How to appear busy while not doing anything?
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It's been my experience that all the best programmers take their idle time (all 500 ms of it) and use it to code something else that's cool and useful to the company, or at least a demo of it that they can pitch to their boss to see if the project has legs.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
It's been my experience that all the best programmers take their idle time (all 500 ms of it) and use it to code something else that's cool and useful to the company, or at least a demo of it that they can pitch to their boss to see if the project has legs.
While the rest of us shoot the breeze at CP ;)
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
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Here are some really good pointers .... 1. When you're not in your desk, always move around with a a printout or a pen in your hand but make sure that it's something meaningful and not some funny drawing. 2. Never run when you're moving (you spend more time like that) not to mention that everybody would think that you're trying too much to appear working. 3. Have yellow sticker posts on your screen which you move around (left-right-top-bottom) and finally discard at the end of the day. It lets other people know that tasks ARE being appointed to you and you ARE finishing them. 4. Never, Ever let the windows desktop show. It's a good practice to have at least 5 windows open (not the same program though) and also have a 6th opened but not maximized (something like Notepad, my favorite) and write some stuff like a TODO list. 5. In the rarest case that someone gives you something to do, never get off your chair at that instance but first save the Notepad and switch to the next window (AutoCAD, Word, ... etc). That way you're providing a clue that whatever you were doing is critical and important. 6. In the not so seldom case where your boss/supervisor sneaks up behind you and you're surfing the net ..... DO NOT PANIC and DO NOT MINIMIZE OR HIDE THE BROWSER. This doesn't however mean that you can surf to unrelated to your job sites. It's always a good idea to have the GOOGLE page handy with some results on the latest news on whatever your job is about. I'm sure that depending on your job description you can find many more ......
micmanos wrote:
I'm sure that depending on your job description you can find many more ......
But getting it for free from someone else is priceless! :-D
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
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Exactly. It's also a good technique for people who want more out of their career. Want to be on the cool project? Want to play with the fun toys? Show the company what's in it for them and create your own.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
Christopher Duncan wrote:
It's also a good technique for people who want more out of their career. Want to be on the cool project? Want to play with the fun toys? Show the company what's in it for them and create your own.
I think I went way beyond that. After doing it so many times, I am kind of tired and frustrated. So I ask myself, why can't I be more like the other guy in the office, busy all the time but not getting anything useful done? It seems there are a lot of advantages of not doing anything useful. Such as
- Nobody is going to question your design (of nothing).
- Nobody is going to complain about your documentation (none needed).
- No production bug/issue will be counted against you at your performance review.
- Finally you can laugh while watching "Seinfeld" show and understand it too.
:)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
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Looks like he works for an insurance company. It should be easy to look busy while not doing anything.
Bert delaVega wrote:
It should be easy to look busy while not doing anything.
Don't under-estimate the expertise/guts/skill of not doing anything, it may take years of dedication and practice. :)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
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Yes, it is a serious question. :)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
Well, I drink lots of water. That way I can at least get up from my desk about once an hour to use the bathroom...
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Get a government job...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001The key word in this case is "appear". From what I've seen of CS jobs, a lot of them involve being very busy, but not doing anything of value.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
Yes, it is a serious question. :)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
Write in Java Bryce
MCP --- To paraphrase Fred Dagg - the views expressed in this post are bloody good ones. --
Publitor, making Pubmed easy. http://www.sohocode.com/publitorOur kids books :The Snot Goblin, and Book 2 - the Snotgoblin and Fluff
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
It's also a good technique for people who want more out of their career. Want to be on the cool project? Want to play with the fun toys? Show the company what's in it for them and create your own.
I think I went way beyond that. After doing it so many times, I am kind of tired and frustrated. So I ask myself, why can't I be more like the other guy in the office, busy all the time but not getting anything useful done? It seems there are a lot of advantages of not doing anything useful. Such as
- Nobody is going to question your design (of nothing).
- Nobody is going to complain about your documentation (none needed).
- No production bug/issue will be counted against you at your performance review.
- Finally you can laugh while watching "Seinfeld" show and understand it too.
:)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
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Christopher Duncan wrote:
It's also a good technique for people who want more out of their career. Want to be on the cool project? Want to play with the fun toys? Show the company what's in it for them and create your own.
I think I went way beyond that. After doing it so many times, I am kind of tired and frustrated. So I ask myself, why can't I be more like the other guy in the office, busy all the time but not getting anything useful done? It seems there are a lot of advantages of not doing anything useful. Such as
- Nobody is going to question your design (of nothing).
- Nobody is going to complain about your documentation (none needed).
- No production bug/issue will be counted against you at your performance review.
- Finally you can laugh while watching "Seinfeld" show and understand it too.
:)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
I have been in many situations like that before, and all of them pretty much had the same thing in common...people are either jealous or frightened of your abiltities... For real. If they are jealous, then they can try to tear you down so that you don't make them look so bad by being that much more productive and intelligent. This can make some also frightened, because management make wake up and want more people like you. In one situation, I had the director tell the CIO that she wished she had 50 people like me...when this got out...you could guess the havoc. This same place took me 2.5 years to get them to install a VPN solution in (2001-2004 timeframe). I feel your pain. :^)
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Not really. I'm doing a lot of things for my company but unfortunately, not having a clue of IT, they will never realize what i'm doing so in parallel with my actual work, i have to appear as doing something that they thing is of value .... ain't life strange ?? :laugh:
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But that's what developers normaly do...
[My Blog]
"Visual studio desperately needs some performance improvements. It is sometimes almost as slow as eclipse." - Rüdiger Klaehn
"Real men use mspaint for writing code and notepad for designing graphics." - Anna-Jayne MetcalfeYou should come up with a new brilliant design. And then you must create a bug which can only be solved with your design. Then you even get some extra time to : - find the bug - design a solution - solve it. Works like a charm. :laugh:
Learn from the mistakes of others, you may not live long enough to make them all yourself.
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Yes, it is a serious question. :)
My .NET Business Application Framework My Home Page My Younger Son & His "PET"
