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Work Time Waster


Washpark

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For reasons outside of the company's control, I was hired into a role that now can't have me do my job for the next 6 to 12 months. I was told informally just look busy. 

I need to find ways to kill time and look busy. I have my own office but only requirement is that I need to be in the office most days 8 - 5. 

What are the best ways to kill time / not go crazy while doing nothing? I have already taken up 2 hour lunches. I fly to nyc at least once a month for 1 hour investor meetings so probably will add int'l bs travel to my schedule.

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Had a guy who basically went into his office, closed the door, and spent the rest of the day downloading porn and trying to hook up via chat with women telling them his wife had died (didn’t) and other shady shit.

This was years ago, he was bypassing our proxies using AOL for broadband for his connection. I only caught him because he was killing the offices bandwidth.

That was a lot of fun explaining/showing what he was doing to an elderly HR person. He kept his job (smh).




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I would go nuts having to come in without a defined purpose.  If I were you, I would come in and catch up on the news for an hour or so over coffee, and then either start taking classes online for some type of masters, or start a side business.  At a minimum, learn a new language.  If they don't need you for 6-12 months, maybe they don't need you and you will be moved out later on.  I wouldn't want someone who I was looking to hire to explain they did nothing for 6 months...

Your other options are surfing porn or spending your entire day posting in CR with some of the loons.

Edited by Whitman
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55 minutes ago, Washpark said:

I did order a red stapler.

I learned this morning from my exec team that I will have 2 more direct reports starting in the next few months. 

I am thinking side hustle. 

Wait....you ARE hiring people to work for you and not do shit?  Man where do you work?

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4 hours ago, Whitman said:

If I were you, I would come in and catch up on the news for an hour or so over coffee, and then either start taking classes online for some type of masters, or start a side business.  At a minimum, learn a new language. 

This is pretty solid advice.  It's going to get really boring.

Maybe day trading, although that can be risky.  Or catch up on your reading list.

I like Whitman's suggestions the best.  Learn a language and take some classes online.

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On really slow days, I download audiobooks on my phone, and pop in headphones and stare at work websites and things while my eyes glaze over and I listen to the books. Since it's on my phone I'm off the company network (untrackable) and if anybody walks by they only see work-related stuff on my screen and I don't have to look suspicious alt-tabbing everytime somebody walks by. 

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Look for another job, work on a side-hustle, or (if you like the company your working for) tell someone of authority about the fact that you have some bandwidth and want a meaningful project.

I'm sure it seems cool that your having nothing to do at work, and your immediate supervisors apparently dont give a shit, but you are vulnerable. Someone, somewhere is going to identify this inefficiency and could have your role eliminated.

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I'm pretty sure OP is messing with us, but if not...
Ask your manager what you should be doing in this transition. If it really is "nothing," tell him you plan to use the time to do EVERYTHING you can do to prepare for your new role (when it actually starts) and network within the company.

Doing absolutely nothing will rot your brain and you'll really struggle when the job starts. So take it the other way. Work so hard you'll find yourself looking forward to it.

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This same thing happened to me years ago. The company was being shopped and our Director was not wanting to start any new projects. He provided cover, told a couple of us to stay out of sight and out of mind. I was in R&D/engineering. The time passed quicker than I thought it would. Sucked that they needed us to remain on site just in case there was a meeting where we might have to attend but we suffered thru it. It would have sucked more if I had been alone all that time.

Edited by El Diablo
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I take it you are probably working on a project that isn't ready for launch yet.  If so, the right answer is porn or some sort of individual project, like woodworking at your desk.  The long term play is to build a business plan with everything that will need to be done on the project that is going to launch in 6 months.  A well thought out plan could have the project done under budget and ahead of schedule.  That might get you a raise or promotion.  Even if you don't know all the parameters of the project yet, you can still build and be prepared for various scenarios/needs.

But porn is much more fun.

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