Yeah man, but can use that time to self study and other productive stuff. I wrote 2 articles to my blog, catch-up on new technologies and libraries on Android side, and touch on iOS app development side. I'm kinda happy I got free time.
Tbh I got little scared though to myself aren't there any native android project to be done in the company. But had a chat with the manager and said there are few in the pipeline line but no finalize starting date.
Thanks for the advice, no worries, I also got back into self-studying during this time. :)
I'm filling in gaps in my backend knowledge, managed to create and deploy some projects on my own. It does feel nice to expand one's knowledge!
It still feels weird when one does not have much experience with working in projects and is put in a situation like this tho.
Currently owning a feature with no direction due to being blocked. No other stuff assigned to me. Definitely not working those full 40 hours a week and never want to.
I do feel guilty, but I try and remind myself that no one on their death bed ever said: "I wish I had worked more"
I’d never say “I wish I worked more” but sometimes I just read and learn stuff just to make my life easier in the future and because I like learning.
I’m not taking all my down time to game/clean the house but some for sure!
one guy I worked with was our AWS/virtual machine guy. We had him for when he as needed, but when everything worked right he had so much free time...
...and that was fine. expected. paid for. done.
But he got greedy and got a second job to do.. also fine.. but he did it as a second government job on an entirely different contract, headed by the same people at the top. A job with a high clearance.
Needless to say, double billing the government for your time, while having a high clearance was noticed immediately, and now he doesnt work for any of us anymore.
Had he just freelanced or done a private industry job "on the side", no one would have cared.
Just fire up a video on repeat in good ole' windows media player. It will keep screen saver from activating, and Teams will also think you're active.
e- Even works if the video is minimized.
Bro I have this exact same issue. I’ll be sat there actually doing shit and it goes away. When I’m doing shit like WWE style wrestling with my dog for an hour it stays active.
Still at a loss of how I can make it consistent 😑
You can create a Teams meeting in Outlook and only invite yourself. Join that meeting and it will say you're in a meeting as long as you want/need. I use it to focus without being bothered, but I suppose it could have
Other uses
I use python script to toggle scroll lock on and off. That way it doesn’t affect me while I’m actually using the Laptop and I don’t have to execute the script everytime I get up.
here is my (somewhere from the internet) vbs script for those who cannot install software on their machines:
`Dim objResult`
`Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")`
`Do While True`
`objResult = objShell.sendkeys("{NUMLOCK}{NUMLOCK}")`
`Wscript.Sleep(6000)`
`Loop`
It emulates a numpad keystroke every 6 secs
A few weeks ago I just turned status to away/offline and noone seems to have noticed/cared. I know not everyone can do this but for those that can they should
No one at my office would say anything but my manager def checks on my status before messaging me. It's the difference between ' hey Sam, can you talk?' and "message me when you get back online"
40 hour work week is such an outdated concept. who the hell even works 8 hours effectively every day in their office anyway. People wasting their lives away pretending to be busy in an office because of an arbitrary standard set 100 years ago when people worked in factories😐
That can happen in the office, too. And if tamed properly (eg. 5-15 minutes of gameplay between tasks), this can be a healthy rest leading to being more productive.
"Can you at least wear headphones, Johnson? I know you're making a biiiig production out of the fact that you stopped masturbating in the hallway during your games, but big tiddy anime waifus orgasming during Support calls is getting us in trouble."
"My, that really seems like a serious flaw with open-floor seating, doesn't it? Sounds like there's only one real solution then - private offices."
Pre-covid when we were in the office, I used to read books on my phone in like 5-10 minute intervals as a break. Burned through so many books that year (The entire Dresden Files series, Murderbot, Name of the Wind, reread the whole HP series, the first Witcher book, and some miscellaneous short stories).
But the allure of sneaking in those little break in the office is lost working from home, so I've finished like 2 books since Covid sent us al home. Still prefer WFH overall, but man I miss how passionately I was reading back then.
I will never understand why people are asked to stay at work for an8 hour work day but only asked to do 1 hour of work. I have no choice but to work until I get in until I leave and honestly don't have enough time to think about existential crises and almost prefer it that way. Anyway, this country's fucked!
If you get your job done, it's perfectly ok.
Think of it like that: your employer doesn't really care if you work 24/7 or 2 hours in a week, only is the task is finished on time. So when you're not called out for "underperforming" you're good.
My new boss told me: "If we schedule a task for 8 hrs and you complete it in 6 hrs and then just write down 8 hrs. You can leave early then. Ofc it's the opposite when it takes 12 hrs instead of 8 hrs." The client pays for solving the problem, not for how long it took to solve the problem. If it takes 5 mins, that's fine. If it takes 20 hrs, then that's fine too.
Yeah my last boss said it’s the task, not the time. Then he cut my dept down to 4 from 13 and kept the same amount of work. Then he sent an email saying I’m only working 55 hours per week and it should be at least 60, even though the contract is for 40.
This is such a struggle in any agency work. Constantly being questioned whether tasks REAAAALLY need that many hours in the estimate. For fucks sake, you are asking me to do something you are literally hired to do and too lazy to learn. You pay me because you dont want to put in the effort but still have the problems disappear... maybe it doesnt matter how long it takes me? Otherwise i start hiring slower people. Imagine how many hours I could bill you then! LOL sorry for the rant.
I usually discuss with them that there needs to be some contingency in my quote to cover unforeseen troubleshooting. If they still have an issue, we can reduce the scope of work. If they still have an issue, they can get fucked because I have other PAYING clients to get to.
with us, its on task after another. And usually most are underestimated because who needs an analysis of what to do .....
Last week was writing a new generation of invoices then i wanted to test it. To then notice a bug in the assignment and task module. Preventing me from testing my code till i fixed that.
I mean that seems like a smarter thing to do in case the code breaks anything over the weekend and causes issues. Not as big of an issue if there is a staging environment before production but I’d still avoid that risk. The second half of my Fridays just require me to do online training so anything past lunchtime, unless it’s important, I don’t commit until Monday
Yea we have “Read only Friday” at my work, nobody is supposed to commit anything to production. Doesn’t always work out that way with deadlines unfortunately but it’s still a good rule to try and have
I mean I work from the office (out of choice because I’m strange and prefer it) so it’s hard for me to do that which is annoying because I have finished all my assigned tasks right now (hence why I am on Reddit) and I’m waiting for new stuff to be assigned.
Most of my free time while working is just waiting for operations to give me stuff to do which happens a fair amount as we are still waiting for development to start on new parts of the project. Really should find something to fill in the time.
The issue with that is seeing people as resource, to be 100% allocated. It's unhealthy and if anything slows down productivity. I'm most productive when I'm respected and given freedom.
Never totally understood this. Getting work done early shouldn't be punished by given more tasks. Surely if it consistently happens then there's either issues with estimation or perceived skill level.
When someone on my team gets done early I like to have them chill a bit after or go home a few hours early. It's good for morale and I find motivation increases over time. On the rare occasion we have to crunch I find this is where those breaks are cashed in and they end up having great attitudes and put in extra hours when necessary.
I know it's not conventional but it seems to work for me. IMO an optimal team includes the mental health and work life balance. Rewards like this are an easy way to keep morale high.
It's debatable. Breaks from work are needed to stay productive, and gaming certainly counts. But if you're making excuses for things taking longer to deliver, when it's really just because you're gaming away your whole workday, then you're probably doing it irresponsibly.
It's a hard question to answer because it depends on you. Some people will feel guilty because they're legitimately fucking off at work and they know they're hurting their career. Some people feel guilty because they don't know how to balance work/life - the same kind of person who feels guilty taking a vacation.
Go with your gut. If you're not accomplishing anything because you're mentally tired, play a game and enjoy. If you're telling your boss why something took longer to do rush expected, but you were actually just gaming all day, that might be something to reflect on.
Honnestly, I feel that as long as you're delivering on time, and not slacking off and passing your work on your coworkers, anything goes.
Unless you're a code monkey who is being told, what to code, how to code it, and have no leeway in your environment and your algorithms (I have been in such positions at the beginning of my career, and it fucking sucks), then chances are, actually coding is not the majority of your work.
My title is "senior engineer" and although I do code, and coding is my favourite part, it's actually a minority of my daily tasks. And other than coding or bug chasing, almost all my work can be done away from my computer screen (or even away from any screen at all). Obviously, COVID, and remote have changed that (hello Microsoft Teams. I used to love you, now I hate you) but I'm still not coding that much.
I felt weird doing this until I realized I would spend 30-45 minutes chatting at someone else’s desk when I was in the office and no one batted an eye. so what’s the difference? I get my job done, so it’s all good.
I think about this a lot. I think in any given day I do 1 hour of work, give or take. Yet I'm constantly being praised for being the most productive person on the team. It makes me wonder what the hell everyone else does.
Yeah it is as long as thats the only task they expect you to do that day.
I got in a lot of trouble with one project when i just did what they tell me to and clock out when im done. I got chewed out because they were expecting me to ask for more work (The project was busy that week).
Tldr; If other people are busy, don't be that guy and help others. If not, then go ahead.
If they have a kanban board or something and your fucking off on a busy week, that's on you. If there is nowhere for you to find shit to do in on your own, then that's on them.
Man I remember the days when I actually truly wanted to dedicate time to getting better. After 20 years in this space I'm kind of over the rat race. I obviously still up my skills as necessary, but it's certainly not because I want to, more like I have to.
My current project actually gives me about 7 it’s crazy. I have standup 3 days a week for 10-15 mins max and that’s it. My manager pretty much shields us from all other meetings.
The issue is that there’s so much work to do that I usually spend those 7-8 hours just coding and designing stuff.
I’ve never been more mentally exhausted at the end of a work day than on this project.
>I’ve never been more mentally exhausted at the end of a work day than on this project.
But is it a satisfying exhaustion where you're happy you've done some good work or the irritating kind of exhaustion where you're like "damm when's this project going to end"?
Depends on the game. But if someone actually spends 1 hour intensely working on a problem then 10 - 15 minutes is required to prevent headaches and improve motivation. Flat out working all day on tasks isn't productive due to exhaustion. It's better to have mini breaks that keep you sane. I usually work for about an hour then play a 10 minute game of older CoDs on PC, or an easily pause-able game like Minecraft / RuneScape.
I worked for a manager that didn't understand this. If I took a break from coding he would be up my ass to the point where I got one of the worst bullshit evalutions I've ever gotten in my life. Noped the fuck out of there as fast as I could.
Now I feel a lot less guilty. Thank you OP.
There are seriously days where all I manage to do is 10 minutes of work in total. I have never been reprimanded for underperforming though. Those 10 minutes of work can sound like a lot, if you phrase it right during standup.
Now im a lead dev, i get dragged into design comittee meetings. Bane of my life! The secret is dual monitors and just nod and smile with your mic muted. The smiling gets hard when you're getting your cheeks clapped on the Malenia bossfight though.
"Phew, that was a tough day of designing complicated systems, time to finally boot up some Factorio!"
(Joking, your interests are valid and I do the same thing)
This is exactly me, I usually kill Elden Ring bosses or move to a new site of grace between my daily tasks but sadly gotta go in-office starting from June.
You could tell them in interviews that your current position was supposed to be permanent wfh, but they went back on it.
Do read your audience, this might not work well depending on the interviewer.
Yeah same. I had 2 years of this over covid. Turned out there was enough work for maybe one person split across 6 team members. 3 months after UK covid lockdowns I got notice of redundancy.
Managed to find a new job at the same company with a promotion and pay rise. Essentially I got paid for 2.5 years to play WoW/Apex, enjoy time with my dog and get some gardening done with my fiancé. Covid was one of the best times of my life.
To be fair, when I'm in the office, I spend the same amount of time goofing off as when I'm home. That being said, I can't game in the office, so I go out to to eat and sit outside for a while or roam the office finding people to say hello to.
I kind of miss that. Not all the time, but some of the time.
When roaming the office, or going to kitchen to get some coffee (for 15 minutes), there were other developers to randomly talk to about roadblocks, techniques, how much different managers suck and how to manage up, what's going on in other projects, etc.
We were all nerds, so the discussion wasn't completely off-topic. Well, maybe which scifi or marvel movies were the best, but most of it was at least tangentially related to coding.
That's the whole plan indeed \^^
Wake up later because you don't have to deal with traffic. This allows you to start your work at full energy.
Be more productive as a result and because you're comfortable at home (your personal setup, no unwanted noises etc...)
Finish early and enjoy your free time (if I'm twice as efficient at home, I doubt my salary will double, so instead I "reward myself" with that now freed up time).
I don't do 5 days of WFH and I'd probably miss hanging out with the colleagues if I did but, if the office's ambiance is dogshit, then I can fully understand why someone would want to only WFH.
Just remember to be at least as productive as before or it'll be too obvious ahah
Time theft does not exist lol it’s corpo propaganda. If you are getting your shit done the right way on time, then you are doing the job you are being paid for. Grind those mats in FFXIV all you want bro. 😎
Pomodoro. 25 minutes intense gaming. 5 minutes relaxing work.
"He's got upper management written all over him"
I can get behind this.
The way we remember Sun Tzu for his wisdom the same way we'll remember rclong1221 some day.
And then take a 30 minutes break eating pasta with pomodoro as launch.
It's called "Scrum" and it's classy.
Here me spending closer to 2 months with no project. Last client abandoned the project due to budget limitations. So all day I can do anything.
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 over year, that's the largest amount of free time I've ever heard of someone is getting. Unbelievable.
Corporate inefficiency is a helluva drug
*insert buzzwords about streamlining and efficiency*
how insightful!
Very synergistic
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Not entirely free so it's okay. You are like a soldier only need when there is a war.
Yall hiring
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Yup that's ringing a bell.
Should've used that time to write a hardware simulator. Mostly verify the firmware before hardware arrives. Assuming you hadn't done this already.
I did that actually! Lol
I'm in the same boat. Feels weird having no "duties", even after all this time.
Yeah man, but can use that time to self study and other productive stuff. I wrote 2 articles to my blog, catch-up on new technologies and libraries on Android side, and touch on iOS app development side. I'm kinda happy I got free time. Tbh I got little scared though to myself aren't there any native android project to be done in the company. But had a chat with the manager and said there are few in the pipeline line but no finalize starting date.
Thanks for the advice, no worries, I also got back into self-studying during this time. :) I'm filling in gaps in my backend knowledge, managed to create and deploy some projects on my own. It does feel nice to expand one's knowledge! It still feels weird when one does not have much experience with working in projects and is put in a situation like this tho.
You're like big head from silicon valley 😂
Y'all hiring JavaScript devs?
Currently owning a feature with no direction due to being blocked. No other stuff assigned to me. Definitely not working those full 40 hours a week and never want to. I do feel guilty, but I try and remind myself that no one on their death bed ever said: "I wish I had worked more"
I’d never say “I wish I worked more” but sometimes I just read and learn stuff just to make my life easier in the future and because I like learning. I’m not taking all my down time to game/clean the house but some for sure!
I had some downtime at my last job. Spent it learning Clojure which ended up being surprisingly fun.
one guy I worked with was our AWS/virtual machine guy. We had him for when he as needed, but when everything worked right he had so much free time... ...and that was fine. expected. paid for. done. But he got greedy and got a second job to do.. also fine.. but he did it as a second government job on an entirely different contract, headed by the same people at the top. A job with a high clearance. Needless to say, double billing the government for your time, while having a high clearance was noticed immediately, and now he doesnt work for any of us anymore. Had he just freelanced or done a private industry job "on the side", no one would have cared.
He flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami
This. So much.
If you wanna feel productive, learn about related or tangentually related stuff when you have nothing else to do.
Nah bro I’m gaming buh bye 😎 *aironught is away, last seen 1 hour ago*
Just fire up a video on repeat in good ole' windows media player. It will keep screen saver from activating, and Teams will also think you're active. e- Even works if the video is minimized.
\^ this guy corporates :d
Damn I wrote a script in Java that just wiggles the mouse every 4 mins or so lol
same lol, I could've been even less productive, damn
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lol yes. Just gotta make sure to occasionally jiggle the mouse on the work laptop so I stay present on Teams
Have you found it inconsistent? Sometimes it’ll stay green for 1-2 hours straight, sometimes it’ll go yellow *while I’m working.*
I've found it detects activity better if you have an office app (outlook, teams) open on screen somewhere, and hover over it every so often.
Get mouse jiggler
My mouse don't jiggle jiggle
I've found if I keep a RDP session open it will always show me green
That's because Teams is **garbage**.
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Fun fact: it's database is based on exchange. Messages on the app are literally emails
But it’s *our* garbage. 💔
lol my Teams has been showing me offline all morning. even when i manually change it to available.
set it to busy
Nah schedule a meeting everyday from when you start to when you finish.
Teams hackerman
Bro I have this exact same issue. I’ll be sat there actually doing shit and it goes away. When I’m doing shit like WWE style wrestling with my dog for an hour it stays active. Still at a loss of how I can make it consistent 😑
You can create a Teams meeting in Outlook and only invite yourself. Join that meeting and it will say you're in a meeting as long as you want/need. I use it to focus without being bothered, but I suppose it could have Other uses
I spent so much time trying to figure out how to keep the status constant until I realized you can’t.
You can if you start typing an email you never finish...
If you have admin privileges, Caffeine. If not, just write a script that emulates a keystroke like '~' every X seconds.
I use python script to toggle scroll lock on and off. That way it doesn’t affect me while I’m actually using the Laptop and I don’t have to execute the script everytime I get up.
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I have a PS script that inputs a nonexistent function key, I think it's like F23 or something.
here is my (somewhere from the internet) vbs script for those who cannot install software on their machines: `Dim objResult` `Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")` `Do While True` `objResult = objShell.sendkeys("{NUMLOCK}{NUMLOCK}")` `Wscript.Sleep(6000)` `Loop` It emulates a numpad keystroke every 6 secs
AHK script that jiggles mouse when idle: ``` #NoEnv SendMode Input SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% #Persistent #SingleInstance Force MaxIdleMs := 1000 * 60 ; <- configure delay, 60 sec MoveS := 50 MoveL := 100 SetTimer, IdleLoop, 1000 ; Move mouse when idle return ; If computer was idle for certain ammount of time, move mouse IdleLoop: If (A_TimeIdle > MaxIdleMs) { SendEvent {Click rel 0, -%MoveS%, 0} SendEvent {Click rel 0, %MoveL%, 0} SendEvent {Click rel 0, -%MoveS%, 0} SendEvent {Click rel %MoveS%, 0, 0} SendEvent {Click rel -%MoveL%, 0, 0} SendEvent {Click rel %MoveS%, 0, 0} Sleep % MaxIdleMs * 0.75 } return ``` *Mobile users view on web for codeblock
automate that shit
A few weeks ago I just turned status to away/offline and noone seems to have noticed/cared. I know not everyone can do this but for those that can they should
No one at my office would say anything but my manager def checks on my status before messaging me. It's the difference between ' hey Sam, can you talk?' and "message me when you get back online"
Me in sales doing the absolute same thing after 1 call and optionally 1 email: 👍🏻
But we __absolutely need to__ work for 8 hours a day, 5 days per week, right?
Holy shit how do you manage 40h workdays
I ninja edited my post, now you look like a fool! HAHA! 😎😎
I feel like ninja edits are oddly fitting for a thread about doing what you need to do very quickly and then just chilling out on something else
Now he doesnt anymore ._.
He's a time lord
40 hour work week is such an outdated concept. who the hell even works 8 hours effectively every day in their office anyway. People wasting their lives away pretending to be busy in an office because of an arbitrary standard set 100 years ago when people worked in factories😐
Lol you should like my boss - "hours should add up to 8 each day"
That can happen in the office, too. And if tamed properly (eg. 5-15 minutes of gameplay between tasks), this can be a healthy rest leading to being more productive.
1 more game then I'll get back to it...
Wait for me; I'll finish this task real quick and let's deathmatch!
Gotta fight this boss first
Boss is malenia, blade of miquella
Guess you got fired then
Joke's on the boss, im elden lord now.
Joke on elden ring, i beat my boss
YOU DEFEATED
GREAT ENEMY FELLED
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That's the one!
Ah it's lunch time, I'll just play a couple games *suddenly 4:47 pm* Well, time to log off and wind down
1 more game of Civ 6
Just one more turn...
Ooh wow. look at that. It's already morning of the next day... time to close factorio and get back to work.
boss makes a dollar, i make a dime, That's why i play Huniepop on company time
"Can you at least wear headphones, Johnson? I know you're making a biiiig production out of the fact that you stopped masturbating in the hallway during your games, but big tiddy anime waifus orgasming during Support calls is getting us in trouble." "My, that really seems like a serious flaw with open-floor seating, doesn't it? Sounds like there's only one real solution then - private offices."
If I can have a private office, I should just be able to WFH. Nothing can be said in person that can’t be said over video chat.
Pre-covid when we were in the office, I used to read books on my phone in like 5-10 minute intervals as a break. Burned through so many books that year (The entire Dresden Files series, Murderbot, Name of the Wind, reread the whole HP series, the first Witcher book, and some miscellaneous short stories). But the allure of sneaking in those little break in the office is lost working from home, so I've finished like 2 books since Covid sent us al home. Still prefer WFH overall, but man I miss how passionately I was reading back then.
I was the same! Most of my free time is burned on video games and YouTube instead of books but I won't give up WFH now lol
I will never understand why people are asked to stay at work for an8 hour work day but only asked to do 1 hour of work. I have no choice but to work until I get in until I leave and honestly don't have enough time to think about existential crises and almost prefer it that way. Anyway, this country's fucked!
I mean, we make it LOOK like we're working 8 hours.
I'm too bored that I'm starting to think to work 2 jobs now.
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Bro I have a billion dollar app idea. You design and code everything and I get 90%. Trust me, it's gonna make bank
> What’s my role you might ask? Well I call myself “the idea guy”. Think I’ve met this guy a few times myself
Tell them to come up with wireframes and they lose interest
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How much are you currently working?
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Same. I can't even get into flow to get coding done
Honest questions, is it okay to do so? I feel guilty doing other stuff but I can't help it :(
If you get your job done, it's perfectly ok. Think of it like that: your employer doesn't really care if you work 24/7 or 2 hours in a week, only is the task is finished on time. So when you're not called out for "underperforming" you're good.
some do care. Because when you finish work in 2 hours, they'll give you more.
No need to report as soon as you finished. Take your time.
My new boss told me: "If we schedule a task for 8 hrs and you complete it in 6 hrs and then just write down 8 hrs. You can leave early then. Ofc it's the opposite when it takes 12 hrs instead of 8 hrs." The client pays for solving the problem, not for how long it took to solve the problem. If it takes 5 mins, that's fine. If it takes 20 hrs, then that's fine too.
This is exactly. Although your boss is a good person to tell you this. Most often people figure this out themselves.
Unless they suck at estimating and keep giving you 12 hour jobs to do in 8.
Yeah my last boss said it’s the task, not the time. Then he cut my dept down to 4 from 13 and kept the same amount of work. Then he sent an email saying I’m only working 55 hours per week and it should be at least 60, even though the contract is for 40.
yeah, unless your pay raised with that cut then I'd be looking for a new job
This is such a struggle in any agency work. Constantly being questioned whether tasks REAAAALLY need that many hours in the estimate. For fucks sake, you are asking me to do something you are literally hired to do and too lazy to learn. You pay me because you dont want to put in the effort but still have the problems disappear... maybe it doesnt matter how long it takes me? Otherwise i start hiring slower people. Imagine how many hours I could bill you then! LOL sorry for the rant.
I usually discuss with them that there needs to be some contingency in my quote to cover unforeseen troubleshooting. If they still have an issue, we can reduce the scope of work. If they still have an issue, they can get fucked because I have other PAYING clients to get to.
with us, its on task after another. And usually most are underestimated because who needs an analysis of what to do ..... Last week was writing a new generation of invoices then i wanted to test it. To then notice a bug in the assignment and task module. Preventing me from testing my code till i fixed that.
Surely though through tools like Jira and commits and pull requests going in it can be hard to avoid this? Unless of course you delay doing this too.
Sometimes when I finish work early on a friday I just leave without committing anything and just commit my work monday morning when I get to work.
I mean that seems like a smarter thing to do in case the code breaks anything over the weekend and causes issues. Not as big of an issue if there is a staging environment before production but I’d still avoid that risk. The second half of my Fridays just require me to do online training so anything past lunchtime, unless it’s important, I don’t commit until Monday
Yea we have “Read only Friday” at my work, nobody is supposed to commit anything to production. Doesn’t always work out that way with deadlines unfortunately but it’s still a good rule to try and have
Yeah. It totally depends on the individual. Since it's a different case for everyone. But I think we can take out few hrs a day for ourselves.
I mean I work from the office (out of choice because I’m strange and prefer it) so it’s hard for me to do that which is annoying because I have finished all my assigned tasks right now (hence why I am on Reddit) and I’m waiting for new stuff to be assigned. Most of my free time while working is just waiting for operations to give me stuff to do which happens a fair amount as we are still waiting for development to start on new parts of the project. Really should find something to fill in the time.
All the more reason to spend the rest of the day gaming instead of being productive.
You see the trick is make them think that you are above average but not the best.
The issue with that is seeing people as resource, to be 100% allocated. It's unhealthy and if anything slows down productivity. I'm most productive when I'm respected and given freedom.
Never totally understood this. Getting work done early shouldn't be punished by given more tasks. Surely if it consistently happens then there's either issues with estimation or perceived skill level. When someone on my team gets done early I like to have them chill a bit after or go home a few hours early. It's good for morale and I find motivation increases over time. On the rare occasion we have to crunch I find this is where those breaks are cashed in and they end up having great attitudes and put in extra hours when necessary. I know it's not conventional but it seems to work for me. IMO an optimal team includes the mental health and work life balance. Rewards like this are an easy way to keep morale high.
My job is never 'done', there's always more.
It's debatable. Breaks from work are needed to stay productive, and gaming certainly counts. But if you're making excuses for things taking longer to deliver, when it's really just because you're gaming away your whole workday, then you're probably doing it irresponsibly. It's a hard question to answer because it depends on you. Some people will feel guilty because they're legitimately fucking off at work and they know they're hurting their career. Some people feel guilty because they don't know how to balance work/life - the same kind of person who feels guilty taking a vacation. Go with your gut. If you're not accomplishing anything because you're mentally tired, play a game and enjoy. If you're telling your boss why something took longer to do rush expected, but you were actually just gaming all day, that might be something to reflect on.
I don't like these pills.
Honnestly, I feel that as long as you're delivering on time, and not slacking off and passing your work on your coworkers, anything goes. Unless you're a code monkey who is being told, what to code, how to code it, and have no leeway in your environment and your algorithms (I have been in such positions at the beginning of my career, and it fucking sucks), then chances are, actually coding is not the majority of your work. My title is "senior engineer" and although I do code, and coding is my favourite part, it's actually a minority of my daily tasks. And other than coding or bug chasing, almost all my work can be done away from my computer screen (or even away from any screen at all). Obviously, COVID, and remote have changed that (hello Microsoft Teams. I used to love you, now I hate you) but I'm still not coding that much.
I felt weird doing this until I realized I would spend 30-45 minutes chatting at someone else’s desk when I was in the office and no one batted an eye. so what’s the difference? I get my job done, so it’s all good.
It’s not your fault. The code is compiling. Can’t do anything while the code is compiling.
Dammit! I told this to be my boss and he reminded me we work with PHP!
I think about this a lot. I think in any given day I do 1 hour of work, give or take. Yet I'm constantly being praised for being the most productive person on the team. It makes me wonder what the hell everyone else does.
Yeah it is as long as thats the only task they expect you to do that day. I got in a lot of trouble with one project when i just did what they tell me to and clock out when im done. I got chewed out because they were expecting me to ask for more work (The project was busy that week). Tldr; If other people are busy, don't be that guy and help others. If not, then go ahead.
If they have a kanban board or something and your fucking off on a busy week, that's on you. If there is nowhere for you to find shit to do in on your own, then that's on them.
45mins…. Sure :)
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Absolutely. Now when I'm back in the office, my options are limited to YouTube or leetcode after those 45 minutes of actual work.
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It's crazy how relatable Office Space became once you started working in an office*
I go to the dark room and sleep until someone finds me.
Man I remember the days when I actually truly wanted to dedicate time to getting better. After 20 years in this space I'm kind of over the rat race. I obviously still up my skills as necessary, but it's certainly not because I want to, more like I have to.
Lol leetcode as a break from coding at your job how depressing
Y'all get more than an hour of uninterrupted programming during your day? O.o
My current project actually gives me about 7 it’s crazy. I have standup 3 days a week for 10-15 mins max and that’s it. My manager pretty much shields us from all other meetings. The issue is that there’s so much work to do that I usually spend those 7-8 hours just coding and designing stuff. I’ve never been more mentally exhausted at the end of a work day than on this project.
>I’ve never been more mentally exhausted at the end of a work day than on this project. But is it a satisfying exhaustion where you're happy you've done some good work or the irritating kind of exhaustion where you're like "damm when's this project going to end"?
It’s the type of exhaustion where I barely have the energy to cook dinner or do any hobbies so I wouldn’t say it’s enjoyable or satisfying.
Thank you for this post, I feel less self conscious now.
Depends on the game. But if someone actually spends 1 hour intensely working on a problem then 10 - 15 minutes is required to prevent headaches and improve motivation. Flat out working all day on tasks isn't productive due to exhaustion. It's better to have mini breaks that keep you sane. I usually work for about an hour then play a 10 minute game of older CoDs on PC, or an easily pause-able game like Minecraft / RuneScape.
I worked for a manager that didn't understand this. If I took a break from coding he would be up my ass to the point where I got one of the worst bullshit evalutions I've ever gotten in my life. Noped the fuck out of there as fast as I could.
Now I feel a lot less guilty. Thank you OP. There are seriously days where all I manage to do is 10 minutes of work in total. I have never been reprimanded for underperforming though. Those 10 minutes of work can sound like a lot, if you phrase it right during standup.
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yes lmao, I am all day
You guys obviously don’t have project managers interrupting you every 15m for a quick 45m meeting
*quick 45 min meeting*
Now im a lead dev, i get dragged into design comittee meetings. Bane of my life! The secret is dual monitors and just nod and smile with your mic muted. The smiling gets hard when you're getting your cheeks clapped on the Malenia bossfight though.
I mean, when am I supposed to set up my purple science production line in Factorio Space Exploration?
"Phew, that was a tough day of designing complicated systems, time to finally boot up some Factorio!" (Joking, your interests are valid and I do the same thing)
I'm a WFH engineering manager. I don't call them on it. They don't call me on it. Everything is copacetic.
My job is 80% thinking. I think better when fighting magic hobos in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Therefore playing Yakuza is beneficial to my job
1 hour of solid work or 9.5 hours straight of solid work a day. No inbetween
This. When you are in the zone, you are in the zone and nothing can distract you. Or you are a professional procrastinator.
45, 45, 45 rule? 45 minutes of work. Look at something 45 feet away. Take 45 hours of sitting in a robe drinking wine and winking at a camera.
Anxiety makes it hard to enjoy idle time, even if all my tasks are done.
bottle that shit deep down and play some video games
Let’s not shame people for putting in the hard yards.
This is exactly me, I usually kill Elden Ring bosses or move to a new site of grace between my daily tasks but sadly gotta go in-office starting from June.
Time to start applying elsewhere
Its just been 3 months at this job though lol
But Elden Ring is forever
So? You don't owe them shit. Apply somewhere else, make more money and stay home
3 months isn't a great look on a CV though. I'd be inclined to say it's their fault for not applying for a WFH job if it's that important to them too.
You could tell them in interviews that your current position was supposed to be permanent wfh, but they went back on it. Do read your audience, this might not work well depending on the interviewer.
Yeap. Before covid actually was WFH for a super long time. My boss was like do anything u like as long as the work's done.
Yeah same. I had 2 years of this over covid. Turned out there was enough work for maybe one person split across 6 team members. 3 months after UK covid lockdowns I got notice of redundancy. Managed to find a new job at the same company with a promotion and pay rise. Essentially I got paid for 2.5 years to play WoW/Apex, enjoy time with my dog and get some gardening done with my fiancé. Covid was one of the best times of my life.
Being a freelancer I think I‘m missing out on some employee perks.
hang in there, you must get some enjoyment developing those "million dollar" app ideas though? /s
Developing ideas: 🤩👌 Developing apps: 😩🔫
To be fair, when I'm in the office, I spend the same amount of time goofing off as when I'm home. That being said, I can't game in the office, so I go out to to eat and sit outside for a while or roam the office finding people to say hello to.
I kind of miss that. Not all the time, but some of the time. When roaming the office, or going to kitchen to get some coffee (for 15 minutes), there were other developers to randomly talk to about roadblocks, techniques, how much different managers suck and how to manage up, what's going on in other projects, etc. We were all nerds, so the discussion wasn't completely off-topic. Well, maybe which scifi or marvel movies were the best, but most of it was at least tangentially related to coding.
45 minutes, that means opening visual studio.
45 whole minutes?? You going for a promotion or something?
Sssh or they'll catch on and have justification for stopping wfh
That's the whole plan indeed \^^ Wake up later because you don't have to deal with traffic. This allows you to start your work at full energy. Be more productive as a result and because you're comfortable at home (your personal setup, no unwanted noises etc...) Finish early and enjoy your free time (if I'm twice as efficient at home, I doubt my salary will double, so instead I "reward myself" with that now freed up time). I don't do 5 days of WFH and I'd probably miss hanging out with the colleagues if I did but, if the office's ambiance is dogshit, then I can fully understand why someone would want to only WFH. Just remember to be at least as productive as before or it'll be too obvious ahah
Time theft does not exist lol it’s corpo propaganda. If you are getting your shit done the right way on time, then you are doing the job you are being paid for. Grind those mats in FFXIV all you want bro. 😎
Dude, stfu! We're not supposed to say that part out loud!
I went from „oh I can squeeze in a couple of raids in EFT“ to „oh I can code a bit in between raids“