1

My job is great. I like the people I work with and everyone seems cool. I have been here for 7 months now and everyone is relaxed and chill which sets a very comfortable environment to work in. I came from an elementary school where I was the “everything” man. From your basic IT tasks like showing teachers how to press the power on a computer monitor to patching in cables to get drops workin in certain rooms. I never had a second to sit and relax unless I was eating lunch (when even then I was being called over the walkie). Now I sit in a cubicle all day with a list of tasks to do that dont really have a deadline and no priority to them.

Its monday and every Monday is exactly like this. I come into work, make my coffee in the breakroom in the morning, then sit at my desk all day looking up ways to implement a more secure IT structure. Not a hard job at all, its just BORING. I spend alot of time on spiceworks reading and researching new methods and ideas that would help with the IT department or help manage this 50 user small businesss but that only kills an hour of my day. Im studying to get my comptia linux + then focus on other certs that will help me get a job as a linux admin so I spend alot of time studying at work or sitting at my desk doing nothing.

I feel like I have 3 hours of work I do a day and 5 hours of spare time with no supervision. I dont want to end up getting lazy and watch youtube and hulu all day in the server room and get fired so Im looking for more proactive things to do with all this free time. What kind of things do you guys do productively at work that keep you busy on your off time.

Should I learn a new programming language? does Spiceworks have a badge incentive program or game that we can use to battle against each other? Is anyone interested in creating a spiceworks game? Collaborating on a project together? …Anything?

18 Spice ups
2

You have three options that I see. Not counting enjoying a nap.

1.) Find something that is outside of your job, and work on it. Helping out a coworker perhaps. This will show drive and initiative. Just be sure not to overdo it, and you should probably ask permission first. If all else, just talk to your manager about new responsibilities.

2.) Find an online training site like @CBT Nuggets . If you have down time, it might as well be spent learning about things relevant to you. Some are free, but many employers will pay for this kind of training.

3.) Sharpen your skills by helping people on sites like Spiceworks.

9 Spice ups
3

Have you talked with your boss? Maybe ask for a few more items / projects to work on. How are the other 4 days a week for you? Same kind of boring 3 hours of work, or are those more jam packed?

To be honest I’d welcome a break ever once in a while!

2 Spice ups
4

I’d say you are on the right path. Recognition of complacency puts you ahead of the curve already. I think all of us in the field have felt this way.

Spiceworks does have some virtualization badges that aren’t exactly HARD to obtain, but are fun and fitting for your request.

It sounds like you have a goal of being one of the revered Linux maestros. Your CompTia cert is great place to start. If you have access to extra hardware/running win 10 you could setup a virtual lab to play around with different flavors of Linux based server OS’s.

Look for additional certification opportunities. Microsoft’s virtual academy can help aim you if you are thinking of advancing in the Microsoft world.

Above all friend, stay hungry.

2 Spice ups
5

Now is a great time to create, modify, and/or test your disaster recovery plan. I’d also recommend Professor Messer on YouTube for any certifications you might be interested in, sure it’s YouTube but it’s YouTube with a work related purpose (be sure to approve it with your superiors first though). Also consider building a test lab with spare hardware for testing, vm or physical either one will benefit the company.

I dink around with research such as office app cheat sheets for other departments, new maintenance control software, and best places to purchase hardware from for future uses. Of course these are just a few things you could do but that just a few I could think of. Just my 2 cents.

6

Boring… I’ve Never used that term ever… working in IT. How I wish… :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Spice up
7

Nothing like my stint in security. I literally watched traffic, researched, wrote reports, maintained databases, verified backups, ran other backups, did more research and wrote more reports.

I ate breakfast and lunch in my office (because I needed to be there at 6 am sharp) and literally had to run to the bathroom and back I was so busy.

8

I can relate, why I’m looking for new “opportunities” at the present time and plus the business not doing so great at the moment, its been like this for some time and when we are receive a support call we are like seeing who is gonna jump on it first and there is a team of maybe 3 and we are supporting onsite and remote clients… pretty bad!

Currently I am in the process of evaluating a tool for removing admin rights from all the clients, and just waiting to see if thats going to be put on the back burner…

some days have gone a whole day and only receive maybe one phone call…

9

The rest of my week is roughly the same. I have test pc’s next to me that Im going to patch in and get running. I spend coffee drinking morning time checking our backup functions, printers in the office and ink levels, oracle database, and network activity. I have asked my boss about more projects but he has nothing for me other then the ones I have now but none of those have a set priority. I can get those done now and wont get a response about them for months. Professor Messer videos are what helped me get my A+ and I do that for an hour a day so I dont spend all my day on youtube and have people ask questions or think “all the IT guy does is watch youtube videos” lol

10

My work environment isnt that active and its making me so anxious that ive thought about just pulling and switching out networks cables in the morning just to work on that all day lol (but then my paycheck reminds me that its not worth it).

I tried helping the marketing girls with a big project by helping write python code into a touch based template for them and it ended up turning out bad with miscommunication and other issues leading to the project being postponed and quite a bit of cash being spent. Needless to say I stay away from trying to help them with projects now.

Im going to walk around the office and see if anyone else needs help with anything like I try to do on the hours or half hour but everyone is so busy with their work and have no issues with their computers so I just end up getting out of my chair to exercise my legs.

11

This was just posted a few minutes ago here on Spiceworks, right up your alley.

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1245751-7-steps-to-start-your-linux-career?source=homepage-feed

12

this is what SW is great for - i’m not a social media type of person (Facewhat?), same for youtime.

but I find that reading the threads here, occasionally putting in my 2c worth, makes me feel wanted occasionally and also that I am “giving back”

maybe I’m just a new age guy. OK, I’m 46 and grouchy so scratch that.

online training, helping out others and testing your knowledge.

1 Spice up
13

Sometimes during my downtimes, I would go and ask around amongst my users and see if they have any issues/problems that need worked on. Also, I would ask for suggestions and see if it would be feasible for you to accomplish.

1 Spice up