What kind of things do you do to stave off boredom when you have no work to do but you have to stay at work.
When Couped up? Usually I just drive out of there.
Alright then… cooped up.
In order of preference:
- (If computer/internet is available, which isn’t always the case) Lurk on the Dope (Hi Opal!) This has the added benefit of “looking like work,” as one of my collateral duties is creating web pages
- Find a similarly bored co-worker and joke around
- Torture myself with CNN or FOX news, whichever happens to be streaming in on the TV on that particular day (mostly just to drool over the implausibly high percentage of attractive female anchors/spokeswomen – the “reporting” itself is pretty worthless – and wishing it was one of those foreign naked news programs)
- If the jerk boss is around, I try to look busy and preoccupied and invariably end up outside in the smoke pit, smoking way too many cigarettes waiting for quitting time (awful bosses really are bad for one’s well-being, I’ve noticed)
- When I’m really desperate and at the end of my rope, I’ll find something to clean or repair
Your looking at it.
I assume you mean if I have a couple hours of down time but can’t just up and leave for the day. Usually I just surf the web, BS with coworkers or take a leisurely lunch if it’s about that time.
Talk to co-workers, surf, listen to my mp3 player, or until it was recently outlawed (as are surfing and listening to music but they’re easier to get away with), read.
This is really rare in my job (for example, just this spring 2007 I nearly quit out of stress from too much work) but lately things have been slow.
I’ve managed to get all my filing done, start on rent increase notices/letters (I’m up to May 2008 now) and just put them in abeyance to be mailed out at the appropriate time. I went through and organised my desk drawer files and got rid of a lot of old forms. Oh, there’s the owner insurance to track down and make sure we have copies of. There are, sadly, a bunch of projects that have been on the back burner for months, and which I can now turn my attention toward. The big boss has decided we need a new filing system, so I get to make files and labels and take stuff out of old folders and put them in new folders.
I am so not looking forward to that. I guess I should really start on it this week.
See, when it gets quiet, the bosses notice. Then they find stuff for us to do. Yucky stuff. And if I surf the web, that’s just inviting someone to walk up behind me. Invariably, it’s the boss, and I look like a loser slacker.
This never happens where I work. In the unlikely event this did happen I would probably take the chance to get to know some of my co-workers who are also constantly busy. I exchange about 10 words per day with the guy who sits in the cubicle next to me, and It’s almost always work related when we do talk. It doesn’t help that the guy is naturally introverted and quiet. I don’t know first name of about 75% of the people I work with. 
I usually find someone to joke around with, which is never really hard.
Your scenario would be, at my job, no doctors there so no patients, and we’re not allowed to just stand around (unless you’re The PrincessTM, of course), so I’d do things like cut drapes and purge outdated samples, help with filing, and other mundane and boring chores. The day goes by a lot slower than if there were patients.
I make my own schedule, so when I am out of work to do, I go home. 
Sleep. Watch TV. Read. Eat too much junk food from the snack machine.
Downtime is pretty rare at my job, but I can pretty much do what I want when I don’t have a call. We can play Solitare and Minesweeper, but we can’t get on teh interwebs, though, which sucks.