Coping with Office Down Time

When you work in an office, downtime is something that you can expect every once in a while.  Especially if it's the kind of job where you're usually left autonomous and unsupervised. 

 

It's not necessarily because you're lazy or because you're slacking off and socializing with co-workers.  Sometimes it may be just because you're waiting for a response from a supplier or a colleague to be able to move forward in your work.  Your boss might be out of the office and isn't giving you any work.  Or maybe, and this does happen, you were efficient enough to get most of the stuff that you need to get done.

 

Whatever the case, you may encounter down time.  Personally, being the good employee that I am, I try to ask my boss or my colleagues if there's anything I can help them with.  That way, I don't feel like I'm getting paid to do nothing.  Or at the very least, I don't want people around the office to see that I am not doing anything.

 

So what should you do if you find yourself in this situation and you don't want to look like you're not doing anything?

 

Here are a couple of tips from various sources.  (Note: As you will probably figure out after reading the next couple of sentences, what I'm about to write shouldn't be taken seriously.  Don't get in trouble at work because of this stupid post. )

 

What would George Costanza do?

In one particular Seinfeld episode, George was trying to do the same thing to make his boss at the New York Yankees think that he was busy despite the fact that there was really no work for him to do at that time of the year.  According to George, the trick is to look at some documents on your desk and pretend to be annoyed whenever someone passes by. 

 

This could work, but you shouldn't overdo the look of annoyance.  In that particular episode, George pulled that off so well, that his boss even thought that he was getting too stressed out and "taking work way too seriously". 

 

Tip from Peter Gibbons in Office Space:

I always like to refer to this movie because it's so damn funny.  Anyway, the tip here comes from Peter Gibbons.  When explaining his typical day to the consultants looking to downsize the company he works in, he just said that during the first hour of his day and for about an hour after lunch, he just likes to "space out".  By that he meant that he just sat there and pretty much stared at his desk.  Apparently it looks like he's working, but he actually isn't.

 

I personally don't see this as working too well.  For one, spacing out may lead to you dozing off, which could really get in trouble.  If you are going to do this, I suggest that you have some kind of complicated-looking document in front of you so it looks like you're really concentrating on trying to figure it out.

 

Tip from a teacher at JMSB:

One of the great profs in the Marketing Department of the John Molson School of Business jokingly suggested a very funny way of "looking busy" in an office.  He said that the best way to look busy in an office without really doing anything is by walking across the office from one end to the other.  Perhaps from your desk to a photocopier or a printer far away.

 

This method can actually even set "different levels of busy-ness".  For instance, if you want to look busier, increase your walking speed, thus giving a sense of urgency.  You can add a slightly annoyed look in your face when walking (see George Costanza section).  But of course, the way to reach the highest level of "busy" is by using the fast-paced walk and annoyed face while... carrying a piece of paper.

 

Now of course, I'm not recommending that anyone do any of these.  This post was written as a joke for cubicle dwellers who can surely relate to what I'm talking.  When in these situations, I recommend asking for more work if you run out of things to do (this hasn't really happened to me at the place where I'm currently working).  In any case, I'm sure your boss would like nothing more than to see you asking for more work to do.

 

By the way, in case you're wondering, no I did not write this during my "down time".  I wrote this post on my lunch break.