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212 Comments
- spambutcher, on 10/30/2007, -9/+198the article seems offline - but I get the idea.
I'm a one-man IT department at a company that has had most of its IT needs evaporate. Long periods of nothing. Then I get a request to spec something out that doesn't get purchased, or to setup computers which don't get used.
If there's anything worse than doing nothing - it's doing -something- that doesn't get used for anything.
I've got a small side business and some money saved up. Been trying to figure out exactly when to tell them I'm leaving.
If 50 people digg me up - I will give notice tomorrow (being the IT guy - I'll probably give them a month or so). My fate is in your hands. - DiggDugglas, on 10/30/2007, -7/+154a.k.a. diggers
- inactive, on 10/29/2007, -1/+107There are worse situations, and one of them is being paid to do work that achieves nothing in the end. It's called the abyss of make-work. And sad to say, many, if not most, jobs are make-work. You're peeing in the ocean, or doing things that end up making your boss look good, but have no positive impact on the world. You are simple on the exercise wheel called work.
- whataboutdave, on 11/07/2007, -0/+82"I spent the two hours looking over his shoulder as he ran the Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Utility (Show Details, Maximized)"
I remember that defrag utility! Mesmerizing. - floridiot2, on 10/28/2007, -1/+76There are downtimes at my work and I don't do a single thing but be on digg all day.
- gbro, on 10/27/2007, -0/+55Your posts on Digg seem to be longer than the others. I don't know if we can continue to employ someone who's not a team player.
- funkyjunk3, on 10/31/2007, -0/+53People are. Its called Gold Farming.
- iirrkk, on 10/27/2007, -0/+52I get paid to take delivery orders at a restaurant. After the 2 hour dinner rush when people stop calling, I restock items and bus tables. My boss then proceeds to get mad at me and tells me to stand attentively at the telephone while nobody calls. -_-
- ZenMojo, on 10/28/2007, -1/+51I've lost a job for doing too much work...literally.
I cleared a two-week backlog of cases in insurance in less than two days. They kept piling work on me after asking if I was alright and I just took it and shrugged. After a while, I was clearing out other peoples' work loads. Mysteriously, after my boss had trained me to take on two other jobs in the office right before going on a three-day trip, and after I had literally emptied out the entire inbox in every department, he returned and said there were reports that I had suddenly become disagreeable and not a team player.
Later, I was at a job where there was literally only a 5-hour/day window where work could be accomplished. Our boss knew this but, to make sure his boss didn't get upset, he told us to get the hell away after a certain time of day so we wouldn't look inactive.
The reality of the corporate world is risible. You're not paid for accomplishments, you're paid for giving up 8-10 hours of your day. This is why businesses like Best Buy (corporate) are so important...they allow you to pack up your *****, slot a sat modem, and work from the beach. You never have to go to the office, you never have to spend all day doing crap, you just accomplish a task within a certain time period and get busy living your life. - OBKenobi, on 10/29/2007, -5/+46People should get paid for playing MMORPGs. That's like a job.
- gcube, on 10/28/2007, -0/+40There's something much worse than the working dead, it's the people who have absolutely convinced themselves that their jobs matter. Some mid-level manager just doing a bunch of bullcrap and getting paid handsomely for it, convinced they're important because they're always in "meetings" and coming up with "strategies". I know, because I just got promoted, and it's just as lame as my last job, except that the difference is everyone thinks they're so important.
- Dagarik, on 10/28/2007, -0/+34"...we don't have a lot of time on this earth! We weren't meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements." - Office Space
- OBKenobi, on 11/07/2007, -9/+42[quote]And sad to say, many, if not most, jobs are make-work.[/quote]
That's exactly it. Human civilization doesn't have enough jobs for humanity, and it will get worse as technology improves and more is automated. - UbIwerks, on 10/29/2007, -2/+34NERD FIGHT!!!!
- doctorfungi, on 10/28/2007, -2/+34When you're at your job and you realize that 90% of what you do doesn't require your brain, and everything seems to happen automatically... you need to get a different job.
- RobotBuddha, on 10/27/2007, -0/+30You have to admit, there are a lot of downsides. I worry more, doing it on my own, than I ever did while sitting in a cubicle. The days were hell, but at least the nights were awesome and worry free. Now, I can't help but feel during my off hours that there's not one more thing I really should finish up. But yah, all in all I'd agree that when you actually find a way to get a profit it's a million times better, even with that caveat. The sad thing is, just the mere fact that it's possible never seems to be taught in school. If anything, I'd say assumption of serfdom is one of the main things schools wind up teaching kids.
In my mind, that's one of the best things about the internet. You actually get a look at the world beyond your hometown, beyond the bubble that even a university sits inside. - Cyberen, on 10/28/2007, -1/+31Live as if your life depended on it. You never know when you'll "check out".
- NonLeftistDiggr, on 10/28/2007, -1/+27I worked for two different city park maintenance departments in Nor Cal during consecutive summer jobs during college. This description is nearly ver-batim what I witnessed. At the second one I actually got told by two different "career" guys on different occurences to slow down. I wouldn't say they were all like that, but enough were to make me sick about local property tax and sales tax.
- f4nt0m4s, on 10/27/2007, -0/+25This article rings so true, especially for office jobs. I recommend everyone read this article and then watch Mike Judge's documentary, "Office Space" for further information. Seriously though, for part-time or a summer job I don't mind not doing anything, but I really don't want to be a zombie after completing college. That's why doing something interactive like teaching or presentations or working out in the field would be so much better than a ***** desk job. =/
- inactive, on 10/27/2007, -0/+24The opposite thing happened to me. When I first graduated from college, I got my first "real job" and I was eager to make a good impression, so I worked really hard. I worked so hard that the boss fired the other people that were supposed to be sharing my workload. This was fine for a few months, but I started to get really burned out and eventually quit. Since then I've learned to keep my work level at a sustainable pace.
- gbro, on 10/27/2007, -1/+25Which is why I don't work very hard. Imagine if I worked hard and then died right before a promotion! All that wasted work!
- nkstn, on 10/27/2007, -1/+22try being a security guard... now thats the working dead! 90% of the time im actually.. seriously doing nothing. Just staring at the sky...... for 8 hours
- smacksaw, on 10/26/2007, -2/+23I always see those "Live Better, Work Union" stickers and think "no, live better, work independent contractor"...
People should work and be paid for output, not attendance. Besides, we work too damn much anyway. 40 hour weeks are ridiculous. We have nothing but overcrowded roads and buses, pollution and kids who are ***** worthless yobs because we've been taken away as parents if we want to keep up.
Seriously, I think we compete with ourselves more than anything else. There's enough labour and prosperity for the entire planet if we spread it around. - prezzy, on 10/26/2007, -5/+24your comment would have been so much better if you would have said "and people ask why I'm a Librarian"
- smacksaw, on 10/25/2007, -0/+19I like how you used both the right word "be stocking" and the wrong one there "Night Stalker"...interestingly, you probably get a knife in both circumstances.
- mahdaeng, on 11/07/2007, -0/+16Comment dugg for the mature and dignified response to a negative remark.
- spambutcher, on 11/07/2007, -2/+18your response is reasonable - but understand I'm just having a little fun. I'm planning to give them notice in about 3 weeks (after I've got another pay check in the bank). But things have been so lame lately - that I've been looking for an excuse to speed the schedule up a bit. Come on diggers - give me an excuse!
- ChuckIT, on 10/29/2007, -0/+16sitting at work right now digging your comment up. nice.
- inactive, on 10/26/2007, -5/+21I'm so glad I run my own business.
- MetIncome, on 10/29/2007, -1/+16Jobs on the whole don't go away with technology. Some fade away but many more are created in the long term.
- nonrate, on 10/26/2007, -1/+14Wow can I relate to this. I left corporate America and now work for myself because I saw the exact same work ethic in the technology industry, at least, while working for the more established and larger corporations. People I've worked with either went the solitare route, the chatting on the phone route, and the ones that got bored would turn the workplace into General Hospital and find as much drama to participate in as possible. I got tired of the "communist" pay --everyone making generally the same amount while not producing the same amount. But for those that choose to work hard, I highly suggest you quit working for someone else because you'll get 100 times a return on your investment working for yourself. Because your good enough, your smart enough, and doggonit people like you.
- cptbarkey, on 10/27/2007, -0/+13dig #51, have fun with the new job.
- AdamFromMyspace, on 10/26/2007, -0/+13Mesmerizing.. until the screen saver pops up and the ***** thing starts over.
- UbIwerks, on 10/25/2007, -0/+13There's a taser joke here....
- zambuka, on 10/26/2007, -0/+12I've had a lot of jobs over the years, from the sublime zen of weighing soil samples, sounds boring but was a great summer job, to my current position.
My current position would easily be classed under the "working dead" category of jobs. Basically I log on, make sure people haven't made a mistake with any of their web content and then press submit. I do some other work but that is by far the majority. The worst part is that I have taken on roughly half the workload of the 2 people I am working with, meaning I am doing more than either one, yet I'm still finding huge amounts of time to sit and browse and twiddle my thumbs.
It's not too bad, the pay is ok but the boredom is so bad it lingers even when I go home and saps the motivation to do anything at all. - prezzy, on 10/25/2007, -0/+12Id rather be sitting on my ass making what a stock boy makes in a week in one hour, but thats just me
I'll do all my active stuff at the gym and hanging out with my kids on vacations - spaceninja, on 10/26/2007, -0/+12Eh I decided to write a book on company time.... they are paying me to sit here, and the internet gets boring.
- orlyfactor, on 10/30/2007, -0/+12I read digg about 70% of the time I'm at work. I feel my brain slowly oozing out of my ears every day.
- mahdaeng, on 10/26/2007, -0/+11I don't know if it's time to quit, but it's definitely about time to ask out the 'Considerably Attractive Sandwich Girl'.
- AttackingHobo, on 10/26/2007, -2/+13I just got a new computer job that is actually challenging. I am happy that I have stuff to do instead of boringly doing nothing all day. Time seems to go faster when I am being challenged, or working hard on something.
- tuxidomasx, on 10/25/2007, -1/+12some people actually enjoy doing nothing and getting paid for it.
- squison, on 10/26/2007, -1/+12Good luck, but most jobs are interesting the first 6 months or so then the challenge's gone and you're bored again.
- Thisco, on 10/26/2007, -0/+11Both the original article and all the responses here on Digg are really quite therapeutical for me.
The last couple of weeks I have felt exactly the same, one of the Working Dead as described in the article. To do the work which REALLY needs to be done I'd probably need about 3 hours a day, maybe 4 if things are busier. Yet EVERY single freaking day I get up early, go through a hideous commute and stay locked in an office for 8 hours with the only bright side being lunch at midday when 'Considerably Attractive Sandwich Girl' brightens the depressed lives of me and my coworkers.
I think it's time to quit... - roystgnr, on 10/29/2007, -0/+10Won't someone think of the buggy whip manufacturers?
- MiDri, on 10/26/2007, -0/+10I hear you. I'm not a contractor, but I do desktop support for a medium sized business and I sit around doing nothing until called upon. Digg articles are not submitted fast enough for me anymore... that is a sad realization.
- Burninsensation, on 10/26/2007, -0/+10I read about 70% of the time when I'm at work. I'm becoming well read
- gbro, on 10/26/2007, -0/+10*I research about 70% of the time when I'm at work. I'm becoming a more valuable asset to the company.
- MetIncome, on 10/26/2007, -0/+10I'd like to find a job that allows me to work 40-45 hours in 4 days. I wouldn't mind busting my butt for 10-11 hours Mon-Thur and getting a three day weekend to re-charge.
- founderofpork, on 11/07/2007, -0/+9The Dalai Lama, in his book "The Art of Happiness at Work," suggests that a mindless job is actually a good thing because it frees the mind for contemplation. I'd like to agree with him, but I've never found that office environments are good for contemplating much of anything except the variety of ways I could kill myself with office supplies.
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