IT/IS - Bored... 1

[Cryptospy]

Okay, I don't know if this happens to many of you, but I've found that when things are working perfectly, which they seem to have been the last couple of days, I've been quite bored, sitting, staring at my monitor, monitoring the connections. What do you recomend I do during the day that things are working. Surf? Read my manuals so much before I go bug-eyed.

Cryptospy

 

[butchrecon]

Read up on things you may know very little about or want to know more of. Furthering your knowlege is a good thing to do when you have down time. Also try setting up a server and testing things you want to with out risking your current LAN environment. These are both VERY excellent things that many employers will support. James Collins
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[edfair]

Under the same set of circumstances I just spent 3 days capturing web pages + gifs and modifying the html to run the pages off a floppy. Forced me to study about navigator and explorer and to think through what I was capturing and how. And how it could be modified. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[pivan]

Surf...or climb.

Work on resume.

Wait...things will change.

pivan In not now, when?
If not here, where?
If not us, who?

Just do it!!

 

[MasterRacker]

If you really want to kill time, set up a Win2K workstation then try to install and run Windows 2.0 in a command window.
Jeff

I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

Take the time to learn something new.... Mike Wills
RPG Programmer

"I am bad at math because God forgot to include math.h into my programming!"

Please let us (Tek-Tips members) know if the solutions I provide are helpful to you. Not only do my posts help you but they may help others.

 

[NOnoy]

pivan: Hahahaa that was the best post I seen!!!
Funny but all so well true.

To the original poster: Yes I get bored a lot of times too but I also have a lot of things I want to learn so that keeps me busy. So much information to learn, so little time.


I have an idea. Break the thing that is working and see how fast you can fix it without anybody knowing it was ever broken.

- NOnoy

==================================
pivan (IS/IT--Manageme) Sep 12, 2001
Surf...or climb.

Work on resume.

Wait...things will change.

pivan
In not now, when?
If not here, where?
If not us, who?

Just do it!!

 

[psarros]

if you are bored....count your blessings

just grab a book and learn something new

 

[BeckahC]

You can always sign-on to Tek-Tips and talk with other once-in-awhile-bored IT people... Nice to meet you!

I can definitely relate - yesterday was a day that I was all over the place fixing things... last week there were a couple of days I had to actually run for the bathroom because there was no time for anything those days, I even worked a half day on Sat... Now I have time to socialize and learn here on Tek-Tips and to look stuff up and catch up on the little things, and I can almost garantee that I will be bored for the better half of this week... But next week or so I'll be back at that fevered pace again!X-) BeckahC

 

[GlenJohnson]

What BeckahC said about browsing this site is exactly what I do. I find all kinds of things I didn't even know I needed to know, but ended up making my life easier. I also find it nice to be able to help out people once in a while. I'll take bored over users not being able to logon or servers giving me grief any day of the week. Good luck. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional

"It is never too late to learn what is always necessary to know".
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC - 65AD); Roman philosopher and statesman.

 

[BeckahC]

Thanks Glen!

I definitely agree... while I enjoy and thrive on the fast paced, challenging, stressful, long hours days... I don't think I'd survive for very long if I didn't have the slow ones as a buffer to recover and learn at a slower, more relaxed pace. We all need that recharge time to be as sharp as possible. I can be here, reading and learning while I have a DTS package running between a couple of my servers, I check back in a minute or two, do some more tweaking and run a query, and it's back here again for another tip or two. If I'm bored, I know I'm in for a busy day soon enough... BeckahC

 

[elizabeth]

Cryptospy, try keeping a 'to do' list. Every time you have a question or idea you don't have time to research, type it on the bottom of your list. When you get bored you have a grab bag full of things you have already identified as useful or interesting. It's reduces the frustration level when you're busy, too. If you spend too much time bored, consider working towards a new certification or degree, because your employers may also discover they don't need a full-timer and you will need to go on to something new.

 

[AndrewBillits]

either that or they will replace you with some idiot who thinks he/she knows everything and works for dirt.(I've seen it happen too many times)

 

[sleipnir214]

I was an Army helicopter mechanic in a former life. The Army at that time was recruiting in-house for victims volunteers for paratrooper school.

I raised the question, "Why would I jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"

To which my sargeant raised an eyebrow and replied, "You're a airplane mechanic. Have you ever seen a perfectly good airplane?"


There is always something to do. Now I admit I once actually got down to vacuuming out the servers before something else broke, but it was close.

I'd like to second elizabeth's idea. I am forever getting a couple of free minutes, sitting down in front of the keepboard, then immediately forgetting what it was I originally sat down to look up. ______________________________________________________________________
Did you know?
The quality of our answers is directly proportional to the number of stars you vote?

 

[JazzGeek]

It seems many of you need to be in a Management position as well as the support tech position you are in. You sound like you just may have the wrong job.

I'm an IT manager as well as the only tech support person at my company, and let me tell you, when everything is running great, then that's when I start to "Manage." It's never ending. Plan for the future of your company, upgrades, patches on all your software, budget requirments, etc. etc. And then summit reaons why all this money has to be spent, and then send this on to your president. They will respect and admire you for it and think twice before they hire a 17 years tech dynamo who will work for HALF of what you make.

Sounds to me like many of you would do well in a position like this. If not, then MAKE this position for you at your current company... work side by side with your IT Manager, earn respect, gain recognition.

 

[GlenJohnson]

Do not want Management. Have my hands full doing research, which could be full time job in itself. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
Victor Hugo (1802-1885); French writer.

 

[JazzGeek]

"Do not want Management."

Well, I can't blame you. It's hard work! And it's time consuming to do both technical and managerial.

But hey, I'm never "BORED."
MCSE 4.0, Network+, A+, Web Developer

 

[GlenJohnson]

Neither am I. In the process of converting Novell 4.0 network to W2K Domain. aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
Victor Hugo (1802-1885); French writer.

 

[JazzGeek]

I feel your pain Sebastian Jazzer
MCSE 4.0, Network+, A+, Web Developer

 

[GlenJohnson]

Not have as much as I do! Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
Victor Hugo (1802-1885); French writer.