how much downtime in your job?

southside

Hello guys



How much down times is in your job?

In my role there is no down time and manager always gives me something to do before i head home which is not cool so i end up putting 15 min to 30 min extra



How about you guyss



In my last role there was so much down time so i studied for cers and got bored

Node Man

i have not had downtime since the invention of the queue.

olaHalo

some days i have nothing in my queue and literally have nothing to do.
other days im stuck at work all day and get plenty of overtime.

coreyb80

I look forward to the day when I land my first gig in IT and there is no such thing as downtime. Downtime is alot in my present position.

loxleynew

Downtime at my current job varies between 80% to 90% of the day. I would love the day when I have more work to do that free time (serious)

puertorico1985

loxleynew wrote: »

Downtime at my current job varies between 80% to 90% of the day. I would love the day when I have more work to do that free time (serious)

Sometimes, I can agree to that. A busy day usually goes so much faster than a day full of downtime. I would say at my job there is about 25% downtime, and not because there is nothing to do, but because I do not feel like doing everything at a time. I like to space everything out, that gives me time to check out blogs, study, text, catch up on the news, etc...

FloOz

It varies. Sometimes I'm swamped and sometimes I have literally nothing to do all day

Chitownjedi

I am still being shown the ropes.... but it looks like it will be work work work work work work work.... my co-worker spend damn near every second transitioning from one project to another to another, on top of having to deal with escalated tickets... I am trying to learn a little now to help out, but I can't even get much of any traning on their "ways" to even help out pass the little task I get and finish in 5 minutes...

Then I spend 30 minutes waiting for him to finish something, and then I can look on with him at a task, but that usually is interrupted in less than 2 minutes by someone needing something fixed... Days fly here though... Absolutely fly.

QHalo

Right now, zero. In a few months, probably more. When there's downtime I study so there's never really downtime. I chalk up downtime to mean that I did something right and I don't have to futz with it everyday.

rsutton

What is this downtime you speak of?

southside

olaHalo wrote: »

some days i have nothing in my queue and literally have nothing to do.
other days im stuck at work all day and get plenty of overtime.

nice you get paid over time?

shodown

Depends. During the xmas months I prob worked 3-4 days over 7 weeks. After the holidays I usually have something to do for 3 weeks out of the 4 and I usually take 1 week away from projects for admin work.

blargoe

I have very little down time. I have to force the issue if I need to use a few minutes to take care of something personal, but there is more than enough work for me to fill the entire day, most of the time.

Essendon

I have about 2-3 hours of downtime on most days at my current job. I try to use every minute of that time on studying up on various things.

Time is wealth guys like they say, it isnt something you can buy or buy back. What separates successful people from others is how they used their time. Use it well.

jamesleecoleman

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. If I'm the only one taking phone calls while others are doing things then I'll be busy. I can't wait to get away from phones!!!!

Dakinggamer87

FloOz wrote: »

It varies. Sometimes I'm swamped and sometimes I have literally nothing to do all day

Yep, about the same here

darkerz

Well,

I am a 5 minute talk and 1 minute drive from work. Across the street.

I have a ticket queue and my locals love to email me.

I jump on a ticket the second I can do anything at that moment or planning wise, and within the 1-2 hour mark, I am done with all of my incidents. At that point its projects, meetings, callbacks, network design and solarwinds trolling (making 1-2 tickets a day and having verizon proof out everything). It turns out their NOC doesn't notice 80% of their circuit or router issues until I do.

Usually by 1-2 Pm, the day is over and I'm on TE or I literally walk home and "Work" from home there. My modo is if there is anything I could be doing, do it.

About7Narwhal

In an 8.5 hour day, usually 80% downtime. It makes for very long days.

DevilWAH

Less than none, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Once my network is perfect in every way then I will take a break. I want the company I work for to be world class because of the work I do, not despite it.

I get paid to work 8 hours a day so I work 8 hours. if there's nothing I am meant to be doing i find some thing to do.

rsutton

DevilWAH wrote: »

Less than none, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Once my network is perfect in every way then I will take a break. I want the company I work for to be world class because of the work I do, not despite it.

I get paid to work 8 hours a day so I work 8 hours. if there's nothing I am meant to be doing i find some thing to do.

Best response in thread. There is always something that can be done.

southside

i guess the less down time u have the more better IT professional you become and also it adds value to the company and to your role

jmritenour

Between support tickets, provisioning, and long term projects, I always have something I can be doing.

holysheetman

well, if you are familiar with Sprint work (being a dev team) then, I'll say, sometimes I don't have security work in the Sprint (ours lasts 2 weeks), so, I am now finding myself preparing for future presentations with the dev team, researching new things, going through some CBT nuggets, studying for future exams, testing on my own. Now I'm installing HP Fortify in a linux environment to benchmark the performance increase from running it on a Win2k8 server VM lol

Sounds Good

It helps if people list what job title or job they are doing.

Someone in a managerial position is not going to have as much downtime as someone in helpdesk (usually)

I have about 40% downtime in a desktop support/jr. admin role.

biggene

I am currently working a contract position in Info Security for a National bank. I am on the Exchange team, and I am working on archiving mailboxes from former employees who left after the last merger. So most of my day is spent waiting on the archives to transfer to the backup drives.
I do a LOT of studying, reading on this forum and technet, and labbing in VirtualBox on my personal laptop. My boss is cool with this, he actually told me to bring a book to read on my first day, because of the downtime issues.

paul78

Sounds Good wrote: »

Someone in a managerial position is not going to have as much downtime as someone in helpdesk (usually)

Very good point- and the definition of downtime is pretty relative to what someone would expect.

I usually consider it a relaxing day if I have at least 10 minutes to myself during the work day to use the bathroom.

DevilWAH

Sounds Good wrote: »

It helps if people list what job title or job they are doing.

Someone in a managerial position is not going to have as much downtime as someone in helpdesk (usually)

I actually don't agree. My job Title is "Network System Analyst", which in my company means I look at the current network, and the user needs and put forward Project and Business cases for how it needs to be developed to enable the users to get there jobs done. I then project manage and carry out implementation.

Desktop support you are driven by the user, so even in periods where case were low there was always the possibility of a user calling in or a new ticket arriving, and if it really was quiet there was plenty of paperwork or small isues to tidy up.

In Management while there are tighter deadlines and responsibility, on top of a large work load. you don't have the pressure of tickets or users. So if you need a cup of tea you can walk out of the office and get one.

Helpdesk is like having a child, its constant work, and even if they are asleep you are just waiting for them to wake up, so can't enjoy the down time even when its happening.

Management is more full on as it happening, but it is possible if you manage your time well to step away for a break, with out it all hanging over you.

olaHalo

southside wrote: »

nice you get paid over time?

yup
im glad i am not salary because we get a lot of overtime.

Tackle

This is a very interesting thread. I agree that it is what you do with your downtime that makes you a more valuable employee. For those that have 80-100% downtime per day, that would be awesome...

southside

There is always something to do in downtime

Thomas Elliot

Pretty new to my field, but it's a lot of hurry up and wait. Been waiting to get on a contract for a while now and there is no real contingency plan for waiting to go on and when you come off contract.
But downtime for me isn't a good thing, being on a contract is what they want you to be, so the less I am being able to bill the government the worse off I am.