5:00-5:30...the most boring 30 minutes of my life

[RoJoHen]

My office closes at 5pm. However, someone "needs to be here" until 5:30 "in case the phone rings."

So at 5, when everybody leaves, I get left behind for an extra half hour with absolutely nothing to do. It would be one thing if I could use this time to catch up on work, but I just don't have that much work to do.

So...here I am...waiting for the phone to ring...which it never, ever does.

 

[Lindley]

Bring a book?

 

[Jadzia]

Spend time deciding what to make for dinner. Think of things you might want to buy on your way home.

Get paper and a pen. Think of ideas for things and write them down. For example, if you want to redecorate a room in your house, draw the room as it is now, and various possibilities for how it could be.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I sit around and watch the phone but no one's callin'....

 

[sojourner]

So, if the phone rings, and you're the only one there, what are you supposed to do? Call everyone back to work? Maybe you could point out to whoever gave you this task that nothing can be done for the caller anyway and that an appropriate voice mail should be setup.

 

[JarodRussell]

Thanks for letting us take part at the most boring part of your life

 

[RoJoHen]

So, if the phone rings, and you're the only one there, what are you supposed to do? Call everyone back to work? Maybe you could point out to whoever gave you this task that nothing can be done for the caller anyway and that an appropriate voice mail should be setup.

Well, depending on the caller, there are many things I can do. 90% of the phone calls that come in throughout the day are for me anyway. It's just that nobody calls that late in the day.

Thanks for letting us take part at the most boring part of your life

It's what you're here for.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

My office closes at 5pm. However, someone "needs to be here" until 5:30 "in case the phone rings."

In case someone is making desperate beyond-the-last-minute calls? If it does ring, are you supposed to pick it up and say "no-one's here; we're closed"

 

[RoJoHen]

My office closes at 5pm. However, someone "needs to be here" until 5:30 "in case the phone rings."

In case someone is making desperate beyond-the-last-minute calls?

Pretty much.

It's just dumb because we already have an after-hours service set up. As soon as I hit the "Night Ring" button, they get forwarded to an 800 number, where an operator will take their information and send it to us in the morning.

I don't understand what is accomplished by me in that half hour that the 800 service can't do.

 

[Yoda]

Are you paid hourly? Do you make money in that 30 minutes of absolutely nothing? In that case be glad!

 

[RoJoHen]

I do not. I do get to come in a half-hour after everybody else does in the morning, though.

 

[Yoda]

You get to sleep in an extra half hour in exchange for a half hour of doing nothing? Still sounds like a win to me!

 

[auntiehill]

Take that extra 30 minutes to rifle through everyone's desk and see if they have any spare change or candy stashed away.

 

[CaptainStoner]

It also gives you the opportunity to walk around the office naked.

 

[RoJoHen]

Take that extra 30 minutes to rifle through everyone's desk and see if they have any spare change or candy stashed away.

Everybody locks their office!

 

[shivkala]

When I worked in an office, the last 30 minutes were always the worst, even when I wasn't the only one there. Time seems to slow down and, I, a perpetual procrastinator would look at my work pile and decide on the things that couldn't get done today, so why bother getting started.

I did work, briefly, for a mom and pop type business and was left by myself in the office quite often. I remember doing a lot of posting on here back then!

I'm not sure what you have or what the policies are where you work, but I might use that time to watch something (Netflix or Hulu, if you have it, on an iPhone or iPad), or, on your computer, if your job doesn't mind.

Reading is another good suggestion.

Or, you could talk to your bosses to see if they could come up with a rotating schedule, where others in the office get to come in late in exchange for leaving a little later one day a week, to lessen your burden.

 

[milo bloom]

That's called "surf the internet without having to twitch-minimize your browser when the boss comes by" time.

 

[Kestra]

Give us the number and we'll all take turns calling you and keeping you company.

 

[RoJoHen]

That's called "surf the internet without having to twitch-minimize your browser when the boss comes by" time.

Meh, my boss doesn't really care anyway. I spend a good portion of my day on my MacBook chatting with friends.

 

[sojourner]

So, you get to come in half an hour later and get half an hour of "very little work" time at the end of the day? Yeah, like someone else said, that sounds like pure bonus "glass half full" to me.