tigerpants's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Did you ever notice how being busy at work can consume you? More importantly, did you ever notice how NOT being busy at work is practically lethal? Recently, I was transferred to a new department within my company. This was a desperate effort to keep me aboard, which I do appreciate. I was able to keep my benefits and level of pay, which is great. With the transfer, though, came a dramatic reduction in responsibility. Normally, that might be nice. A little break, a respite, if you will, from the overworked, crazed, obscenely frenetic pace my industry usually moves at. After just over a year of covering for those people hired for mere weeks at a time (with the level of commitment that implies), I am now in charge one simple task. A task I learned to do 4 years ago. Quickly. It�s all I have to do for the next month and a half. And believe me, it�s not hard. In fact, it�s very likely I�ll be finished with it in the next week or so, not counting the updates that will be inevitable later in the process. And then I�ll be free of my task for a number of weeks. Have you ever actually tried to survive having nothing to do at work? Now, don�t get me wrong. After the past year, it�s nice to think that I can get up, go into work, and stare blankly at my computer screen for hours on end. Also, it�s hideous. It�s difficult to come up with websites to check, people to IM, emails to send, all in an effort to look busy. I�m actually not doing some of my task right now, so I�ll have some of it to do tomorrow. Spreading it out a bit. Work is a part of everyone�s life, for the most part. When you have very little to do, you start to fondly remember the days when you were slammed, because at least those days flew by. Those days didn�t have enough hours in them. You�d sit forever, trying to get through all the little things waiting to be done. These days, things are different. Now, I check my computer clock every 6 minutes or so, hoping that time and space have converged, and my clock has miraculously jumped forward 6 hours instead of those insignificant 6 minutes that might make me cry. On some level, it�s definitely unkind to complain about not having any work to do. Some people truly don�t have any work to do. They don�t even have jobs, and they have people counting on them. On the flip side, however, my company has made such a to-do about transferring me instead of laying me off. How generous a move it was. How kind. How they were only thinking of me. I mean, I guess. They could bring an intern in to do what I�m doing. And the intern would do it well, thoroughly, and more importantly, for free. Do me a favor. Don�t tell them, ok? I�ve nearly got my blank stare perfected, and typing this made me look seriously busy, for at least a few minutes. � 2004 tigerpants nation 4:10 p.m. - 2004-07-27 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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