For those who don’t know,I work in the fraud department of a major credit card issuer. My job is to take inbound calls on accounts with possible or confirmed fraud activity.
Well today through a system glitch our unit did not get any calls for 2 and a half hours. Since for once I had no projects to work on, I had to entertain myself somehow. What follows is a short list:
Emailed friends @ home
Emailed friends @ their jobs(Hi True Pisces hehe)
Major websurfing-can’t access the SDMB because of firewalls damn it
Played Would You Rather w/ my friend Brett via Outlook
Started a flame war via Outlook w/my friend Denise…opening salvo from me was " What’s up you cum-guzzling,rimjobbing,commie hooch princess?" and then we REALLY started to play hehehehe
Accessed the Hotmail account to remote access the Webtv account and respond to Dublos and Tygr
Let my friend Robin spank me w/ a crazy straw
Danced as my friend Ryan sang Rumpshaker
And I wonder why they call me a distracting presence
So my fellow Dopers…what do YOU do at work to keep yourself amused? I know for some (well,at least I can name 2 off the top of my head but I won’t) it’s turboflirting via email. For some it’s posting to the SDMB.
hardygrrl I thought you had a young man stashed near by for just such situations. I tend to browse vaguely job related sites and attempt re-filing my inbox yet again to try and maintain some sort of control on the deluge.
Me and the young boy are no longer on speaking terms…check the girly moments thread for THAT story. But there are some tasty,meow kitty kitty hotties in the department…
Swap all the lock cylinders from cabinets and drawers in neighboring cubes (then I wait for people to complain that their keys don’t work)
Play Diablo II (better to vent my frustration on Fallen than the customers…I guess)
Explain quantum physics/relativity/probability/particle physics/genetics/sociology/psychology/history/economics/religion/whatever to my neighbor across the wall, who happens to be one of my best friends. He’s fairly intelligent, but counterintuitive concepts sometimes must be tattooed onto his hide with a blunt instrument before he accepts them (it took 3 days for me to convince him that the Gambler’s Fallacy was a fallacy). It’s good practice for GQ.
Pronounce dire and unspeakable curses on my phone, phones in general, and the much-maligned soul of A. G. Bell. I hate phones.
Spray synthetic cobwebs (realistic ones–I’m not a prop master for nothing) all over a vacationing coworker’s cube.
Right now I work calling alumni from the college where I’m at. Its like telemarketing but with a cause, and its boring as all get-out. (No one tends to answer their phones these days.)
Things to amuse myself:
Telling alums the most vulgar stories that I can. From talking about the rugby team playing a game with cadavers (back in the 80s) to people using lubrication for birthing cows in the “Storming of the Arch” (or lets run into a wall of people and get tackled then lets do it some more), I like to be crass.
Writing weird comments about what people said about the school, why they weren’t home, why they don’t want to give me their money, etc.
Calling people with weird names.
Networking to find some sort of “real” job
Throwing things at the roommie, who also works there.
Working the night shift at the library, I have a lot of free time…
-Read the Straight Dope
-Email my epals ( http://ppi.searchy.net ). So far I have 3 Japanese, a Morrocoan, and 2 from the UK.
-Email friends and family.
-Before telnet was disabled… Play on my M.U.D. ( http://www.mudconnector.com )
-Visit the various links at http://www.bored.com
-Take the quizzes at http://www.emode.com (I am an observer, film director, if i were a food i’d be peppermint, and my color is brown)
-Play with my Flip & Catch (try to swing this wooden cup so that a ball (attached to cup by string) flips into the cup)
-Look up words in the dictionary and write poems about them.
-Think up nicknames for the ‘regulars’
-Write short stories about them.
-Play on the typewriter.
-Search random books/authors/periodicals on the library search page.
-Make paperclip chains.
-Make office supply sculptures.
-Doodle on the desk calander.
-Balance my checkbook.
-Send phoney emails to my co-workers from the boss.
-Create records for books that don’t exist, and check them out to people I don’t like. (Okay, so I don’t do that, but sometimes I daydream about it. “Sorry Mr. Poohead, but unless you return “Adult Bed Wetting” you will be charged a replacement fee.”)
Hrm… I’m starting to see why my emode career test called me a slacker.
I would like to present the most perfect product of recent times, designed especially for the what-to-do-at-work-when-you’re-bored consumer. The Procrastinator. Thanks to shaolin for this link.
I was a US Soldier deployed to the Balkans (Macedonia). My job was to pull guard duty at a place where nothing ever happened. We always had several cases of bottled water in the guard towers. One night, I was so bored I decided to see how many bottles I could drink and then refill. In a 12-hour shift, I pissed just over 5 gallons. I poured them all out at the base of the tower. As luck would have it, I was relieved by a guy who I hated with a passion. He walked right through the puddle. Life was good
Aside from getting e-mails from hardygrrl through most of the day (as well as a few other assorted Dopers as the day goes on), I:
1 check the SDMB far more than I should 2 write erotica on steno pads, to be typed on the home PC later 3 Hi Opal! 4 look for new job-in-NY/new-apartment-in-NY/anything-in-NY 5 give quick calls to my Dad to make sure he’s still breathing 6 help the very fine Columbian guy in the cubicle across from me with his English - usually proofreading his e-mails to go out 7 throw things at my friend Seresa who’s cube is kitty-corner to mine just 'cause it’s fun.
