Anyone have those days where you don't do a god damn thing at work?

[SJW]

I'm having a lot of those. I think i'm super burnt out and I hate it.

[firebane]

I'm having a lot of those. I think i'm super burnt out and I hate it.

My office is like 99% WFH and since we've been working from home the actual amount of work I do in a day has dropped drastically.

Glad I can work in my office so I can play games and watch videos all day to keep myself sane.

[SJW]

My office is like 99% WFH and since we've been working from home the actual amount of work I do in a day has dropped drastically.

Glad I can work in my office so I can play games and watch videos all day to keep myself sane.

I just play the stock market and play a 20 year old video game. Then there's days when I absolutely crush it out and do the job of 4 people.

[03ozwhip]

I was just up north on the Athabasca River working for the past week. Nothing will burn you out more than working in the weather we've been having.

I miss working from home when it comes to jobs like that.

[Hallowed_point]

Headphones and some early 90's death metal (Obituary - Cause of Death) seems to be helping with cube farm neighbors who insist on yelling when they're on the phone/spinning around so that their voice is projected to outer space. Tough to focus with the background noise so here I am on beyond :thumbsup:

[ShermanEF9]

I'm trying to get some stuff done, but its so dry and boring. Its also tough because I am waiting on an offer from a new company, so getting into a bunch of projects here and only getting them half done seems like a waste.

[D'z Nutz]

Yup, going through that this week. I'm held up cause I can't do anything new until we do our next release, which is held up because the business hasn't signed off, which is held up because they think it's okay to keep throwing in more enhancement requests.

This is frustrating to me cause I'm the kind of guy who likes to just plug in and work away like mad until the day is over.

[taemo]

same here, just feels like groundhog day most of the time especially last week with the cold weather that we had.
fortunately I had to go to the office for a change of scenery yesterday and planning to go in once a week.

but yeah I'm just trying to find new hobbies to do to kill some time and learn.

[Buster]

all the time

[killramos]

These things happen. Try and make the best of the time.

I only ever joined beyond as a way to stave off periods of boredom during work hours. Which is definitely not an example of making the best of the time haha.

[XylathaneGTR]

These things happen. Try and make the best of the time.
Yup, you gotta be realistic and cut yourself some slack when these happen, too.

There's days where I crush it, and others where I get nothing done and have limited motivation to do so. When those low days hit, you need to recognize it, relax, and divert to something which recharges you. Trying to work through it or getting frustrated will just burn you out even further.

[ExtraSlow]

There's ebbs and flows. I'm very close to hiring another person in my team to handle some tasks that have stayed at the bottom of my list for too long. Then at least I'll have the comfort of knowing something is getting done when I'm not doing it.

There's some jobs where it's easy to get into the groove and just keep pushing ahead every day. The more mentally taxing or creative roles are less consistent.

[vengie]

Yup.

[Mitsu3000gt]

There will always be days where you do more work than others. It doesn't really matter what your job is, nobody is hard at work absolutely 100% of the time. A lot of jobs are cyclical too, such as accounting, where you are incredibly busy a few times per month and less busy for the rest.

I find I work harder at home because if I am at my computer anyway in the evening, I might just start working on something to get it done sooner, where as if I was in the office, I am better at leaving work at work when the day ends.

I also notice people who I am pretty sure are doing virtually nothing at home must set alarms or something, because they start sending emails at 5pm sharp every day, obviously trying to make people think they were so busy all day and are working late :rofl: They aren't fooling anyone, especially when I can see their status on Teams/Outlook that they have been away for hours haha.

If you find that you are having a lot of free time but still getting all your work done, I would either ask for more work (if there is any), take up a side hustle, or try to learn a new skill in the spare time.

[mr2mike]

same here, just feels like groundhog day most of the time especially last week with the cold weather that we had.
fortunately I had to go to the office for a change of scenery yesterday and planning to go in once a week.

but yeah I'm just trying to find new hobbies to do to kill some time and learn.

Definitely groundhog day.
Started humming NIN Everyday is exactly the same. Then I just got into listening to the whole discography while working.


https://youtu.be/BXqblYbUAeI

[Hallowed_point]

If you find that you are having a lot of free time but still getting all your work done, I would either ask for more work (if there is any), take up a side hustle, or try to learn a new skill in the spare time.

Never ask for more work. It means you get all the crap jobs that no one else wanted to do. Sometimes I wonder how Accountants do what they do day in, day out. Staring at excel sheets and clicking like robots all day. :thumbsdow

[nzwasp]

My opinion since moving to Canada 14 years ago is that Canadians atleast in the companies Ive worked for in Calgary get alot of time to do their projects and tasks. I remember when I worked at Shaw I completed my tasks way quicker than the rest of the team and I was always asking for more work / browsing / training new skills - I couldn't figure out how my team mates werent bored with taking ages and ages to do the same types of tasks whilst not appearing to do anything else to take up their time. Shaw at the time (unsure now) tracked their employees browsing time at work and I was in the top ten in the building but also had completed all my tasks. I also worked for Telus (but outsourced to another company) it was basically the same just loads and loads of time on my hands and very little work.

[adam c]

There's days where it's beyond painful with nothing to do and there's other days where I need to work all night

[Mitsu3000gt]

Never ask for more work. It means you get all the crap jobs that no one else wanted to do. Sometimes I wonder how Accountants do what they do day in, day out. Staring at excel sheets and clicking like robots all day. :thumbsdow

I've done it several times before and making myself more valuable has never worked out badly for me. YMMV I guess. Especially in this market I want to have as much work as possible so when they look at who to lay off, I am doing more work than the next guy.

[bjstare]

Never ask for more work. It means you get all the crap jobs that no one else wanted to do.

97579

My advice to anyone reading this: that's horrible advice.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Yeah all the time when my boss gets involved with my work day...

[Hallowed_point]

97579

My advice to anyone reading this: that's horrible advice.

That's not to say, don't take initiative. But being a dummy that asks for more work without looking for what else to do, not a great idea imo.

[Mitsu3000gt]

That's not to say, don't take initiative. But being a dummy that asks for more work without looking for what else to do, not a great idea imo.

The whole reason one would ask for more work is because they have already looked for what else to do and there wasn't anything. Every time I've done it, it has always been very well received and the work given to me was never garbage work like data entry. I don't think any decent manager would dump that kind of work on someone trying to make themselves more valuable.

[ThePenIsMightier]

97579

My advice to anyone reading this: that's horrible advice.

Agree. I was going to say this but I got hungry and ate clam chowder from a can with a big dent in it. I like it to be a mystery when I'm feeling awful.

Yeah, you can actually make a lucrative career out of dealing with the difficult jobs that no one else wants to do and are eager to pass on. It's hard work, but you quickly become invaluable and that's not such a bad place to be.

[hampstor]

Yes, with office workers during covid19 who are in a WFH/mixed office environment. I was recently talking about it with another manager in another department and we're all suffering the same fatigue. Diminishing marginal returns for productivity as the pandemic goes on is the words we used. Some days, you stare blankly at the screen. Something that used to take 30 minutes to do, is now taking hours, or days to get done. Worrying that your staff know that we're not as productive as we used to be, or recognizing it and speaking about it within the team.

We've noted there's a limit to what all the help get can actually do to halt that slow slide into , (mental health support available, taking more breaks, all the 'go for walks and do phyisical activity' advise, all the postivity/celebrating success, etc).

Not sure where to go from here, or if this is what we just accept as the new norm until we get back to the "before times".

[killramos]

It’s good to have Hallowed Point back. We were running out of colourful members of the site.

[SJW]

I had a good productive day today. Yesterday was a write off. I’m also leaving early.

[Hallowed_point]

The whole reason one would ask for more work is because they have already looked for what else to do and there wasn't anything. Every time I've done it, it has always been very well received and the work given to me was never garbage work like data entry. I don't think any decent manager would dump that kind of work on someone trying to make themselves more valuable.

One would hope they wouldn't, depends on the manager. Sadly, I find a lot of people struggle with taking initiative even with something as simple as emptying the garbage can/recycling or coffee maker when it's full. Or unloading the office dishwasher. I've rarely been in that situation where I'm wondering what I'm going to do next at work. Mentor coworkers if you're truly out of ideas would be my suggestion. Also, most jobs have the hectic/busy periods and quieter times , I don't see anything wrong with that either.

[M.alex]

Yes, with office workers during covid19 who are in a WFH/mixed office environment. I was recently talking about it with another manager in another department and we're all suffering the same fatigue. Diminishing marginal returns for productivity as the pandemic goes on is the words we used. Some days, you stare blankly at the screen. Something that used to take 30 minutes to do, is now taking hours, or days to get done. Worrying that your staff know that we're not as productive as we used to be, or recognizing it and speaking about it within the team.

We've noted there's a limit to what all the help get can actually do to halt that slow slide into , (mental health support available, taking more breaks, all the 'go for walks and do phyisical activity' advise, all the postivity/celebrating success, etc).

Not sure where to go from here, or if this is what we just accept as the new norm until we get back to the "before times".


sounds like a bunch of lazy ass motherfuckers over there - fire them - productivity should be through the roof since WFH means less time dealing w/ bullshit stuff.

[killramos]

It’s less lazy and more opportunistic. WFH enables the dogfuckers of the world to get away with murder.

[Mitsu3000gt]

One would hope they wouldn't, depends on the manager. Sadly, I find a lot of people struggle with taking initiative even with something as simple as emptying the garbage can/recycling or coffee maker when it's full. Or unloading the office dishwasher. I've rarely been in that situation where I'm wondering what I'm going to do next at work. Mentor coworkers if you're truly out of ideas would be my suggestion. Also, most jobs have the hectic/busy periods and quieter times , I don't see anything wrong with that either.

I'm not sure how well it would be received if I started going office to office trying to mentor other professionals haha. If you have someone working "under" you, mentoring them is already part of your job, at least that has always been my experience.

All we're saying is that especially in this environment where we're VERY lucky to still be employed (I am in O&G and I think many others are too), making yourself as valuable as possible and putting as much work on your plate as possible is never a bad thing. As someone else mentioned, even if the work you get is crappy, that makes you arguably even more valuable because now you're the guy doing what nobody else wants to do, and firing you means someone else has to do it.

The only situation I can think of where it's bad to ask for more work is unions haha - then everyone else gets mad at you.

[Hallowed_point]

It’s less lazy and more opportunistic. WFH enables the dogfuckers of the world to get away with murder.

I think it's the opposite, if they're an office worker and send the bulk of their emails at the end of the day and are MIA or away in Zoom etc it's pretty obvious what's going on.

[Mitsu3000gt]

It’s less lazy and more opportunistic. WFH enables the dogfuckers of the world to get away with murder.

I work with several people who I don't think realize their Outlook/Teams show how long they've been away. They pop on once a day at 5pm and send an email to make people think they are working like a dog, and are "away for 7 hours" or whatever before that :rofl: Some of them I think even set alarms because it's 5pm sharp almost every day.

[Hallowed_point]

I'm not sure how well it would be received if I started going office to office trying to mentor other professionals haha. If you have someone working "under" you, mentoring them is already part of your job, at least that has always been my experience.

All we're saying is that especially in this environment where we're VERY lucky to still be employed (I am in O&G and I think many others are too), making yourself as valuable as possible and putting as much work on your plate as possible is never a bad thing. As someone else mentioned, even if the work you get is crappy, that makes you arguably even more valuable because now you're the guy doing what nobody else wants to do, and firing you means someone else has to do it.

The only situation I can think of where it's bad to ask for more work is unions haha - then everyone else gets mad at you.

Yeah I'll agree with you on that for sure, grateful to be working. Also from a psychological aspect, a boss is more likely to go to bat for you if you've gone out of your way to ask for more work. Although I've also seen the slackers who are buddy buddy or related to higher ups kept around while the good workers are laid off !! But agree that it's better to demonstrate your value and become as close to irreplaceable as possible.

[hampstor]

I'm not sure how well it would be received if I started going office to office trying to mentor other professionals haha. If you have someone working "under" you, mentoring them is already part of your job, at least that has always been my experience.

All we're saying is that especially in this environment where we're VERY lucky to still be employed (I am in O&G and I think many others are too), making yourself as valuable as possible and putting as much work on your plate as possible is never a bad thing. As someone else mentioned, even if the work you get is crappy, that makes you arguably even more valuable because now you're the guy doing what nobody else wants to do, and firing you means someone else has to do it.

From speaking with a few people in O&G, it seems like people are now split into 2 main camps:

1) Killing themselves to be valuable so they still have a job. It's worse now than in 2015. One thing they've noted is because no one can see how late you work anymore, emails are flying out at all hours to show 'how late i've been working'. The reality is their productivity steadily drops because they can't take care of themselves, so they're working extra hours just to do the same thing.
2) Those who are waiting for a package and once they get it, will sit out of the workforce for a few years until things get back to normal. They may take the odd contracting gig here and there just to keep things going.

As the pandemic has gone on and layoffs keep piling on, i'm seeing people in (1) realize that people in (2) are doing fine as the packages are in the 6 months+. I know several people who were laid off in the June/July timeframe and said it was the best thing that's happened to them. To quote one of the guys .... "When was the last time where you had the summer off with no obligations, and money to spend?"

[killramos]

I mean WFH is also a great opportunity to make your hours work better for you.

I have days where I am grinding away into the evening despite having a slow day because things came up near EOD. That’s life and doesn’t really bother me. If people are getting their shit done I don’t really care what their teams statuses are.

Now when those same people push their deadlines every week because they are “swamped” despite spending their day working in Reno’s or walking the dog? Not cool.

Anyways, these topics always end up circular lol

[firebane]

Yes, with office workers during covid19 who are in a WFH/mixed office environment. I was recently talking about it with another manager in another department and we're all suffering the same fatigue. Diminishing marginal returns for productivity as the pandemic goes on is the words we used. Some days, you stare blankly at the screen. Something that used to take 30 minutes to do, is now taking hours, or days to get done. Worrying that your staff know that we're not as productive as we used to be, or recognizing it and speaking about it within the team.

We've noted there's a limit to what all the help get can actually do to halt that slow slide into , (mental health support available, taking more breaks, all the 'go for walks and do phyisical activity' advise, all the postivity/celebrating success, etc).

Not sure where to go from here, or if this is what we just accept as the new norm until we get back to the "before times".

The worrying about being productive is definitely something I think about every day. My work is usually reflected in time tracked through tickets in the system. But with everyone working from home and things working so well nothing is really being done and most days I'm counting the hours till I'm done.

I honestly feel that even when the office is opened and staff can go back there still won't be much of a work load and still be mostly just counting time.

But I definitely don't like feeling that people are looking at numbers and thinking "is there a need for him"?

[Kjonus]

I'm glad that with my job we WFH 2 or 3 days a week and go into on the other days. If it wasn't for that I'd crack up it think.

[legendboy]

I use to have those days, just trying to look busy but doing nothing at all. New job not so much

[bjstare]

I know several people who were laid off in the June/July timeframe and said it was the best thing that's happened to them. To quote one of the guys .... "When was the last time where you had the summer off with no obligations, and money to spend?"

I’ll buy you a beer if they’re still singing this tune if/when they’re out of work a year from now. I’m all for looking at the bright side of things, but the only reason I’d be happy about being let go was if I had another job lined up.



I honestly feel that even when the office is opened and staff can go back there still won't be much of a work load and still be mostly just counting time.

But I definitely don't like feeling that people are looking at numbers and thinking "is there a need for him"?

They should definitely be revisiting staffing levels if this is the case. If it was my company I’d sure be looking to get rid of anyone that is just counting time til the end of the day. Overstaffing is not the path to profitability.

[firebane]

I’ll buy you a beer if they’re still singing this tune if/when they’re out of work a year from now. I’m all for looking at the bright side of things, but the only reason I’d be happy about being let go was if I had another job lined up.



They should definitely be revisiting staffing levels if this is the case. If it was my company I’d sure be looking to get rid of anyone that is just counting time til the end of the day. Overstaffing is not the path to profitability.

Its not a over staffing issue. Its that I'm the office IT support and if I'm gone they don't have a way to maintain it right now. In the last year and a bit we already dropped 20 people from the office count and when things run well there isn't much to do.

With that said there IS stuff they need me around for such as right now we have phone issues in the office so I'm basically on stand by for this weekend now.

Should note.. its not just the Calgary office in this situation.. There are others.

[hampstor]

I’ll buy you a beer if they’re still singing this tune if/when they’re out of work a year from now. I’m all for looking at the bright side of things, but the only reason I’d be happy about being let go was if I had another job lined up.


Most of the people I've talked to aren't stressed by it yet. Once severance runs out they will go on EI and dig into savings. But yeah I'd give them another... 1-1.5 years before they have to start working again.

The one guy who said the "best thing ever", got 1 year severance, took 5 months off and picked up 2 contracting jobs. He figures he will work till the summer and take it off again. YMMV I guess.

[bjstare]

Its not a over staffing issue. Its that I'm the office IT support and if I'm gone they don't have a way to maintain it right now. In the last year and a bit we already dropped 20 people from the office count and when things run well there isn't much to do.

With that said there IS stuff they need me around for such as right now we have phone issues in the office so I'm basically on stand by for this weekend now.

Should note.. its not just the Calgary office in this situation.. There are others.

That makes sense. I was interpreting your post as if there was more than one person in this position; downtime is definitely a normal part of the job for IT support stuff.


Most of the people I've talked to aren't stressed by it yet. Once severance runs out they will go on EI and dig into savings. But yeah I'd give them another... 1-1.5 years before they have to start working again.

The one guy who said the "best thing ever", got 1 year severance, took 5 months off and picked up 2 contracting jobs. He figures he will work till the summer and take it off again. YMMV I guess.

That's great to hear. My assumption is that guy is the exception (hopefully I'm wrong), but good to hear nonetheless.

[Mitsu3000gt]

They should definitely be revisiting staffing levels if this is the case. If it was my company I’d sure be looking to get rid of anyone that is just counting time til the end of the day. Overstaffing is not the path to profitability.

It often amazes me how easily companies continue to function after significant layoffs. At least from my observations in O&G, overstaffing is pretty common. It seems especially bad in larger companies with multiple levels of management (Team Leader, Manager, VP, Senior VP, etc.) Low level employees tend to do most of the actual work, and I think that leaves some people in management worrying about how to look valuable.

[dirtsniffer]

Imagine what the public sector looks like without these culls every few years. Epitome of inefficiency.

[killramos]

They have whole departments dedicated to managing the bureaucracy. And maybe a few extra departments to manage those.

[SJW]

Imagine what the public sector looks like without these culls every few years. Epitome of inefficiency.

This is why I’m burnt out. 6 eng projects. Not one completed. Some have had first tests. I’m behind on reports. I’m behind on ordering parts. Drawings get no checking so they are rife with missing dims. Boss comes in scolding me for not ordering seals. I mean fuck it’s not that I don’t want to work hard it’s just that I’m starting to not care. I’m Peter Gibbons at this point.

[ExtraSlow]

Hard to do proactively, but I do find a new project, or an internal move, can really help with that. Jumping into a new team can be a real energizer. Or a whole company, although that's a lot harder.

[vengie]

Put in my notice of resignation yesterday... Company wants me to work out my two weeks as I'm not going to a competitor... Looks like I will be posting on beyond a lot over the next couple weeks!

[killramos]

lol. Classic.

[austic]

I think for me its really just depression caused by the pandemic. Missing seeing my family, my wifes father just got diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and we cant even fly out to see them. Its been a year working from home and the isolation is starting to get to me as well. I normally book a tropical vacation this time of year to cheer up our family but cant really do that now too. Covid fatigue is real.

[TurboMedic]

Burned out you say? Yes, very much yes.

Compassion fatigue, moral injury, OSI, SAD, and then the fatigue of dissenting opinions on COVID. Can't do anything about it, just take time as I need, don't drink too much, keep the anxiety at bay and wait until things get better

[ExtraSlow]

you think dissenting opinions on Covid are bad? Try having a dissenting opinion on those bumbo baby seats! that's the real shark tank.

[TurboMedic]

you think dissenting opinions on Covid are bad? Try having a dissenting opinion on those bumbo baby seats! that's the real shark tank.

:drama:

[ExtraSlow]

:drama:

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::goflames:

[JRSC00LUDE]

I'm having one of those days now, I like them. I'll probably go to the car wash, then enjoy a nice coffee somewhere and go home and soak in the tub for awhile then head to the gym at the end of the day. Flexibility to work when you need to and do what you want is the fucking tits. And it makes me appreciate the weeks when there isn't any breathing room because it's so busy.