So much free time and not a slacker 6

[dennisbbb]

As an admin for my company sometimes there are so much free time. I usually finish my routine within the first 3 hours or so, the remaining time I would read papers and news and handle emails, work and personals.

Yes there are times when I experiment with new software and technology days on end. It is not part of my job description but that is one way I learn newer stuffs.

From this post, I'm wondering if you guys do the same. I know there are some who works in an under-staffed environment so your day is filled with case after case. But for those of you who are in a much calmer environment, what do you do to kill time? Let's get a survey.

 

[Auger282]

its part of my job to reasearch new stuff... nots not really part of "down time" thats part of the routine.

There is always something new that can be scripted or optimized or look at the switch ports.. traffic.. demand..

certification traning..

If I did have downtime I would work on succession documentation.. becuase I wouldnt be working there for long.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Dennis,

Since this is an "...Ethics in the Workplace" forum, I believe it is appropriate to ask yourself, "What is best and right for the company (along with what is best for myself)?"

I, personally, have been in similar situations previously. Rather than trying to identify activities that will make me appear to be "busy", I've asked myself, "If I were the CIO of this organisation, what are simple projects that we could undertake that would increase our information-value proposition?"

Once I identified such projects, I rated the projects by "cost-benefit ratio". I then developed a working model for each of those projects (in order of my ranking priority).

Note that I didn't say anything about "obtaining authorisation or funding" for the projects...A few "Principles of Success" that I have discovered over my career are:

1) If you don't want "No" for an answer, then don't ask.
2) It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
3) If you create a "Paradigm Shift", then don't expect advocacy from those with a vested interest in the current paradigm.

Creating these models and following these priciples resulted in bonuses and promotions that solidified my position within the organisation.

Conversely, simply "looking busy" or "making work" soon show up on the RADAR of savvy managers, causing them to wonder, "Why do I have them draining my budget and headcount if they have nothing important to do for 1/2 of their day?". (Of course, most savvy managers are smart enough to manage work loads of their team members so that no one is "looking for [or manufacturing] work".)

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[dennisbbb]

hahah thanks Mufasa!! I may not have the right wording for my posts sometimes, but I think the idea is clear most time.

 

[LadySlinger]

Yes, my job could essentially be a part time position but I'm not going to brag that to the boss...LOL.

Anyhoo, I usually spend the time looking into costs of potential upgrades and licensing, scale how it would benefit to upgrade rather than stay the same.

I also take the time to review my documentation (or as Auger puts it my succession documentation) make sure that's up to date and if anything else needs to be added.

I also read online about the latest threats and security issues and any other equipment that could benefit the company.

Hate to say this too...but I do have a second job at the moment (temp) where I'm teaching an introductory course. If I'm extremely down and need a break from my day job, then I will grade papers, write up hand outs, and update all the students information.

 

[BJ9]

Good grief LadySlinger, your life sounds remarkably like mine. Right down to grading paper etc. LOL

 

[LadySlinger]

I really wonder though with everything so automated in this day & age how many of us IT people really have a lot of downtime?

 

[RandeKnight]

I've currently got a lot of downtime...because I don't have the access to do my projects.
a) can't install the version management tool, so I can't change any code.
b) can't access the shared drive, so I can't update any documentation.
c) can't email externally, so can't communicate with clients.

Doing a little bit of admin work, but that doesn't take long.

Of course, it's only starting my 4th week here on this contract...can't expect my account to be setup properly so quickly after all...

Rand

 

[Toni269]

Christ. Where do you guys work? I've never had downtime, (On a quick lunch break now) I just got a 200 hour overtime check. There is more work here than I know what to do with (enough for 3 full time people). When I started 7 years ago they never gave me any assignments, I created this myself! As in the other posts, there is always room for improvements, you got to look for them - with everything automated, someone has to run the automations, we will have job security. Guess you need to be the self-starter type with lots of ideas to keep busy and constantly improve your company's systems, infrastructure, documentation, business continuity, and your training.

If you're really not busy, and everything in the IT world is perfect (hard to imagine!) - could you go to other departments, look at their processes and ensure they are performing their jobs the most efficient way? Maybe there could be an IT automated solution you could implement and be a hero.

 

[infinitelo]

the last two jobs ive had were companies that tend to work one person to the brink for a couple of months, then move on to someone else. a real roller coster ride... looks like my quiet cycle is ending by the end of the month and ill get to really rock and roll for the next two months. ive just spent the last two months counting ceiling tiles, updateing old docs, and organizing manuals on the bookshelf.
I kinda feel sorry for the guy comming off the busy cycle for his first time. boy is this going to be a shocker. About the time you get used to going full steam ahead, everything stops, at least his office has a nice window where the birds and rabbits hang out.


if it is to be it's up to me

 

[lespaul]

I just got a 200 hour overtime check.

Even if your pay period is a month, that's 50 hours of overtime a week, so you're working 90 hours per week? Eighteen hour days, 5 days a week or 12 hours 7 days a week?

Get paid every two weeks? Then that means you work 140 hours a week? impossible.

Either way, you aren't doing yourself any favors by focusing all your time and energy at work.....

Guess you need to be the self-starter type with lots of ideas to keep busy and constantly improve your company's systems

Even is someone is a self-starter doesn't mean that those in charge will allow the changes to "constantly improve" the systems. Especially in large organizations, you can't just change something because you think it will work better your way.

Especially for Network Admins, there's going to be down time, if you have your network configured and secure. After that point the admin is there to fix it if it doesn't work. Nobody bothers to praise when the network is working, but they sure do complain quick enough when it's not.

and if someone has to run the automations, they aren't automated.....

Leslie

Anything worth doing is a lot more difficult than it's worth - Unknown Induhvidual

Essential reading for anyone working with databases:
The Fundamentals of Relational Database Design
Understanding SQL Joi

 

[dennisbbb]

Leslie: You just took the words out of my mind. A star for you!

With 8 years as the Admin, I can things have been "stable". I can sleep thru the night without that dreaded phonecall from a graveyard shift manager or make sure my cellphone is placed right next to my pillow. Like they say in the movies: "been there and done that". Yes I can switch the non-criticle systems inside and out, but the saying is so true when your colleagues say "why fix it when it's not broken?". Our current network is "secure enough". I won't drive myself to the brinks trying to prove myself anymore. What is it gonna prove to the CIO? As far as I know, the business is running great, the users are happy, and I'm happy, what more do I do as an Admin but to "count the tiles" and read up until my mind tires out. All this doesn't mean there are no improvements to be made or upgrades to perform, maybe not today, nor tomorrow, but when the time is right.

I simply wonder what you all do during your down times.

 

[eyeswideclosed]

Sometimes people see somebody running around crazily overworked and say wow he's really busy, what a hard worker, but maybe he just isn't very good and has to fix things all the time, when the guy who looks like he's not doing much is that way because he did things right and everything's running smoothly.

If more than 1 goose are geese, why aren't more than 1 moose meese??

 

[Toni269]

Ok, I'm not eligible for overtime, but yes I do get paid every 2 weeks, no one calculated the overtime it's a number they dreamed up for the past two months of my work to compensate me for additional hours and successful projects. Yes I was working 7 days per week, we did some moves and upgrades that kept me on several overnighters during weekends with no sleep at all - (thank you Red Bull.) My company has 5 sites and I have to manage all of them but one remotely and I'm the only one. I absolutely love what I do, this is what drives me to keep doing more and love learning all that I do. Guess since there isn't anyone else around to tell me "no" makes it easy to just do what I know is best for my company.

My friend is a video games programmer, you should check their stats - when they go into crunch mode they do 140 hour work weeks and then some. Makes no sense to me, I doubt they are as effective when they work them like that - for that life the big bucks they make aren't worth it at any price.

 

[LadySlinger]

I can be a self starter, it's just hard to do so when the company you work for has already gotten everything up to date.

The last job I worked for, I was just bringing them out of the 1995 era of computers. I was busy bringing them up to speed for their local office by convincing them that a printer that takes 15 minutes to print 1 page isn't saving them money, etc.

I started here and all the servers were 1 year old, running an automated backup (which we just updated), along with a weekly virus scan, and their client computers were in the process of being trashed for new ones.
The most excitement I've had was a major upgrade for our accounting software...but it was just a version rather than a complete change so most of the questions were solved by finding the info in a slightly different place.

 

[Tarwn]

My downtime happens when i am drinking my first coffee in the morning, before I got to work. I read TT, cruise a couple tech sites, occasionally look into a piece of my own code that is acting quirky.
Once I get to work there is no downtime. We recently broght a new company under the corporate fold and their idea of middleware is 400 MS Access forms all tied directly into a database that everyone has full rights to, with an evolutionary WMS system that requires constant supervision and change by the consultants who wrote it, etc. On top of that the company keeps trying to do new and intersting things with no concern for the practical things like asking IF it can be done or SHOULD it be done.
So yeah, little to no downtime once I getto work. But even with the insanity I keep myself to normal business hours, only staying late if they are in a production down situation. I once worked a job where I pounded code out for 60+ hours a week. I am beyond the need to do it again.

 

[Gooser]

When nothing is going on, polish the firetruck.

--Gooser

 

[rphips]

Down time in the work place - working 60+ hours a week - all I can say is "better you than me"

I been in this field since the late seventies - spent numerous hours working and developing, upgrading and designing new systems, shoot I even had the job of saving the companies clients when they where ready to stick our program up our ___. I travel to them and spend lots and lots of hours analyzing and fixing the problem. Then conviencing the customer to keep the product - and the thing I found out the most ------

Todays companies have no loyality to you - you are just as Expendable and replaceable as everybody else in this world.

You may think you got the job tied up. You work long hours and you proven to the company that you can save them money, time and equipment - but it doesn't mean a thing - cause when the times get tough, what you have done is soon forgotten - and soon you are 50 - your kids are grown and you didn't even know them, your divorced , and you live alone with your fish - life has passed you by. and you are being pushed out the door by the next generation.

Yes it may sound bitter - but its not - It happens to a lot of use old timers in the tech field. I know a lot of fifty plus techies who started and worked in this whole technical revolution so most of you who call yourself techies can push a wizard button and claim they programmed or follow the prompts and claim they installed a network
but thats for another string----

Currently I work as a network engineer - where there is no need for overtime - I come and go as I want - I coach soccer now for my kids and the family is finaly coming back togther - Downtime there is plenty - wouldn't have it any other way - My focus on life has changed from the heavy drive to be the best and make lots of money to I would rather make less - see my family a lot more and enjoy what all us old people understand

" LIFE IS TOO SHORT"

So I say to those out there who think they are supermen/women chill - enjoy some downtime - there is more to life then technology and it is to short not to enjoy. But if you really believe working massive amounts of overtime is a great life studing ever new technology will get you ahead - more power to ya - and when you are in your fifities (if I am still around) let me know just how great your life has been.

bob

"ZOINKS !!!!!"

Shaggy

 

[attrofy]

rphips you hit the nail on the head. I relocated to the midwest to get away from the hustle and bustle of the east for the very reasons you mentioned - every day I watched my kids turn another page in the chapter of their childhoods, and I wasn't as big a part of it as I wanted (or needed) to be.

I took a cut in pay, I did a "fresh start" in the middle of all our lives, and up and moved the family - all the way down to whatever wouldn't fit in the 91 Lumina and a 4' X 8' Uhaul trailer became unessential. Like the Beverly Hillbillies, whatever wasn't tied on, strapped down, or tucked in got left.

It took me almost 2 years to get squarely back on my feet, and I did a lot of crap jobs in the interim, and ate lots of peanut butter and jelly - but I would do it again in a heart beat (and I may if this job folds up). No it wasn't fun, and there are a million other ways I would rather do it, but there are more valuable things in life.

As for downtime, there is almost always something to do - somewhere. I go through my fair share of slow time, and like others, I find work for myself. Even if it is just organizing notes, creating reports or other "essential" things that someone that comes behind me may find of value. Research and purchasing always gets tied in from time to time. When things get really slow...gulp...I even ask if there is something else I should be doing. I am usually given some meaningless data entry project, or something else that really has no significant value - but its percieved value is high enough to keep the boss happy.

I will second one notion - things you do are so easily forgotten. In my experience, it is usually as the latest and greatest miracle is rolling off the shelf, the next crisis takes precedence, and all previous miracles have long been forgotten. Also, as rphips stated, no job is secure - no matter if you are the only guy in the company or not - you are still replacable.

For this reason, if possible, I try to multi-task my job and neccesity to the company. It is easy to cross platform into e-commerce, tech support, help desk, data warehousing, data processing, etc. If your company allows it. Since I try to stick with the smaller companies, I find this works well.

 

[jmell]

I find that searching new sites helps keep me vibrant and alert. I even found a new search engine that appears to be rivaling google -

http://www.searchbigdaddy.com/jmell

Keeping my mind active and learning all the new tricks helps to keep my company competitive.