Down Time At Work — What Do You Do?

An anonymous reader writes "I work in IT and find fairly often that I have 'down time.' I'll usually browse the web (Slashdot) or try to find something informative or educating to read. Sometimes, I even get caught up working on my personal webpage or other project that isn't exactly work related. What does everyone else do during these times, and how much time do they spend on non-work related things while at work?"

Ping Pong...

[hbean]

...is a very serious sport.

Asking slashdot?

[techpawn]

What IT does with Downtime? You must be new here

research or education

[alta]

I research things that will make my company perform better, or I educate myself so I can perform better for the company myself. Have fun working on that website while you're out of work ;)

Slashdot!

[Anonymous Coward]

A) Read Slashdot.
B) Submit stories to Slashdot.
C) Play video games stored on thumb drive.
D) Avoid getting more work.

Anything else?

Isn't it obvious?

[TheBrutalTruth]

I read and post on Slashdot, you dolt!

obligatory bash.org quote

[Anonymous Coward]

#258908 +(12416)- [X]

  : If they only realized 90% of the overtime they pay me is only cause i like staying here playing with Kazaa when the bandwidth picks up after hours.
  : If any of my employees did that they'd be fired instantly.
  : Where u work?
  : I'm the CTO at LowerMyBills.com
*** Ben174 ([e-mail]) Quit (Leaving)

Box Folding

[mouse_8b]

I fold pizza boxes. Also, be sure to tip your pizza deliverer well.

Hmmm

[tgd]

I read Digg.

(and wonder how moderators will interpret posts on /.)...

This.

[techstar25]

I do this.

Re:Isn't it obvious?

[KiloByte]

I read and post on Slashdot, you dolt!

No, that's what you do during regular work time.

Re:research or education

[lonesome_coder]

I could have sworn I heard somebody say something from underneath my bosses desk...

Hmmm...

I visit my other cubical...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right, I go take a three hour shit (at a minimum). I bring some reading material and I challenge myself to see how long I can stay in there before my I lose all feeling in my legs and have to leave.

It's better than surfing the web or doing personal stuff at your desk because you could never be fired for taking too long to shit; that would be discrimination.

Down Time?

[gfxguy]

What do you do with down time?

Down what?

Down time.

What time?

Down time.

What what?

Re:research or education

[Kepesk]

I also educate myself in methods of making the company better. I find that the financial patterns of Eve Online are quite informative, and I rely on what I learn there for my everyday work habits.

I can't decide....

[doyoulikeworms]

I'll just start doing whatever gets modded highest here.

Re:Slashdot?

[twistedsymphony]

what you and other's fail to realize is... ITSATRAP!

Re:research or education

[SparkleMotion88]

I did that until I perfected myself and my work environment. Now I wander around the office improving other people.

There is no downtime.

[leuk_he]

Until the coffemachine breaks. That means panic.

Other than that it is just slow response from the system.

Re:Slashdot?

[An ominous Cow art]

"IT Satrap", sounds like something from a business card.

Re:Asking slashdot?

[Mr2cents]

I get myself a coffee and go looking for a coworker with an imminent deadline, and have a chat, asking thing like "How was your holiday" or things like that.

Evil, I know. But it's still funny.

Re:Asking slashdot?

[VGPowerlord]

Everyone knows BOFHs visit the pub during downtimes!

Particularly if the BOFHs created said downtime so that they could go to the pub.

Rock Band!

[DdJ]

Heh. My employers are great. We've got a lounge with a big 1080i plasma screen and a 5.1 surround system. It's got an XBox 360 hooked up to it, and two "Xplorer"-model Guitar Hero guitars.

When more than one of us has downtime at the same time, we actually play "Rock Band"! There's no room for the drum kit, but we routinely have three people playing at the same time. The addition of vocals (compared to the Guitar Hero series) means we actually get a lot more of the ladies at our office to participate. (Though sometimes they force me to try and sing "Roxanne".)

(God, I love my job sometimes.)

Re:Asking slashdot?

[jd]

Not necessarily. There are many kinds of Downtime. Downtime is the name of a Doctor Who spinoff, which would therefore be watched. Reading Slashdot during downtime, however, makes no sense, as this is clearly educational material for advancing one's knowledge of the field.

Re:research or education

[uhlume]

If you don't find yourself needing a few minutes of non job-related "downtime" every two or three hours to work out the mental kinks, you're probably not working that hard to begin with. Have fun congratulating yourself on your "superior work ethic" as you shuffle windows on your desktop all day, and pray your management never institutes meaningful performance metrics.

Re:Hmmm

[peterpi]

Somebody's going to post the link, so it might as well be me :)

http://xkcd.com/214/ [xkcd.com]

Re:Asking slashdot?

[ImaLamer]

Your answer:

5,462 replies beneath your current threshold.

Re:Box Folding

[The Clockwork Troll]

I study topology in addition to working full time

Is that code for eating doughnuts? If so, I am a topology master.

Re:Asking slashdot?

[hobo sapiens]

I bark at people like you.

No, seriously.

Someone came to ask me a stupid question that a Google search could have answered, and yes, you guessed it: I had a deadline.

So I started barking.

He never came back again.

The Phantom Shitter Revealed?

[pipingguy]

If that's true, you (and your kind) may actually be the phantom shitter (what with having nothing better to do and time to waste). By this I mean those who are anally agile enough to deposit a semi-solid mass on the backside of the interior of a toilet bowl that doesn't get washed away by normal flushing.

I've seen this phenomenon on a few occasions and have never been sure if it was a religious thing, a college prank intended to send the message "I am here", some sort of weirdly-oriented sphincter or evidence of shitting aliens in our midst. Screw SETI, solve the phantom shitter mystery first!

Re:Asking slashdot?

[haploc]

Usually, during downtime, the IT department is the one that needs to START working, in order to get things up again!

Re:Downtime? Ack!

[Mike89]

I never participate, as I am still learning the concept of social interaction using oral communication.

I love the fact this is moderated interesting.

Re:Asking slashdot?

[ancientt]

Now I know your slashdot ID Ronald! Just wait until I show the boss your posts about overlords and electronic girlfriends.