time I am either on Era/Reddit/News for a little bit or learn one of my few things I am currently on like japanese or web design.

 

[Dr Doom]

Yes,
Youtube, Wrestling, Giantbomb, ResetEra


In Japan

 

[chezzymann]

I wish

Jealous of all you

 

[daveo42]

In the past, yes. My current job I'm working extra hours just to keep up and I'm miserable.

 

[remiri]

I work in representation and sales, so a good portion of my work is inbound issues with b2b clients. This can either be very slow (in which case i call out to them as a courtesy to see how things are going, or pitch them something else) or incredibly hectic.

Since the calls are usually very high energy, management understands that we need to decompress after a long call and generally leaves us alone.

 

[Bonefish]

Yes

and after 4pm I drop all pretense and just stare at my phone for another hour or so

my performance review boiled down to "keep up the good work". Whatever lol.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Not for me. I work in a digital agency as a dev, and good god it's insane. You have to bill every hour to a client or task, and you are never, ever, ever given any downtime.

 

[Soulnado]

I see some people think not having to do anything is great since you can browse the internet all day, but how you feel about not developing any sort of useful skill whatsoever while the months keep passing you by? Shit sounds like a nightmare to me.

 

[Hyperfludd]

Damn, I got to get a office job. Retail is killing my feet.

 

[ThreePi]

A good chunk of my day is unproductive. Part of the problem is that if you're too productive and an outlier you don't get any benefit out of it, you just set expectations unreasonably high. And if I actually tried to be productive all the time I'd just burn out.

 

[ErrorJustin]

No.

I have an office job as a mid-level manager (team of 5) at an online media company and I have way more to do in any given day or week than can reasonably ever be completed.

Tactical Qs and Asks on a daily basis to solve for in-the-moment needs and problems. Lots of long term planning and strategic directional stuff has to have time carved out for it and be slotted in and amongst the day to day (budgeting, testing things, reviewing outcomes, communicating changes in approach, so on and so forth).

 

[TheRuralJuror]

I have stuff to do, but I tend to do a bit of squinting at my screen and scowling to avoid chit chat from others.

 

[DazzlerIE]

I have more work than I can typically get through. Always something to do. Still manage to goof around on the internet when I can tho

 

[Kyrios]

Depends. Most of the time yes. But there's been a lot work lately probably because of the holidays coming up and a ton of people are taking off the week of and after Christmas.

Otherwise I just browse Era lol

 

[JG_Lionheart]

I've done both. My current job has sooo much downtime compared to my previous job. It happens sometimes.

 

[nampad]

5th year at a Big 4 so hell no.

Always got more than enough to do and with tight project budgets, there is no time to dick around and the next deadline is always close. There is barely any downtime.

And if there is any downtime, I have to look for work as I need to justify every hour I book into the system.

I am pretty flexible though so I can practically start and end my day whenever I want as long as the work gets done.