Where time stops and the magic never ends
Posted by Isabel on May 10th, 2007. Filed under: Work.Work has been draining. Not in a I’m so busy I can’t think straight way, but more in a I’m so sick of this boring work I think I’m going to die way.
Let’s pretend that your job consists of you looking at pictures of used pencil erasers. Boring, no? Now let’s pretend that you’ve been looking at these same used eraser pictures for almost two years. Very boring, no?
One of my team members likened our project to a vortex of deep and dark depression.
I concur.
Some of us have vowed to liven things up. Hence my co-worker giving me flowers last week. Something else he’s trying out is a series of commands for us to follow. When he says “roll out” we are all supposed to roll our chairs out into the hallway to chat. When he says “prairie dog” we are all supposed to pop our heads up from our cubicles to see what’s up.
Yesterday he surprised me this sign, made out of chopsticks, waving above his cubicle:
Can’t tell what his sign says? Yeah, neither could I. Upon closer inspection I found it said:
It totally says Xanadu.
Apparently my co-worker saw the movie last weekend and has decided that the movie’s tag line of where time stops and the magic never ends was much better then our previous work tag line about the vortex of deep and dark depression.
I concur.
So tell me, what do you do to make work more bearable?
May 10th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Ha. I love it.
I make work more bearable by blogging and reading blogs and emails and watching the occasional tv show on my computer. And since I am in my very own awesome office… I can do that. I can also fart without being heard. Oh the joys of having my own office!
May 10th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I may (or may not) read blogs for a slight portion of my morning. I may (or may not) make several trips to the break room for hot chocolate refills and bagels. I may (or may not) stare at a map of the world and imagine all the fantastic places I could visit if I JUST had a couple thousand extra dollars. I may (or may not) photoshop personal pics…because the IT team so carefully downloaded PS 7.0 onto my new comptuer. And I may (or may not) take long “lunches with clients”… that really are more like “gab fest with girlfriends”… I don’t expense them, so I think it’s ok.
May 10th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Carissa nailed my techniques for workplace boredom… write blog entries, read blogs, watch movies on my computer (on my lunch break!!), watch episodes of Heroes that I missed…. check Gmail compulsively… go to the coffee shop upstairs 3 times a day… do web research on anything that strikes my fancy…
It’s been mind-numbingly boring around here, too, lately.
May 10th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I futz around in Blogland. I have also been known to search YouTube for various All My Children episodes. Whatever works, right?
May 10th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
well lets see, speaking of bordem I don’t have that right now at work because I only have 20 days left before my maternity leave starts so we’re trying to get stuff done. in my “spare” time at work we have a nature trail that is just short of a mile – we’re allowed to go down there so most of the time we go on walks and end up staying down there for awhile. my mom’s boyfriend also lives right up the road so i’ll go “visit clients” when my mom is there – matter of fact today I had to go see a press conference about my favorite NASCAR driver (remember I live in the south – its a must to have a favorite driver). other than that I do have my own office so I’ll watch movies on my laptop and surf all my favorite blogs. what happened to the king’s friday reports?
heres to hoping your day passes quickly!
May 10th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I read your blog.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Ditto the others. Read blogs, compulsively check GMail (there should be an official syndrome name, Gmail-itis or something), check my message boards, IM with my husband, go to the library (it’s right across the street!), shoot the breeze with my co-workers.
Work is usually pretty good…even if the work itself is mind-numbingly dull, I manage to stay pretty happy.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I thought that’s why God invented blogs…to make work bearable.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Ditto on the blogs. In fact, it’s when I”m really busy at work that I fall way behind on my blog reading and writing because I typically don’t spend much time on the computer at home.
I also may have been known to hold a book on my lap, mostly under my desk, so I can read it but quickly hide it and look busy when i hear the tell-tale jingle of the keys in my boss’s pocket coming down the hallway. Maybe. I also maybe really hate the days when my boss doesn’t have his keys in his pocket and sneaks up on us.
I also like using my down time to get personal stuff done. I definitely planned most of my wedding and wrote all of my post-wedding thank-you notes right here at my desk.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Besides the ever popular blog reading and email…
dailylit.com will deliver books to your email account one chapter at a time.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I could sometimes leave work for appointments. Sometimes. Then sometimes I could email all of my friends from my old job where I actually liked people. I also could look for split ends in my hair. They really seem to accumulate at the front of my head near the bangs area. So, I trim them, yep, right there at my cube.
I also check for stray eyebrows. Sometimes, I could possibly grab some papers and walk around like I have something important to show to someone important, but really just go to the bathroom and for a walk around the building.
And speaking of those cool people that I left at old job, I also have a spork taped to my desk. It is our reminder that we decided when it was just too too bad at work we could dig our eyes out with. If needed, it can also be thrown at others as they walk by.
I also like to catch up on office gossip just to make sure I am not out of the loop
May 10th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Let’s see. Poke my eyes out with a plastic fork. Make lists on sticky notes semi-compulsively. Moisturize my cuticles. Pee, a lot, even if I don’t have to. iChat. More list-making.
Can you tell I am o-v-e-r my job too?
May 10th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
If I don’t do the online jigsaw from my local newspaper’s website everyday, I get the shakes. I have totally lucked out, though – I am now expected to check my personal email address in case my company’s insurance provider sends us an email. So I check it about eleventy billion times a day. And as long as I’m checking that personal email, why not check my Gmail, too?
May 10th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
I don’t work very many hours throughout the week since I am in school full time, but the time I am there, I browse the internet. Back when I used to work full time I don’t really remember what I did to keep me entertained. I didn’t socialize, because all the people at my work are freakin’ weird!
May 10th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I am on straight commission (mortgage loan officer) so, unfortunately….it is work, work, work. Sometimes when I just don’t care and I can’t take anymore….I just leave! I love the “roll out” and “prairie dog” ideas!!!!
May 10th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I used to make work bearable by blogging on my lunch hour. That was when I only worked 10 hour days and didn’t know the extent to which my life force could be drained. Now I work 12 hour days, for what actually amounts to be less pay then I was making before, and I have nothing to make the pain of endless tedium and monotony go away.
I should start snooping through people’s desks or something.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:07 am
As soon as I saw this posts title, I knew you were referencing Xanadu – I LOVE THAT MOVIE! Okay, I’m a dork, but what’s new.
I read blogs, the news online, shop online, and pretty much anything else that you can do while on the computer. I get up and walk around from time to time as well, and even go outside when I get the chance. Oh, and I listen to lots of music!
I work, I really do…
May 11th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Most of the time I’m up and about a bit at work, running around to various meetings or hanging out somewhere to concept. It’s nice because it breaks up the day pretty well. But when I start to get really bored, I make hot chocolate runs to the galley for a sugar rush.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:47 am
I heart your coworker. That’s the kind of people to have in the next cube.
What do I do? I read blogs. I lock my office door, crank up the air conditioner and lie on the couch. I tried keeping track of a Thin Mint that had fallen under the table holding the microwave in the breakroom, but it is finally gone. And I miss it.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
What an awesome coworker! He is a blessing. When I got to the point that you are at (in January) I submitted my resignation. LOL. But then again MY coworker had left in October.
Hang in there! Your coworker is awesome.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I read Hola, Isabel to fight the boredom. Because right now? I’m in that deep vortex.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
oh, Or I instant message SJ on gmail. But it’s a secret. Shush!
May 11th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Well there’s blogs. And online shopping. Chatting on instant messenger and o\f course chatting with co-workers is always an option. Slooowww trips to the bathroom in which you chat with every possible person on the way there and back? At my old office there was highway traffic/car accidents to watch on a fairly regular basis. Morbid but sometimes interesting????
May 14th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I blog! But then, I get behind at work and work is even more unbearable. Catch 22.