Whiling away the work hours

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If you were stuck in an office alone for seven hours a day, five days a week in a well-paid job which didn't actually require you to do very much work, how would you fritter away the endless hours?

You're just being paid to be a bum on a seat, really. You'd have an office of your own, unrestricted access to the internet and the office stationery stores, you'd be allowed to listen to the radio all day or even watch TV if you wanted. But you'd be stuck there. So what would you do to make it more interesting?

(a) post on ILX all day?

(b) read lots of books?

(d) study?

(e) write a book?

or something else?

― C J (C J), Friday, 28 July 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

Is this a hypothetical question?

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 28 July 2006 10:37 (nineteen years ago)

Possibly.

― C J (C J), Friday, 28 July 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, this isn't a hypothetical question to me.

Post to ILX, run a band, play on MySpaz and the like. Except I do have to look like I'm actually working when nothing is on, so, like, reading a book or studying is kind of out.

― Silver Machine Manor (kate), Friday, 28 July 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

read/post on ILX and other msg board type things
make stupid lists of tasks/chores to do and then ignore them
predict the footy results
update my website or websites of friends/clients or work on personal projects usually design/web related
browse the web aimlessly
listen to music on iTunes inc. iTunes store, or other places e.g. Bleep
occasionally learn something i didn't already know that helps me in my job

altho sadly i don't have my own office all to myself

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 28 July 2006 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

I handed in my notice and am about to start another job. Hopefully this one will give me some work, though I do realise that sometimes getting what you wish for can be a mixed blessing.

― Merrini (Mezza), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

I'd get a Masters or PhD in Maths and/or Physics, probably.

― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

read lots and do some drawing of my own and listen to music and whatever

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

While not in school, I:
Read/post on ILX (when it isn't poxy fuled of course) :p
Check my e-mail every five minutes
Play sudoku
Shop online
LOOK AT PUPPIES
Talk to people on AIM

(I have my own office--I leave the door open all the time and am in the line of sight of the receptionist, but my computer screen is unviewable unless you stand right behind me)

In school, I was the receptionist at my last job, so I just played sudoku and read for class.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

Look at puppies?

― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

or something else?

Work. Not all the time; but still some of the time.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

big question... mainly I read online newspapers, send e-mails to friends (hundreds a day), ILX...
but since very often, the days seem endless( especially when i'm hungover/krapuled) the best would be to have video games on my cpu...which is impossible, unfortunately...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

Cute Overload and the local humane society page is my friend. :D

xxpost

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

This thread was prompted by receipt of an email from one of my friends who was bleating yet again that she has almost nothing to do all day and gets really really bored.

My first instinct was to think "lucky cow!" but I suppose it's a bit of mixed blessing. Would you stay in a job which was mind-numbingly dull just because the money was good, or would you rather be employed doing something interesting, stimulating and/or worthwhile?

Still, being paid to dick about on the internet for your own personal fun can't be all bad, I guess.

― C J (C J), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

I find it hellish, there are some days when I really feel like I have read the internet. You find yourself going home and when people ask you how your day went you tell them you have found some interesting things like Kolachal, India was the location of a battle in 1741 where an Indian kingdom defeated a European naval force for possibly the first time in Indian history? becuase you have read all the new entries from wikipedias front page.

Though having no work to do sure made finding a new job easier.

― Merrini (Mezza), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

If you have a career path, and can expect to be promoted (which seems unlikely if you're not doing anything but hey, at least you're not doing anything wrong either), then this sounds pretty brilliant. The only 2nd business I can think of right now is playing online poker (which only makes me about $250 a month playing in my spare time, but, you know, that's something) and tbh I'm not sure I'd want to turn it froma hobby into any kind of career.

― Earwig oh! (Mark C), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:44 (nineteen years ago)

i dunno, i used to have a job that was SO BORING and i would surf the internet all day and it was pretty unbearable. i think i prefer being busy at work.

― i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

well, if your "art" is writing, that must be great to have all this time to work on it. since mine is music, I can't do much.
the problem with that kind of situation is not only the days seem endless but at the end of the day, I'm even more tired than when I work a lot !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:49 (nineteen years ago)

God, this is so true. I swear it's more exhausting having to find things to do, than it is doing them.

― Silver Machine Manor (kate), Friday, 28 July 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

I think Andrew's answer is OTM and puts the rest of us to shame :/

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:22 (nineteen years ago)

I prefer being busy at work, too

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

(f) masturbate to net porn

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ The Unstoppable Troll Machine (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:45 (nineteen years ago)

it's a hypothetical question, not what you're REALLY doing, mate. ;-)

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

I'm actually bored to death right now... and the krapula doesn't help... thank god there'is ilx...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

it's a hypothetical question, not what you're REALLY doing, mate. ;-)

I'm not in an office!

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ The Unstoppable Troll Machine (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

CUBEFIELD

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

learn a programming language. then write things using it.

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:56 (nineteen years ago)

ah. i could programme my own game !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 28 July 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

A perfect opportunity to develop your inherent telekinetic powers.

― the doaple gonger (nickalicious), Friday, 28 July 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

There is no spoon.

― the doaple gonger (nickalicious), Friday, 28 July 2006 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

pre-internet, I had a job like this, except for some reason we had to itemize all our hours, like they were billed to certain departments even though it wasn't a billable-hours type job, it was just ridiculously strict accounting or something. It was agony sometimes stretching out tasks. I took a lot of bathroom breaks. I remember those 8-hour days seeming much longer than the 12-hour days at the radio station where there was always something going on.

this reminds me of a thread I wanted to start....

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 28 July 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

I also remember being bored at a job constantly pre-internet as well (well, internets had been invented, but we didnt have it at work for some reason). It was mandatory that I say at the office until 7pm and i would be so fucking incredibly bored, i would make little sculptures out of scotch tape, make potential mix tape track listings,... and, well, i dont know what else i did. canoodle around the office?

― i've dreamt of rubies! (Mandee), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

Pre-Internet, this job would have been insufferable.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

Drawing! That's what I used to do to while away the time pre-internets.

I can remember one office where I covered my entire cubicle in paisleys and houses and entire villages that I sketched on the back of computer paper. And then one day I came in and someone had nicked one of my drawings during the night. I was so angry! I took all my drawings home for safe-keeping.

And the last time I went back to my mum's house, she'd found them and had them framed and hung them up in her sitting room!

― Silver Machine Manor (kate), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

the question may as well be 'what wd u do if u didn't have a job?'

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

~~If I were in this situation~~ I ~~would~~ send daft and pointless emails to friends (just because I could, not particularly because I have anything to say), try to better my score on minesweeper/any number of MSN games, do online sudoku puzzles, read the papers from cover to cover, drink lots of coffee. This week I've been trying to do all the games of FreeCell in order starting from #1 and working my way up.

(xpost, no it wouldn't because if I didn't have a job, alcohol and pubs would be involved)

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:04 (nineteen years ago)

I can't even dare thinking of what my workhours would be like withouth teh internet... the words "nightmare" and "hell" come to mind...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

> This week I've been trying to do all the games of FreeCell in order starting from #1 and working my way up.

i did this at work. got up to about 200 in about a month apart from 1 which i could never manage. Spider (patience) is the other thing i used to play but in 4 years i only managed it once.

pre-internet it was all about reading the newspaper and programming pointless things like 3d spinning cubes on a wyse-50 green-screen monitor. possibly even chatting to workmates.

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

I'm getting good at 2-deck Spider, but a win at the 4-deck one is still eluding me. That could be next week's project. (this lull is not likely to last, btw, my employers aren't actually paying me to do nothing, but it seems that way just now due to circumstances)

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 28 July 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

I love how right after I post about wasting time at work the PHONE LINES and INTERNET go down for THREE HOURS.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Friday, 28 July 2006 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

Ha-ha! < /Nelson >

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 July 2006 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

If you like reading and can't have an obvious book out, why not a virtual book? Questia and Project Gutenburg are both free online libraries that you can read and look as if you're carefully studying a flow chart or something.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Friday, 28 July 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

― scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Friday, 28 July 2006 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

I post on a couple of other boards as well - mostly fora on French or History, but I quite like it when it's busier at work and I'm not bored.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 28 July 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

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