What do you do at work when there's nothing to do?

[draggar]

I play little pranks on people.

[Cyanocobalamin]

I totally hate having nothing to do at work, even more so when I have stuff on my desk that I can't do anything with until I get a response, such as invoice approvals. So I just read a book or read the news online. I bet I could even get some studying done during slow times

It makes me feel strange when I am sitting at my desk idling, when my boss is 15 feet away and has stacks of paperwork and case files that need working on.....but this would be all stuff that is either not part of my job description, or I'm not authorized to do. I've learned that I don't really need to bother my boss for stuff to do, she will let me know!

[BusyBee]

There's no computers (that can do anything but do transactions anway) or radios allowed where I work, so net stuff/games/listening to music is out of the question.
I usually end up *cough* "testing" *cough* movies on the shelves to make sure they're not faulty Of course I can't be seen just putting that on for no reason by customers or a coworker so if there's anyone else in the store I have a couple other things to do.
I practice my typing skillzorz on an imaginary keyboard. For stuff to type I just look at all the signs around the store, or read the soon-releases page, or type the words to whatever song I have stuck in my head that day.
I allow myself to be completely and insanely OCD about the movies, games and stock on display. I make sure everything is perfectly aligned, clean, straight, etc. One time, I got to do this for a whole shift (3 hours) cos we were having a store inspection the next day. No serving, just letting my OCD run rampant through the store. Heaven!
Make towers with the DVD locks. OMG SO MUCH FUN. (For me anyway lol.) I can make them taller than me. But I don't do it much anymore because my boss always knocks them down and laughs evilly This does make it kinda obvious that I have nothing to do though... Alternately, I organise the DVD locks in their basket so they all point the same way and are aligned and etc, and still end up looking busy.
If all else fails, I buy chocolate from the snack bar

[draggar]

Yesterday during our 2 hour severe lull, I browsed the web and played Bejeweled on my Treo.

[COMINATCHA]

I'm bored at work right now, I have nothing to do!
I usually go on the internet - although they keep track of what websites you visit, and they give a monthly print-out of them to the manager.
So I gotta be careful how much time I spend on here (and make sure I don't visit anything naughty, haha)

A few weeks ago, near the end of the day when it was REALLY HOT, they filled up one of the spas in the warehouse and let us get in to cool off.
I got in the spa fully clothed (not that I was about to get naked or anything) - good thing I don't get dressed up for work with good clothes or anything.
Then 5pm rolled around and I let myself drip-dry for a bit then went home.
Was good! My manager is very easy-going.

[myswtghst]

I'm in an inbound call center, and I work second shift, Sunday-Thursday, so I have plenty of time spent waiting for calls. I surf the web, play games on MSN, spend an inordinate amount of time on here, and keep up on my sports. If I'm lucky and the Bulls are playing, we watch that with the sound off. Mostly I just read books or magazines at my desk.

When I want to be/appear to be productive, I follow up on cases/requests I've put out, make cheat sheets for myself with notes on them, and ask my sups for projects.

[Jester]

Working in the food service industry, I have never had the luxury of being able to surf the web while slow at work. So, when it is slow, and management has not found a cleaning project for us to do, here are some of the things I or my coworkers have been known to do at various jobs, depending on the leniency of the management:

--Watch sports or news on the tv's.

--Do the newspaper crossword/other word puzzles.

--Read the newspaper

--See who is best for distance and/or accuracy in Coaster Toss.

--Super Glue coins to the sidewalk across the street and entertain ourselves watching people stop to try to pick them up. (A favorite pasttime at one of my current jobs.)

--Stupid Waiter Tray Tricks. One summer it was really slow in Phoenix (wait, EVERY summer is really slow in Phoenix!) so we were goofing around with the cocktail trays. I got really good at doing lots of different tricks with them, and can still do some neat stuff. Oddly, I never COULD spin one on the tip of my finger. Odder still, the easiest trick for me to do sometimes got the biggest reaction from other people. Go figure.

--Sit and bitch with coworkers.

--Sit and joke with coworkers.

--Stand and bitch or joke with coworkers.

--Stare at pretty girls going by. Wait, I do that whether it's slow or busy.

--Comment with coworkers on nasty looking people going by.

--Play handheld video games that someone brought in.

--Smoke (well, *I* never do this, but the smokers do.)

--Work on some recipes I've been working on.

--Text message friends. (Have to do this more surreptitiously at one job than another.)

Surf the web? How I wish. And unlike many of you, when it's slow for me, not only am I bored, but I am not making any money. No business=no tips=no money. So we get the Full Double Suck on that one.

[Killer Bees]

I am a drafter, so my job is to draw buildings on AutoCAD. So I am in front of a computer all damn day too.

I read a few different forums (mainly here), read the news a few times a day, read local paper obits, if I'm in a political mood www.politics1.com, I design houses for no reason, or myself. I have actually redone the plans from my grandmother;s home.

I have been note to write letters and such to my wife, I listen to the radio.

I used to play a lot of games, but it's too easy to get caught at it, plus I hate setting a bad example.

I'm trying to come up with some new things to do too.

I've been doing a food diary on Word, a table with all the DVDs/CDs/Books I want to buy. They're all separate docs so it makes me look important when I'm atl-tabbing through many windows

Also on Excel, I have a weight loss chart happening. I"m acutally doing a whole lifestyle change right now and charting my success on Excel. That also looks good because most people have no idea how Excel works anyway (especially here in my office).

[OfficeSlug]

You're looking at it.


Reading customerssuck.com!

[reformedwaitress]

I'm a writer and when I did reception work I would bring a flash drive and work on my stories during down times. Or read stories / books online.

[ContraCorriente]

You could do what my mid-fifties, one-eyed manager does and browse teenage girl mySpace profiles!

[TNT]

I surf the internet... but I stick to online trade journals, because:

1. I'm a born wonk. If I'm interested enough to work for a company, I'm interested enough to learn more about the business. If I can do it on company time, so much the better.

2. When I'm interviewing for new jobs within the company, my bosses really do remember who they saw watching youtube and who they saw reading Broadcasting & Cable.

[OfficeSlug]

And I think its because they know they CAN leave at 5 and you cant.......

Our marketing department is/was famous for that!

One famous Friday night, I pitched a fit - which included wall kicking and frothing at the mouth, I admit, not my brightest & proudest moment, but I had E.N.O.U.G.H. of staying til 8pm every *bleep*ing night because they couldn't get their shit together.

After that, they had a meeting to come up with a plan for their weekly promotions and telemarketing requests, and those fairly have to be out and gone by 5:30pm... or they go the next morning.

Now we get out by 6pm unless something odd comes down the wire (we monitor the stock market, economic trends, and current events).

[Shironu-Akaineko]

first of all, it has to be pretty damn dead here to have nothing to do. Like today for example.

Secondly, since I have no internet at work (If you don't count Sumomo, my phone) I simply go in the break room and either play with Gashapon (My NDS) or doodle in a sketchbook.

And that's a damn last resort. There's nothing worse than being stuck at work with no actual work to do.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

On the shifts I work, there isn't much idle time, if any. But when I worked different shifts and ran out of stuff to do, I'd help straighten shelves on the floor or in the backroom, or download pulls to do even if they had just been done and there would be next to nothing in them.