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

[coldcupofjoe]

Well, I had nothing to do at work today except check out customers so I got a roll of paper towels and various cleaning agents and cleaned the hell out of our check out area.

[Bloodsoul]

Whenever we sign on/off our registers the printer spits out these little bits of paper saying that we've.. well, signed on/off our registers!

Normally they get thrown out, but I've gotten into the habit of keeping a small collection by the register and drawing on the back of them when business is quiet. It's actually done me quite a lot of good when in connection to the art and writing I do at home, and two pics I'm most proud of have earned the praise of a few customers, too! ^_^

[Delphae]

If I don't have a cashier I do Sudoku. If I have one, I check for outdates. If it is just a little time, wander the store and look at the tabloids. If I'm really board, I get silly and weird and poke my co-workers (with my finger in the arm).

[air914]

Ooh ooh I found something that LOOKS productive - freetypinggame.net! I can work on my typing. Right now I'm working on 10 key - I think the only place you really use that is retail - but I'm only at 30 words per minute (shouldn't that be numbers per minute). There's also typing tests & typing games. Looks productive, sounds productive.... little fingers hitting the keyboard very quickly

[KuzcoLlama]

When there's nothing to do at work, I re-enact the unknown War of the Pekinese Gerbils vs. Belgian chocolate. I don't think I need to tell you who won that.

[bigjimaz]

Okay so I already had a thread about how I hate my job and discussed some options...... BUT I thought maybe some people had some entertaining ideas for what you do when there's nothing to do at work

I watch TV.

But I work at home.

[TWOLF]

I write things that make no sense like little rants and poems. My main thing that I do off and on is a little thing I call the insane news network.

[AirHostess]

I sit in the back galley with a cup of tea and magazines and newspapers passengers have left behind.

[Jack7957]

Current job : There is no down time, when we go on an install, we'll stop for lunch and that's it.

Last job : Disappear. I've gone to the movies, taken extended lunches, went home, drove to a nearby city to check out vehicles that were on auction that coming weekend. Boy do I miss that job.

[KaeZoo]

--Attempt to sneak up on the motion detectors.

--Make tiny people and pets out of solder.

--Braid speaker wire.

--Engrave my initials on my tools.

--Engrave my full name on my larger tools.

--Engrave my initials, full name, and "I am the very model of a modern major general" on my 18" pry bar.

--Go through my co-worker's tool box that he never locks. Find every tool that could be used to cut a cable tie. Make them all temporarily inoperable, using cable ties.

[AFpheonix]

It's very rare that I have downtime. If there's no customers, then I:
1) finish typing any prescriptions that need to be done
2) go through and clean out any third party problem scripts, and store ones that have been in there for a week or more.
3) call on ones that need refills if the doctor doesn't have a fax machine
4) refax on ones that need refills that we haven't heard back on for more than 48 hours
5) file the hardcopies for filled prescriptions
6) fill vial drawers
7) if it's time to check for outdates (I do that every 3 months) start pulling those.
8) work on the schedule until I'm 6 weeks out (max that the system will let me do)
9) check to see if there's any product I need to order for the next day
10) tidy up the credit card slips in the till
11) wipe the pill trays down with alcohol
12) clean the scanners
14) break down boxes, take those, garbage and any totes back to the stockroom.
15) go though the bins by hand and pull any scripts that are in there that are older than 10 days.
If there's still nothing to do, and I've done as far as I can go on the above, then I:
16) grab the goo-gone and peel old labels off of stock boxes of product that we filled and was never picked up
17) Do Continuing Education credits
If I'm done there or don't feel like doing anymore, and there's STILL nothing to do, then it's origami time! Woo! But....I rarely if ever get past #10...so my origami skills don't get a whole lotta practice

[JustADude]

--Engrave my initials, full name, and "I am the very model of a modern major general" on my 18" pry bar.

--Go through my co-worker's tool box that he never locks. Find every tool that could be used to cut a cable tie. Make them all temporarily inoperable, using cable ties.

Okay, broke Rule #1 on those two. Just BARELY managed to miss the electronics! Dang you KaeZoo, Dang you to heck!

[Ree]

Oh, man, I wish this was a question I could answer, but free time is something I don't have...ever.

Even on my breaks, either I get called away in the middle of them, or have a phone call put through to me, or I end up taking a 25 minute 'break' but I have only spent less than 10 of them actually on break, because I got stopped on my way to break or on my way back from break, or both. *sigh*

Free time?
What is that?

[Will-Mun]

Ah, now let me tell you...

So I worked at Radio Shack, as some of the older members would know... I usually worked the morning shift with a friend and my Manager. Since the Manager was there, we would always either be doing Idle work, or just talking.

But 2-4 times a month my Manager would have to attend special meetings. Generally trainings, corperate meetings, that type of shite. That would leave me and my friend all alone from 9am-1pm when my Manager got in.

Now Radio Shack isn't really booming in business in the early hours so me and my friend would get our work done, take care of customers... But there was just giant lapses in time... Thats when we would play...

Rubber Band Horse! (Out)

We had a bag of rubber bands, and we would essentially just play Horse/Out... Take turns shooting rubber bands at things.

"Okay, you're at H-O, now I'm gonna hit the A on that sales sign."

It was tons of fun, but of course we always stopped when a customer walked in or the manager came back.

[KellyHabersham]

At the store, I usually talk with co-workers or try on the necklaces on the clearance table. At the library, it's rare that we have any time when there is absolutely nothing to do, and when there ARE times like that, we're just supposed to walk around and straighten up shelves.