When you get to work, how long do you goof off before you actually start working?

I'm rolling up to 25 minutes today.

I guess this post begins with the premise that you have a job right now.

starting.

It varies. Today I'm exercising restraint. Kinda.

although design review meetings are an utter waste of time just to deal with clueless upper management , that incurs enough aggravation ,enough to be considered hard labour.

I usually do immediate chores before coffee. Coffee can take 2 hours if I get started on the computer.
Chores often lead to some major repair project - that can take many hours before I get back to the house.

Today is house day. Must do some laundry and sweep the big chunks from the floors. Maybe got to the store for fresh food.

Today has been exceptionally bad, though. :blush:

Oh, the fun of self-employment! ;)

:blush:

I have my Q on my nightstand and usually check my e-mail before I even get out of bed.

I goof off for the rest of the day though.

I love to work at nothing all day, so I'm taking care of business.

Some days work interferes with my work... :(

I work in a little mom-n-pop convenience store, and there is only one clerk working at a time. When i come in, it's either to open the store, or to relieve the opener (who's been there for 10 hrs, and is more-than-ready to go). The goofing off waits for the slow points when the store is empty of customers and the busy-work (cleaning, fronting shelves, etc...) is finished.

"...that way Lumbergh can't see me - and after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.

"Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work."

I need to watch that movie again!

I generally have about 15 minutes between clocking in and the first client's appointment. If they no-show then I could goof off a bit but I generally just type reports, clean up or do backlogged paperwork.

After that, there is no break until lunch, and I usually work through that.

Especially now that I have an overachieving assistant and "the heir" sharing my work area. Another member of my department is also out to get me so I have to be perfect, although that upsets her even more.
I never really goofed off, but sometimes I took my time getting everything organized rather than quickly jumping into everything.

And then multiple times during the day and I still manage to get everything done. My boss would die if she knew how much everyone goofs off.

I work like hell from 7:15 to around 9 or 9:30 then screw off the rest of the day. Work out 11-12 (as has been my habit since 1992, none of my staff schedule anything that includes me at that time) then eat lunch at my desk while "working". Seriously, I get more accomplished before 8 when everyone else arrives than most of the day. I'm motivated, focused, not interrupted, goal oriented. Then at 9 I drink a grande coffee, surf the net, check on other projects, etc.

I'm a tech in a retail pharmacy. Sometimes the customers are sitting in the parking lot, waiting in their cars when we pull in.

The boss unlocks the door, the phone is ringing, the fax machine is humming, the computer might or might not connect...sometimes retail can be brutal.

It's especially tough on the third of the month when the Social Security checks arrive.

I am extremely thankful to have this job however, and love the interesting characters that we meet.

The worst part of the job is--OF COURSE--dealing with insurance companies.

If I don't, my day will suffer.

But I usually find time to log on to DU!

I was a department of one back then. I recently got promoted, though, and now I'm in a different part of the office AND I have a direct supervisor...so more like 20 minutes to a half-hour now.

I pretty much never do any work.

I do system checks on arrival, lest the previous shift leave me all kinds of garbage

This is how my day works out when I'm actually working...

Let me explain the Hours of Service regulations:

1. The 14 Hour Rule: Once your day begins, you can't drive after the 14th clock hour. If you start working at 6am, you have to stop driving by 8pm. And once the clock starts, it does not stop.

2. The 11 Hour Rule: Of those 14 hours, you can drive on the road for eleven of them. These hours can start and stop...if you start work at 9am, run for two hours, stop and load for an hour, run for six hours, stop and unload for two hours then run for an hour to your parking place, you've worked 12 hours but driven only nine.

3. The 10 Hour Rule: After your 14 hours are up, or you stop driving for the day whichever comes first, you have to rest for 10 consecutive hours before you can drive again.

4. The 70 Hour Rule: You are allowed to work 70 hours every eight days. This one calls for a whole 'nother thread.

Well anyway. If I'm out on the road, I try to get out of bed somewhere around the ninth hour of my break. I go in the truck stop and use the restroom. A lot of drivers use the restroom to brush their teeth and shave, so I do that. I have a little breakfast. After the 10th hour has passed, I open the hood and do my pre-trip inspection. I do my standard inspection--checking the fluids, making sure no one stole the trailer in the middle of the night, looking at the front brakes to be sure I've got some brake shoe left (the front brakes wear out fastest), checking tires, draining my air tanks again (I dump about half the air out at night, then dump the rest in the morning) checking lights, just making sure the truck is safe and ready for the road. Once that's done, I get in, build up air pressure to 120psi, and look at the route to the place I've got to go to. Then I send the "on duty" macro on my Qualcomm, start the engine, and get on the road.

Now understand: depending on the schedule sometimes I don't need to get up at the crack of dawn. If I've got a load that's scheduled to be four hours away ten hours from now and they won't take it early, I'm sleeping in. This happens...if you have one forklift and two bays on your dock, you don't want twenty trucks wrapped around the block waiting to drop loads. If I can pull it off, I like to go to truck stops where a Pilot is next to a Petro, Flying J or TA. We buy our fuel at Pilot, so that's where we get our showers. Unfortunately, Pilots only have fast-food joints...I think Pilot is America's biggest Subway franchisee. The other three companies have sit-down restaurants in their truck stops. (Note to tourists over these summer months: if you're out driving cross-country and you decide to stop at a truck stop, the best one is Petro. They have really good food, quite often free wi-fi, and the stores look really sharp. Flying J and TA facilities look a bit shopworn. I don't really recommend Pilot for a car driver. For truckers Pilot is okay--decent fuel prices, pretty decent little stores, all that. For auto drivers, you may as well go to Circle K and not have to fight trucks. The fifth major chain is Love's, which is about like a Pilot--essentially a 7-eleven with a diesel island. A lot of TA locations have motels. These are mostly used by guys waiting for their trucks to get fixed, and they cater to people who are used to living in 8' x 8' boxes. I've noticed a lot of truck stops have hotels close by, so if you need somewhere to sleep and don't have reservations at a hotel, these are a good option.) And if you're REALLY slick you can park close to a hotel or a Petro and use their free wi-fi.

So the answer is, "depending on your criteria, I either screw off a lot or I don't screw off at all."

I don't.

I have a understanding that when the door is shut I am working.

If I work steady I can get done in 4 or 5 hours.

I still get paid for 8 hours.

I don't goof around. Sorry. I'm the boss and I have to set an example.

before I even get there. On weekends, more like two hours a day and those are my days off. I have a strange job and not all of it can be done 'at work'

Sometimes I chat with my boss or our office manager, but that's only for 5-10 minutes when I do.

in the frig while the computer is booting up.

Once all my programs are open and running, (about 8 minutes, total) I am good to go until I need a bathroom break.

I am on production and I am also slower than average, so can't afford to goof around in the morning.

However, I plug in the earbuds, set the radio to the classical station and tune out the rest of the room.

It does annoy me that other people are taking 15 to 30 minutes to settle down at the desk though.

From July One to about Christmas I hit the door, turn on the lights and my computer and I am working the entire time. Some days I even work while eating my lunch at my desk with a taxpayer sitting there bitching the entire time. (It can be fun and games, let me tell ya...) IF we are really lucky, after September 10 we might leave the office for a couple of hours and go work in the field doing appraisal stuff.

The REST of the year, I don't do much at all. I shuffle some papers and return a few calls in between playing online. Some days I go out and look at real estate, others I just hang out and do maybe an hour of legitimate work maximum.


Laura

where the manager with the list of 'stuff that needs to be done' is without being accosted by a customer who needs help with something. :)

we have 15 minutes, unscheduled time, for the entire day. It is used for bathroom breaks or grabbing some coffee usually.

I used to have free time at work. But those days are gone. :-(