How much do you actually work when you're at work?

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:14 am

I guess I'm kinda old school, when I'm at work, I'm actually working. Hell, when I'm away from work I'm often working as well (making calls, doing paperwork, studying continuing education stuff, etc.), not that working too much is a good thing.

Seems these days many folks spend much of their "work day" on-line chatting, posting on forums, updating their facebook and myspace profiles etc. At least that's my perception based on what I see and hear on-line and from people I know who have desk jobs. So I'm curious, how many hours of your on-the-clock work day do you spend doing things that are not specific to you job?

Loren (And no, I'm not at work right now)

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:41 am

At one of my jobs I don't have a computer but at another one I can go online sometimes. Most of the time I'm online, though, is not time I am at work.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:46 am

Actually, not that much. Probably about an hour. And since I generally come in early and leave late, I think it about balances out.
One week I'm in the office, and one week I'm out on site. When I'm out on site, I'm working completely - sometimes through lunch. It's an eleven-hour day, if you count the travelling.

Also it depends how busy things are. Often I'm waiting for people to get back to me when I'm on support. So I'll check my hotmail, or see what's on the forums.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:47 am

It's so hard to guage in my job. There's a lot of time where I'm waiting for a
simulation to run, so I look something work-related up on the Internet, and
while I'm in the browser, I check email or C&F. Then I get a message that
the simulation is done and I switch back to check results. I find it hard to
delineate well enough to give you a percentage. Even before the Internet,
there were people who would take many breaks to talk to officemates during
the day, or otherwise screw around. Little has changed, really.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:17 pm

I don't get paid by the hour.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:24 pm

double edged sword, innit!

crookedtune · Post by **crookedtune** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:30 pm

I'm online all day, every day. I'm monitoring multiple systems, and supervising the administrators and operators who run those systems, (AIX and i5/OS).

I work roughly 45 hours/week. If I broke out the amount of time I spend looking at screens that are unrelated to my job, I'd put it at about 1-2 hours/day. My usual haunts are: Cnn, my financial accounts, Craig's List, eBay, C&F, etc....

That's a lot of time, but I'd venture to guess it's not unusual. I think it basically goes with the turf for IT folks.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:46 pm

Denny wrote:double edged sword, innit!

Yup..i try to make sure that my 'staying late working' time is well balanced by my 'goofing off at work' time.

sbfluter · Post by **sbfluter** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:38 pm

I don't work at the moment. Today is my first day to say that. It's odd.

I always believed that when you went to work you worked 100% of the time. I have spent the past 10 years feeling horribly guilty finding this to be impossible to do.

The job I just left was very strange. I spent most of my time just waiting for feedback. I could have done much more work except that the more projects I was waiting for feedback on, the more confused I would get, and the more each individual project would conflict in some way with another. So at maximum efficiency at that job, I could probably only work about 4 hours a day.

I tried to fill the extra time with creative side-projects, however I never knew when a flood of piddly little requests would come in that would ruin my concentration and force me to put aside whatever I was doing. It got to be that surfing the Internet was the most I could commit mentally.

The idea that you have to physically be present in the office for a job like that was too oppressive so I walked away from it into the abyss of unemployment.

missy · Post by **missy** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:30 pm

I'd say I usually spend more than 8 hours a day are spent on "work".

But, as some others have said, I'm online just about 100% of the time at work, and probably 50% of the time at home. I'll have multiple things going at one time, so while I'm waiting for something to update for work, I can drop in on C&F. Or while I'm at home I can do some of the mindless mapping of synonyms to materials, etc. for work while cruising around the web.
My boss has no problem with me actually taking an entire day or two and working from home if I have something I absolutely need to concentrate on to get done. Since I'm first line support for our system - I constantly get interupted by phone calls, IMs, and emails when I'm in the office. When I work from home, I keep the IM off, I don't call into Audix, and I only check the email about once an hour.
Since I also support a global system, even our off days or holidays have to be at least "covered" for crisis - so I am usually logged on at least several times a day when "not working".

I absolutely have refused to get a Crackberry because I'm already "in touch" enough. The "important" people have my cell if it's that necessary. It usually isn't.

crookedtune · Post by **crookedtune** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:43 pm

missy wrote:I absolutely have refused to get a Crackberry because I'm already "in touch" enough.

So did I, for as long as I could. My leash is now securely fastened. Oh, did I mention that I've got a third shift, too....?

So then, I'll not be made to feel guilty about a bit of harmless idling.

Diane, I feel your pain, and good luck with whatever comes next.

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:45 pm

For me it varies. There are some things (writing, reading, CAD) that I just can't do for 8-10 hours straight, so at those times I might goof off a couple hours a day. OTOH, when I'm in the lab, which is too seldom, I'm all business and hate getting interrupted even by important stuff.

I've always been pretty good at keeping my nose to the grindstone. Outside of a music history course in college, I only ever went to the library once, which was to dig up an old journal. People marveled at how "little" I studied. I tried to get them to understand that when I worked, I really worked, but very few got it. Till one day a couple of guys worked with me on a homework assignment. We did in 3-4 hours what would probably have taken anyone in the library several times that. They finally accepted that I wasn't some kind of superhuman or slacker who depended on other people's work, I was just someone who worked hard and played hard. Still am.

jlunt · Post by **jlunt** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:47 pm

I'm at work 7-3 M-F, and I work 7-3 M-F plus a couple hours in the evenings spent on research or paperwork. But I'm a teacher. Pay sucks but great vacation time.

larrym. · Post by **larrym.** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:22 pm

Even though I'm technically a manager, it's just for an extra $25 a week. I still do the same "grunt" work my crew does. So out of an 8 hour shift (we get a paid 30 minute break) I work (and I meanwork about 7 hours a night.

_____________________________

Larry

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:13 pm

fearfaoin wrote:It's so hard to guage in my job. There's a lot of time where I'm waiting for a
simulation to run, so I look something work-related up on the Internet, and
while I'm in the browser, I check email or C&F. Then I get a message that
the simulation is done and I switch back to check results. I find it hard to
delineate well enough to give you a percentage.

This is pretty much the type of situation I'm in; spurts of very high productivity/activity with periods of downtime, plus I get paid to be "on call" much of the day. A lot of that time is just waiting for issues to arise and dealing with those issues as they arse.