1

At my last gig, I had constant non-IT people walking by my office. Every now and then, some of them would stop in and bug me about what I was doing. To combat this, I used to keep cmd prompt open with a fresh “ipconfig /all” or “ping x.x.x.x /t” AND http://hackertyper.net/ open in a browser. I started doing it as a joke at first buuuuuut… I quickly noticed a severe drop-off in visits.

So question in point - what do you guys do to look like you’re busy when you aren’t (or are, there are different scenarios)?

:slight_smile:

18 Spice ups
2

work

26 Spice ups
3

I was waiting for the obligatory “work” reply.

I work. I work a lot. I work A LOT A LOT.

2 Spice ups
4

Have You Tube training videos on my other machine running.

1 Spice up
5

My work? I really don’t need to add anything to what I normally do… I always end up juggling a bunch of stuff so when the walk up and see all my monitors with active things happening they usually don’t stay and chat long.

1 Spice up
6

Read and reply to water cooler posts… :slight_smile:

11 Spice ups
7

For me, it’s not obligatory. If I feel that I need to look busy, I find some work to do. There’s never a shortage.

My employer isn’t a slave driver. If I need to take a break, I take it. I’m on an hourly contract, so I don’t get paid for my breaks. So, I don’t abuse the privilege of taking a needed rest.

We did have a spell over 2 year ago, where there was little going on. I looked for things that could help me be better at work. And that, is work.

1 Spice up
8

If I need to look busy I just go work in my lab so I don’t need to look busy :slight_smile:

9

Find something to do!

For those times I just don’t want to be bothered I just open up a long script and snap it to one side of the screen. Code is a perfect deterrent for questions.

10

First off, I now find Hacker Typer to be hilarious.

As for what I do to appear busy, I feel like I’ve always either got a script or piece of code open somewhere. When you’re scratching your head constantly over why your code is making you hate yourself, it doesn’t take much else to appear busy.

11

I rarely need to try to look busy but having the network splayed across my screen like a huge spider in Cisco Network Assistant looks impressive.

12

I walk around and find IT staff that aren’t doing anything an assign them new projects.

1 Spice up
13

something along these lines

stressedstudent1-425-x-282.jpg

14

I find it takes more work to look busy than to just work!

I have more than enough to do now, so what is free time anyway? Enjoy it!

1 Spice up
15

I must be a bit weird because I quite like talking to people, well, most people, and tend to welcome walk-ins.

16

I sometimes keep a window open with some code (google scripts, netbeans). I’m the only remotely techy person around here, so no one is going to question why I’ve been working on the same line of an in-production script for two days. I do often go back and rewrite/improve old code when I don’t have anything immediately pressing to do, so it’s not that abnormal.

17

If I’m at my desk, I always keep some sort of command prompt open. That usually keeps people from bugging me when I’m working on a project or in mid-thought. If I’m walking somewhere to work on a ticket, I make sure to carry a notebook. People bug me less with their hallway requests when I’m carrying a notebook.

18

One of the contracts I look after is a Network Operations Centre, my biggest concern when I walk into their office is if they are actually doing something, other then daily and handover tasks, that concerns me.

In a support role, people looking like they have nothing to do is a good thing!

19

YouTube training video open as well as Teamviewed into a server on my other screen.

20

Work until someone walks by then I use putty to remote into the switches and do a sh run with the firewall open on my other monitor.