How bored do people get at work?

RobertKaucher

Pash wrote: »

Wow that is hardcore. I thought you were solely infrastructure as well. Id be careful how many useful utilities you create though, if you ever left that bank they would be after your blood just to get updates or "fixes"....or is that the idea?

This is my major concern about my current job. I am constantly writing custom tools to automate various reports and other items for people. Right now I am working on one that queries SQL Server for the report data, plugs it into Excel, formats the spread sheet, saves it and emails it to a list every day at 2:30 PM.

They're gonna' want to pay the next guy Help Desk wages and expect him to know SQL, PowerShell, C#, SharePoint, VMWare and MCSA/E level stuff about AD.

nel

DevilWAH wrote: »

3 years ago we had contractors do all our network installs for us. No one touched the network in house. The only reason I ever got involved was becasue I had to some times show contractors where kit was.

After a time I began to work out what they were up to, (this is before even knew the difference between a switch and a router). You wouln't belive the number of times I suggested to my boss that the simple taks like screwing a switch in a rack that was preconfigured by a contractor, could be done in house and a save a call out charge, and be told that "I would prefere we get in an engineer to do it". Then it became "get an engineer to check your doing it ok". Then it became "sod getting an engineer, if Aaron does it we save money".

That moved on to configuring, and then to desigining. And now we reserver engineers/consolutences for the planing stage of large projects to give my ideas a once over to check I don't miss anyything (As I am the only network person in the company its nice to have a second opinion.)

If there are things like You say DC upgrades and stuff you want to get involved with, and you have consolutences in doing the work. Talk to them, ask them if they need anything. ask them what they are up to and doing. (most engineers I have meet have been happy to talk to me about stuff they are up to, espicaly if they can stand and talk as I screw switches in to the cabs for them).

My view is if you want to get involved in a project like that you start at the bottom, grabbing and work you over heard about or can to so with it. Once you have a foot in the door you jsut open it wider bit by bit, untill before any one notices it you are just as involved as any one else. And you become a imporatnt part of a large project that your manager can't just tell you "its not you problem" any more.

Hey,

Yeah i can totally agree with what your saying which is why i have mentioned it several times in meetings, in person, via email etc and still to no avail. im just at the point where i give in trying now.

xxxtc

i am currently trying to teach myself a+ while in limbo for acceptance to advanced training by the Department of Labor...i literally didn't know hardly anything about computers 6 weeks ago other than just your average nerdy net surfer...at first i hit the ground running and showed initiative to seek out help here on campus from the IT director and he has been giving me assignments from net+ which is his forte...unfortunately he had a large work order this week and didn't have time for our weekly lecture...i've noticed that i've started to slack CONSIDERABLY without direction =-s working only intermittenly out of a+...its hard not to get distracted but at least in my time off i've been checking newegg.com, lifehacker.com and gizmodo.com to learn about new tech which is entertaining...lol back to "work"

TechJunky

I am so bored its not even funny. The joke with me is that I switch jobs every 2 years. I havent found a job to date that has been challenging enough to keep me intrigued. Over the years I have done every possible job imaginable and none of it is a challenge. I have actually been thinking of switching careers because this field has gotten so mind numbing. Everything just keeps getting easier and easier as technology advances. Being a DBA was probobly the most time consuming job I ever had, but it wasnt "hard", but atleast I wasn't bored.

I usually just take long breaks, lunches etc. I am planning to save enough coin to open my own place one day. I really want to open a pub someday.

shaqazoolu

I used to be bored all of the time so I started studying for the CCENT and got it in like a month and a half. Then I started being awesome and they gave me a ton of work to do and started making me travel. I'm never bored any more.

hex_omega

TechJunky wrote: »

I am so bored its not even funny. The joke with me is that I switch jobs every 2 years. I havent found a job to date that has been challenging enough to keep me intrigued. Over the years I have done every possible job imaginable and none of it is a challenge. I have actually been thinking of switching careers because this field has gotten so mind numbing. Everything just keeps getting easier and easier as technology advances. Being a DBA was probobly the most time consuming job I ever had, but it wasnt "hard", but atleast I wasn't bored.

I usually just take long breaks, lunches etc. I am planning to save enough coin to open my own place one day. I really want to open a pub someday.

Mayeb you should get into programming/software engineering. Sounds like the perfect fit to keep you challenged and your brain engaged.

wd40

I have been in a help-desk position in the same company for the past 5 years.

It is so boring that when I reach work I start counting down for the remaining 8 work hours .

I have to stay in this job for at least 4 more years until I finish my BSc degree

Essendon

4 more years? So that'll be 9 years answering calls!! May God be with you...

You should really change jobs mate, and get some higher-level certs, not stupid compTIA ones (no pun intended at all).

UnixGuy

loxleynew wrote: »

. .... If you stay in the same job in IT for too long you become stagnant and bored no matter who you are or what you are doing. It's the nature of IT. To move ahead you need to move to new jobs.....

You definitely have a point here, but I think the exception would be IT service providers/Business partners. They always deal with new technologies, there're always new projects/installations/troubleshootings etc.

wd40

Essendon wrote: »

4 more years? So that'll be 9 years answering calls!! May God be with you...

You should really change jobs mate, and get some higher-level certs, not stupid compTIA ones (no pun intended at all).

Actually I am stuck here, at the moment having a BSc is a prerequisite for applying for any job in a good company, High end certificates are extra only if you have the degree.

I'm getting paid a very good salary and therefore I can not apply for jobs which require a diploma only with a pay cut, they will ignore my CV just because I work for XYZ Company.

So, I will have to wait, and die a little every passing hour

Dryst999

I don't understand people that complain about being bored at work... it gives you perfect opportunity to study or do other productive stuff. I literally have around 4 hours of downtime a day, after lunch we are dead in my support area. I spend most of that time studying, some of it tinkering around with my VMworkstation learning how to configure different servers/OS's, and maybe 30mins a day reading different tech sites.

ALL of this is productive, screwing around with my VM servers are fun to me.. but i'm still learning at the same time. Reading IT forums/news is entertaining and i'm still retaining little tidbits here and there about technologies even if i'm not familiar with them, and studying is studying.

Get off facebook and stop surfing the latest gossip about the Kardashians if you want to excel at all. Sorry this rant isn't about anyone here, half my co-workers cry about their job and not being promoted and all they do is watch youtube and surf facebook everyday.. drives me INSANE!

Turgon

Dryst999 wrote: »

I don't understand people that complain about being bored at work... it gives you perfect opportunity to study or do other productive stuff. I literally have around 4 hours of downtime a day, after lunch we are dead in my support area. I spend most of that time studying, some of it tinkering around with my VMworkstation learning how to configure different servers/OS's, and maybe 30mins a day reading different tech sites.

ALL of this is productive, screwing around with my VM servers are fun to me.. but i'm still learning at the same time. Reading IT forums/news is entertaining and i'm still retaining little tidbits here and there about technologies even if i'm not familiar with them, and studying is studying.

Get off facebook and stop surfing the latest gossip about the Kardashians if you want to excel at all. Sorry this rant isn't about anyone here, half my co-workers cry about their job and not being promoted and all they do is watch youtube and surf facebook everyday.. drives me INSANE!

I have always had roles that kept me flat busy but then perhaps I have been lucky. The division of labour in IT these days does seem to be leaving quite a few people with some time on their hands. I would say use it for studying as a last resort. Try and get yourself into more meetings and get more involved in all kinds of things going on that have an IT spin in your company. You really want to be getting assigned to projects. Outside of all that, then cetainly use the slacktime to study. Be cautious of the surfing habits. Stuff gets monitored and opinions get made. But taken all together do keep visibly busy because a shop that gets known for being a studycamp and a surfshack on the works dollar might get trimmed by a new young executive who has headcount in his sights for his bonus.

dave0212

bertieb wrote: »

In my previous job, every day sapped my soul due to the boredom hence why I got outta there sharpish!

That'll be the job I do at the moment then , 99.9% bored nothing really going on (study alot) but at least its only for a few more weeks before I start my new job!!

edlin

It's the story of my life I remember getting hired after the first week 3x14hr shifts a week (m-t-w to boot) and probably 95% downtime.

First few years I really tried to excel the best I could and make myself known but once I realized our entire company only has 10 employees I realized jobs were few and far between but heck 95% downtime! I swear I remember saying to myself I found the best job in the world, hell practically won the lottery getting such an easy gig!

I started to get bored after two years and I consider myself a good worker and think my supervisors would agree but the bordom started to send me into my first 'burnout'

I decided to learn something, as a kid I loved DOS and using the command line and just the simplicity of a command line based OS and thought Linux would be a good thing to learn.

So I bought a cheap webserver and spent thousands and thousands of hours just reading the rackshack forums, learning how to manage my box etc but the issue was I never really learned what I needed the right way. Can't shell script and basically know nothing other than LAMP and messing around with some things like control panels, doing basic kernel and other updates so I kind of feel like a 1/2 or 1/4 admin

So thats why I am here, going to try and pick up where I never should have left off and hopefully start challenging my mind and hopefully find something I like better and who knows maybe more $$$

Kind of funny in a way how I now despise my 'dream' job from 10 years ago and sad at the same time I didn't do too busy the years I was doing hosting on the side but now that its died down (along with part of my income) I'm really looking forward to hopefully getting a position that will work my mind again, right now it feels totally opposite.

Gotta run, someone in distress and unable login to webmail and needs guidance

tpatt100

My current job I am kind of bored already. I had a couple of big projects and I was going full speed ahead for two weeks but now budget concerns due to non IT managers not liking my budget and decided to Google the stuff I recommended and told the VP prices that was 120K below what I listed. So now I had to write a justification as to why my quote was 120K above my managers quote.

So I had to find a polite way to say:

"because dumbass googled Cisco all in one IPS and Firewall and only saw the price for the router and not the licenses, the modules for the IPS, etc etc etc"

So now the project might be put on hold until the 2011 budget year starts...

Now I am doing a 2008 AD network and I figure if I have 50 percent down time I might as well get paid to study and knock out the MCITP this summer.

Forsaken_GA

it varies from day to day. tonight is fairly boring, and will be until around 4am when my maintenance window hits and I have to go upgrade some gear

ColbyG

I get bored a lot at work. Leaves me time for studying though, so it's not all bad.

Forsaken_GA

yeah, besides random browsing, I'm reading through sections of Routing TCP/IP II, and I have a cisco related podcast playlist going in the background

SRTMCSE

I'm able to watch about 5 or more hours on hulu.com, so much so that I run out of shows I want to watch most nights. I work the nightshift and the day staff/management refuse to hand down any projects. I'm basically relegated to patching servers which is why I handed in my resignation this past Friday for a new job more my speed and technical skill.

veritas_libertas

tpatt100 wrote: »

My current job I am kind of bored already. I had a couple of big projects and I was going full speed ahead for two weeks but now budget concerns due to non IT managers not liking my budget and decided to Google the stuff I recommended and told the VP prices that was 120K below what I listed. So now I had to write a justification as to why my quote was 120K above my managers quote.

So I had to find a polite way to say:

"because dumbass googled Cisco all in one IPS and Firewall and only saw the price for the router and not the licenses, the modules for the IPS, etc etc etc"

Ouch...

DevilWAH

tpatt100 wrote: »

"because dumbass googled Cisco all in one IPS and Firewall and only saw the price for the router and not the licenses, the modules for the IPS, etc etc etc"

.

But why wernt these figures in the original proposal you put to managment?

Seeing as licencing/support is always about 30 to 40% of the total cost of a project (with licencing can often well exceed hardware costs). I would always break down figures so managment know up fount (no matter how dumb they are) exactly what they are getting for there cash.

chmorin

nel wrote: »

Hey,

bit of a weird question but how bored do you guys get at work if at all?

The question may sound strange but im just wondering after analysing my current job role. I think that on average im bored throughout 70-80% of my working day everyday - which is not good as its drives me insane! i usually end up browsing the web, shopping online (not good!!!), uni work/ cisco reading but find it difficult to concentrate really.

So what about you guys and what do you do to fill those hours in?

It depends on the day. Typically about 50% of my day is boredom, then again they don't pay me enough to pay attention 100% of the time.

earweed

DevilWAH wrote: »

But why wernt these figures in the original proposal you put to managment?

Seeing as licencing/support is always about 30 to 40% of the total cost of a project (with licencing can often well exceed hardware costs). I would always break down figures so managment know up fount (no matter how dumb they are) exactly what they are getting for there cash.

+1 You can't assume management will know what all of your costs are from. And then someone else will just think your figures can be lowered and then you're where you're at now.
It s**s but that's how things sometimes go.

someeh

bored enough that I go on Facebook lol, but it varies... there are days I don't have time for lunch.

earweed

I'm not working in IT right now and on days when I'm bored I can't usually study at work (Wal Mart) I usually go into a different deprtment and straighten up and browse around.

tpatt100

I did include the costs in my estimates. I also did break it down line by line in my cost estimate spreadsheet.

The manager still went on Google typed in the product and hit the "Shopping" tab and used prices he found there.

He even included a screenshot of his results in an email to counter my estimates.

The Google hits has "IPS - Firewall" etc in the product descriptions but they all the vendors do that. You end up having to go through the add ons shopping section to figure out the actual final cost.

It was all cleared up when I emailed upper management with a detailed explanation of what happened so I will be brought into all meetings concerning the costs so screw ups like this don't happen.

The bigges issue was the project was happening after budgets were already determined. Some managers wanted to slip this one in late and had issues figuring out what needed to be done since they lacked IT backgrounds

tpatt100

Also this manager did not wait for the approved network diagram to come back from the Army. So several more pieces of equipment such as extra hardware encryption devices were added which jacked the price up an extra 11k per taclane device

earweed

Managers trying to find a quick fix for budgets going off half cocked....
No, I cannot believe that happened, impossible..lol

Silentsoul

Very bored at times. I try to keep myself busy, either ready, doing new projects,just setup a snort box so that should keep me busy for a while, or playing games online.
I really need to buckle down and study more with my downtime.

Devilsbane

earweed wrote: »

I'm not working in IT right now and on days when I'm bored I can't usually study at work (Wal Mart) I usually go into a different deprtment and straighten up and browse around.

Why are you working at Walmart? I spent 3 years working at Target while going to college, now I have landed my first job in IT I couldn't imagine going back.

I've seen you around on the forums, and from the skill set I see, you should be able to at least get a help desk job that is going to pay better than Walmart.

It is none of my business really, just curious.

As for my answer to the question, I don't get bored. A trait that has helped me well in life is the ability to amuse myself easily. I have a lot of down time though, so during that time I will read a book, or technet, or play a game of checkers on my phone.