I am a past master...
of procrastinating and work-dodging if the mood takes me.

Whilst working as a tech-support phone monkey many moons ago, I managed to tear the ligaments in my wrist (too much typing at a crappy desk, combined with a nice mountain biking accident led to a wrist like a brittle twig) - this required me to liberally apply steroid gel and wrap it in a bandage/support...nothing much unusual there, except it was my right wrist and I am right-handed, so I needed the assistance of the office first aider. Who I happened to be dating. Cue many "medical visits" to the first-aid room where I got my wrist wrapped and she got a damn good seeing too - the rolls of bandages had bite-marks from trying to stifle her noise...

Other than that, I found that when I worked as a software developer, the time I could waste (sorry, usefully fill with work-related tasks) increased quite dramatically, as I would have to let code compile. On five different platforms. Which meant I could do half an hours' coding, then have to wait an hour or so for the re-compiling to test what I'd just done and find it didn't work. Needless to say I drank a lot of coffee. And I think I single-handedly ran the colour printer out of toner by printing off Autotrader ads whilst searching for a new car. Oh, and I also wrote the business plan for the company I started during various compiling sessions. And printed off the numerous copies I needed in glorious colour on the aforementioned printer...

Working at a London ad agency should make for a busy day, but once I'd re-written their project delivery methodology and trained the various PMs on how to actually use MS Project and do their jobs, I found that things pretty much ticked along. This lead to the obligatory seven fag breaks a day, long lunches in the pub and the discovery that you can wander round the building chatting to your mates as long as you have a pad with notes on it, a mobile that beeps to warn you of "meetings" and a determined walk. Never dawdle and you'll never be questioned. Admittedly, I also worked my share of all-nighters and my predecessor had literally gone insane with the pressure of the workplace, so maybe I just got out before it got to me...

Now I have a great job running the online marketing for an oil company (talk about recession-proof!) and the ability to work from home when I need/want to. My days are busy, but I can get out at 5:30 (instead of 10:30 at my old agency) and the people are lovely. In fact, if I can wheedle a pay rise once I've finished this year, I'll probably stay for the long-term - it's not exactly exciting work, but it's interesting in parts and it lets me actually see my wife during the week - bonus!

Actually, another time-wasting strategy would seem to be: have a very gay line manager. They are always willing to waste an hour chatting about big brother or gossiping about office politics and you can't be disciplined for taking long lunches when your boss drags you all into Wagamama with the company credit card in his hand... definitely a winner!
(Chad, Mon 12 Jan 2009, 16:20, Reply)