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Keeping yourself busy

vCole

Now, I don't have a lot to do at my work when my boss isn't here.
He's not here at all this week and my coworker is leaving at 3.

I need to keep myself occupied for 3 - 5 (productively)...

Any suggestions?

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Comments

undomiel

Study tech notes? Are you allowed to install anything? Setup a VM for playing around with Server 2003. Grab some of the cheap pdfs from Syngress and read those.

stupidboy

Get your self an account at http://safari.oreilly.com, loads to keep you going there

Slowhand

I'm going to stick with the building trend and say study, if your work allows the time for it and you won't get in trouble. Study for your certs, then you can show quantifiable results if anyone asks why you're spending so much time studying, when you come back from your exams with passing grades.

Turgon

FadeToBright wrote:

Now, I don't have a lot to do at my work when my boss isn't here.
He's not here at all this week and my coworker is leaving at 3.

I need to keep myself occupied for 3 - 5 (productively)...

Any suggestions?

Go for one of the certs that you can take out in a reasonable time frame and study for that.

sir_creamy_

Downtime is a killer!

I think one of the most important aspects of any job is whether or not your company offers some kind of a continuing education plan. Something that allows you to use company resources (i.e., equipment, study materials, etc.) so you can work towards a certification or something. Otherwise you're just wasting your time, and at the end of the day your time is more valuable than company time.

famosbrown

I agree with others...use your time to read tech articles, study for certs, or study for college courses if your company is paying for it. I'm in the same boat as I get most of my work done in about 2 hours, if I have any. I decided to go back to college, so I can read and do homework to keep me occupied the rest of the time. My other time is spent staying up to date with latest news on technology and playing around with some VM's. Use your free time wisely at work. It will feel nice getting paid to do something that you would otherwise do on your own time. To go a step further, if this is a daily thing, I would talk to your boss to make sure it is okay that you do some studying when you get all of your work done. I spoke with my supervisor about the same, and he said he did it too...it's better than sitting around twiiddling your thumbs, or doing busy work that isn't meaningful.

BeaverC32

It also might help to ask for more responsibilities/projects if you find you have nothing to do more often than not. I first started out with more than 50% of my time studying/reading, but that gets tedious quickly. I would much rather do something than read about it.

vCole

BeaverC32 wrote:

It also might help to ask for more responsibilities/projects if you find you have nothing to do more often than not. I first started out with more than 50% of my time studying/reading, but that gets tedious quickly. I would much rather do something than read about it.

I had asked for more to do, but since my boss is out, I can't really do much.

UnixGuy

listen to music and chat on msn messenger

vCole

UnixGuy wrote:

listen to music and chat on msn messenger

As much as I'd love to... I'd like to be productive.

blargoe

What is your job?

vCole

blargoe wrote:

What is your job?

Help Desk Tech. (There's only 2 of us for our corporate office, 3 regional offices & 700-1000+ job sites.

HeroPsycho

Edit: Message for another thread got somehow put in this thread.

Daniel333

Downtime? Wow.

Me, www.vtc.com normally an hour after work.