Ready to work, but nothing to do all day

Chicago Suntimes. com ^ | July 14, 2002 | Art Golab

[MarkL]

You could make productive use of the time. Do all your bills, write correspondence, catch up on books, you name it. You get home, and your time is gravy other than household chores. That would be the life for me. $8,000 a month to vedge out for 8 hours. I am a white male. Where do I apply? ;)

I am pretty sure that I couldn't do it... I work in the computer field as a network and systems engineer, doing network design, installs and troubleshooting. I rarely do the same thing two days in a row. Once, my company hired me out on a long term contract (14 months, full time). I worked at a large financial institution, in a cubicle. The first two weeks were fun, where I came up with a list of things that they needed to do to fix a number of problems. #1 on the list was replacing their file servers with new hardware! (For the geeks out there, they had a Pentium Pro 200MHz Compaq server, w/ 512MB of RAM and 180GB of storage in a RAID 5 array, serving almost 300 users...) If the server crashed, it would take at least 45 minutes for it to reboot to a usable system! Well, they did finally listen to me, and get a new system, but only after 13 months! It magically stopped crashing, and only took 6 minutes to boot!) Anyway, even though I was given a number of projects to work on, I was bored... Having to do the same thing, over and over again is something that I just wasn't prepared for... I've turned down a number of job offers with better pay and benefits because I love the job that I have...

Oh, and as far as being able to just goof around all day? Well, I needed back surgery, and was told I'd be off of work for 6-8 weeks! After a lot of whining, the Drs said, "maybe 4-6 weeks." I was back at work in 3 1/2 weeks! Three days after my surgery, I was going stir crazy at home! I couldn't work on the computer, because I wasn't allowed to sit or lay on my stomach: I had to lay on my back, flat, or if I was standing, I had to walk... After two weeks I was so bored, I walked to one of my clients and begged them to give me something to do! FOR FREE!!!!

Mark

[dogbyte12]

I am not suggesting not doing anything. This paid job with basically zero stress can leave you with the energy to do volunteer work on the side.

I work my tail off every day in a physically demanding job. When I get home after another 100 degree day here in LA, in bumper to bumper traffic, I am not very productive at home or in the community.

How about writing that great american novel during those 8 hours? Taking correspondence courses over the internet? A ton of worthwhile things you can do for 8 hours in the cubicle if you have no work to do.

[hoosierham]

Ah, but do the office rules allow net access for non-work related use, reading of non-work related material etc. It is possible to effectively jail a person for the 8 hour workday. I have been in the position of assigned to "secure" an office for a weekend where all distractions were strictly prohibited. 12 hours with NOTHING to read, or listen to, or DO...I am convinced those assignments are used for punishments.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Yes, but the issue is these are just a couple of what must be thousands - tens of thousands of gov't jobs like this- being paid for by the slave labor of those in the private sector who ARE workng their rear ends off!!!

Why can't we do a class action lawsuit for incompetence in office of those running this agency - and then moveonto the next. It just irks the dickens out me to read this - and I want it posted in every newspaper in the country and with every private employer or employee in this country.

IF this situation cannot be ended and thousands of unneeded federal workers removed from do nothing jobs...being paid outrageous salaries and bonuses.....we should not stop putting this information in grocery stores, doctor's offices, etc. until the hue and cry rises up and we DEMAND THESE DO NOTHING JOBS BE ENDED!!!