Reply to: Not much work to do in current contract.

[TheLordDave]

Not bad if you are in a corner desk, otherwise at the end of the day there are peeping toms, looking over your shoulder and spreading the word to colleagues what you are upto most of the time.Working your way through Certifications would be the best bet, I'm doing atm.

Yeah it's great fun having nothing to do and your monitor visible to the entire office. A day staring at visual studio with crap all to do is hell.

[jkdaniel]

Can you get access to home? Set up a UNIX VM and you should be able to tunnel out. That's what I have done. Send RDP over and you can do whatever you like then. Skype, unmonitored Internet etc.

I've just bought a couple of servers to run VMware on, and I'm going to start working on certifications in the spare time I have.

Not bad if you are in a corner desk, otherwise at the end of the day there are peeping toms, looking over your shoulder and spreading the word to colleagues what you are upto most of the time.Working your way through Certifications would be the best bet, I'm doing atm.

[b0redom]

Can you get access to home? Set up a UNIX VM and you should be able to tunnel out. That's what I have done. Send RDP over and you can do whatever you like then. Skype, unmonitored Internet etc.

I've just bought a couple of servers to run VMware on, and I'm going to start working on certifications in the spare time I have.

[d000hg]

Doesn't your client require you to fill in any record of where your time is spent? Mine certainly does - so they know what time was spent in order to bill their client.

[psychocandy]

Oh absolutely. If you've got a private office, nook, home office and can just do what you want then it's a different story.

I once worked for home for three years. First year had not much to do. Was pleasant.

But slap two hours of commuting and eight hours in the middle of an office having to look busy on to that and it's hell.

How about when you bring it up with the manager? "Erm, thing is there isn't really much to do. Anything you want me to focus on that I've missed?" Cue responses ranging from "Oh we'll see about that. There's plenty to do. How about this?" *gives you some stupid busywork that can easily be completed in a few hours* to "Oh yes I know, bit quiet at the moment isn't it". Jesus wept!

Ha ha, sorry this topic winds me up.

WFH and not having anything to do is the golden ticket. Its like getting paid for nothing.

[DieScum]

Biggie is internet access is this situation. Is it ok or is it strongly monitored? Where you sit also makes a difference.

Oh absolutely. If you've got a private office, nook, home office and can just do what you want then it's a different story.

I once worked for home for three years. First year had not much to do. Was pleasant.

But slap two hours of commuting and eight hours in the middle of an office having to look busy on to that and it's hell.

How about when you bring it up with the manager? "Erm, thing is there isn't really much to do. Anything you want me to focus on that I've missed?" Cue responses ranging from "Oh we'll see about that. There's plenty to do. How about this?" *gives you some stupid busywork that can easily be completed in a few hours* to "Oh yes I know, bit quiet at the moment isn't it". Jesus wept!

Ha ha, sorry this topic winds me up.

[psychocandy]

This situation absolutely does my nut in. I find it really hard to sit in an office for eight hours with no work. Surely any sane person would. I've got a million and one useful things to be getting on with and I'm here staring at a screen for a day.

It's also annoying when people say "Shut up and invoice", "better than nothing", etc. I mean I see the point but it just sucks to be sitting there having accepted and expected a normal role and be ... nothing. You can quit but it leaves a black stain on the CV. So you have to spend your evenings and weekends busily looking for the next role, knowing that a short contract left early could well look bad. So you're left toughing it through till contract end and then turning down a renewal.

The worse bit is having to look busy. If you can wfh it's all good but faking having work to do in the middle of an office is just depressing.

I try and throw myself into some project I just invent. Automating something with scripts, reading all documentation.

It's a very hard situation and it's hard to filter for. Nobody at interview will tell you "We won't have anything for you to do but we will pay you lots of money to sit in our office all day."

Biggie is internet access is this situation. Is it ok or is it strongly monitored? Where you sit also makes a difference.

[curtis]

I have had this in several jobs I have had. Yes it is easy to try and think easy money, better than nothing etc etc but it drives me mad and as someone else said it I have so many other things I could be doing, I can always find stuff to do at home.

The worst is if you have to try and look busy its horrible as you just find yourself clicking between screens randomly I hate it but even if your in a position to look at the net/phone do there is only so much you can keep looking at. I would never tell someone I left a contract I would just make it sound like it ended and was short term if I left.

[mudskipper]

Start a thread on religion/sexism/racism/whether it's OK to smack your kids in CUK general - that will keep you busy for a day or two

Can you download a couple of tech books to read?

I occasionally amuse myself by answering questions on stack overflow if I'm really bored.

[TheLordDave]

I had similar in my last contract, built this www.walkingdeadkills.com, 'familiarising myself with a charting library client co might want to use....

[unixman]

Having *absolutely nothing* to do, day after day, is probably the hardest work situation to deal with. And stressful. Are there other positive points, eg is this contract near your home ? If not, maybe time to call it a day. You don't have to mention it on your CV. If you are asked about it, an answer that you left because there was nothing to do isn't necessarily a bad thing. Makes you look fairly conscientious, probably.

Before throwing the towel maybe have a quiet word with the agent. He will chat to the client and it might help.

[PerfectStorm]

- It's MUCH easier to renew someone than get a new one, still need softlad ? yeah, ok. You NEED a new softlad ???? PROVE IT. So you end up staying longer

Hadn't considered that. It's a good point though.

At the end of the day I guess we could be cleaning toilets or stationed out in Afghanistan or something.

[NibblyPig]

It's very hard to explain to people how bad sitting in an office with nothing to do is. I think the only way to appreciate that is to have been in that situation.

I've been there and it is really awful.

[DieScum]

This situation absolutely does my nut in. I find it really hard to sit in an office for eight hours with no work. Surely any sane person would. I've got a million and one useful things to be getting on with and I'm here staring at a screen for a day.

It's also annoying when people say "Shut up and invoice", "better than nothing", etc. I mean I see the point but it just sucks to be sitting there having accepted and expected a normal role and be ... nothing. You can quit but it leaves a black stain on the CV. So you have to spend your evenings and weekends busily looking for the next role, knowing that a short contract left early could well look bad. So you're left toughing it through till contract end and then turning down a renewal.

The worse bit is having to look busy. If you can wfh it's all good but faking having work to do in the middle of an office is just depressing.

I try and throw myself into some project I just invent. Automating something with scripts, reading all documentation.

It's a very hard situation and it's hard to filter for. Nobody at interview will tell you "We won't have anything for you to do but we will pay you lots of money to sit in our office all day."

[lukemg]

Had this probably more than most, for the usual reasons plus :
- Manager said to me, look all the perms say they are busy (dont they always ?) so even if you are doing half a job, I still have to get someone to do that half !
- It's MUCH easier to renew someone than get a new one, still need softlad ? yeah, ok. You NEED a new softlad ???? PROVE IT. So you end up staying longer
Coping mechanisms:
- I have a keen interest in investments so have spent much time broadening knowledge, reading up etc and monitoring/trading from my desk...
- I have no qualms going to boss and saying look I am happy to help out on anything else, not proud about what I do (within reason) This has rarely resulted in extra work (or only a couple of days) and NEVER resulted in the contract ending.
After this, my conscience is clear and I happily worked a steady 9-4 with footy at lunch for a good 18 months and made good use of wfh.
I find all aspects of IT to be equally tedious so no happier being 'busy' as I don't get much satisfaction from any of the pointless 'tasks' I am working on.