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

[Lookingglassman]

Send me your office number. I'll call you to give you something to do.

 

[RoJoHen]

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.

Well, I started this thread during my boring half hour. Today was just especially boring. I started playing around with MS Publisher in an attempt to make a birthday card for one of my coworkers.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Play a practical joke every day, or one that builds up slowly over time.

 

[DBR]

Dude, sometimes I wish I had your problems.

 

[StolenThunder]

I have a similar part of my job between 8am and 9am just now - the end of my shift. When I do have to do things, it always seems such a chore.

 

[Jadzia]

Well, I started this thread during my boring half hour. Today was just especially boring. I started playing around with MS Publisher in an attempt to make a birthday card for one of my coworkers.

You're suffering from a lack of mental stimulation. It may be that this job is beneath you. But one advantage is that you can focus your mind on other things, which is what most people do in work. The work gets done on some kind of autopilot, while your mind is elsewhere, making up jokes, having unholy thoughts, and imagining more enjoyable things.

 

[Jax]

My friend thats what the 3DS was created for or an answering machine so you can leave at 5 like everyone else.

Send me your office number. I'll call you to give you something to do.

That sounds wrong on so many levels

I think we all need to be at his office from 5pm then for some office Laser Tag

 

[RoJoHen]

It may be that this job is beneath you.

This is almost certainly true.

 

[Jadzia]

Are you allowed music, or do you get phone calls frequently enough that it wouldn't be practical?

 

[RoJoHen]

I get no phone calls. That's what makes the half hour so pointless. I think I've gotten 2 phone calls total in the last 3 months.

 

[Holdfast]

Divert the office phone number to your cell phone for that half hour and go home.

Problem solved.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have absolutely no idea how to do that.

Today I stayed for an extra hour to vandalize my coworker's office for his birthday tomorrow.

 

[Holdfast]

I have absolutely no idea how to do that.

Well, it depends on your phone provider, and also whether your business has switchboard software of their own managing incoming calls. So I can't tell you how to specifically do it. But it's a fairly basic and common facility in most businesses, and even with most phone providers, though many people don't realise they can do it. If your phones have a voicemail facility that doesn't require a machine on your desk, or have the ability to transfer calls from one phone in the office to another at the press of a couple of buttons, the odds are that your system can also forward incoming calls to a specific number. You should be able to deactivate the service from your mobile after the half-hour is over by ringing in from the mobile and tapping in the appropriate PIN and deactivation sequence.

It'll be called Call Divert, or Call Forwarding, if you look it up in your office's phone operating manual. Next time you have your quiet half-hour at the end of the day, research how your phone system works, and have your half-hour free from them on!

 

[PKTrekGirl]

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.

Then this whole thing makes absolutely no sense to me. If you can't do anything that the night attendant couldn't do as well.....

 

[RoJoHen]

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.

Then this whole thing makes absolutely no sense to me. If you can't do anything that the night attendant couldn't do as well.....

Trust me, I know.

 

[Kestra]

Divert the office phone number to your cell phone for that half hour and go home.

Problem solved.

But ... then he wouldn't be doing what his employers have asked him to do.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Divert the office phone number to your cell phone for that half hour and go home.

Problem solved.

But ... then he wouldn't be doing what his employers have asked him to do.

Defend the office in case of zombie invasion?