the lady in my next cubicle has been on the phone since 10:30 this morning...

[Anonymous]

reminds me of my coworker who spent 3 months chatting on the phone preparing for her wedding- we worked in cubes so she would tell me daily who got her what gift and how bad or good it was.. she's also snow my boss on how busy she was and couldn't meet deadlines (we're all mba's - came in on a recent mba program)... she drove me nuts.. but in this case, what goes around did come around- her next boss and her team figured her out rather early and she was basically told to leave..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:reminds me of my coworker who spent 3 months chatting on the phone preparing for her wedding- we worked in cubes so she would tell me daily who got her what gift and how bad or good it was.. she's also snow my boss on how busy she was and couldn't meet deadlines (we're all mba's - came in on a recent mba program)... she drove me nuts.. but in this case, what goes around did come around- her next boss and her team figured her out rather early and she was basically told to leave..

Heh. We had a guy like that in bus school - he wanted to be group leader and did absolutely nothing except constantly hit on one team member who was happily married (he had a major crush on her; she was annoyed by him). But it was a team project so the rest of us picked up the slack. We were allowed to give grades for each team member and everyone wanted to give him an F-. I doubt he got an F- but I think he probably got what he deserved because no one wanted to deal with him again. And in bus school, it's a lot about the connections you make. We should have known better when we started out because he talked about how he didn't get along with other group members in previous team projects.

[Anonymous]

Imagine weeding out all the dead wood in government. What a savings that would be for the taxpayers. Just a dream, I know....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine weeding out all the dead wood in government. What a savings that would be for the taxpayers. Just a dream, I know....

I work in government and couldn't agree more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine weeding out all the dead wood in government. What a savings that would be for the taxpayers. Just a dream, I know....

I work in government and couldn't agree more.

Ditto, especially the highly paid dead wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a job like that. I'm an assistant to a person who doesn't need a lot of assistance. So I knock out the little work I have early, and I am available for anything else that comes up during the day, but I have a lot of downtime. I try to get other tasks from people in the office, but that's hit or miss. And I don't come in late or leave early or take long lunches. I'm always paranoid that something urgent would come up in THAT moment.

Basically, it's not as great as you'd think, to be stuck at a desk for 8 hours a day, with only two hours of work to keep you busy. I much preferred my last job, which was a nice solid amount of (usually) interesting work to do.

Seems like everyone I know in DC is in one boat or the other-- either like me, or crazy-stressed-borderline-psychotic busy. There's too little sane middle ground in our current professional world.

There is actually psychological research that shows being underworked is more stressful than overworked. As I recall, it's because the underworked employee doesn't get any of the positive psychological benefits of working-- i.e. sense of purpose, accomplishment, efficacy, being part of a team, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine weeding out all the dead wood in government. What a savings that would be for the taxpayers. Just a dream, I know....

It'd be great if it happened in all kinds of organizations. I think slacking off and/or resting on one's laurels is a human trait on display to some degree everywhere.

[Anonymous]

There are "warm bodies" everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a job like that. I'm an assistant to a person who doesn't need a lot of assistance. So I knock out the little work I have early, and I am available for anything else that comes up during the day, but I have a lot of downtime. I try to get other tasks from people in the office, but that's hit or miss. And I don't come in late or leave early or take long lunches. I'm always paranoid that something urgent would come up in THAT moment.

Basically, it's not as great as you'd think, to be stuck at a desk for 8 hours a day, with only two hours of work to keep you busy. I much preferred my last job, which was a nice solid amount of (usually) interesting work to do.

Seems like everyone I know in DC is in one boat or the other-- either like me, or crazy-stressed-borderline-psychotic busy. There's too little sane middle ground in our current professional world.

There is actually psychological research that shows being underworked is more stressful than overworked. As I recall, it's because the underworked employee doesn't get any of the positive psychological benefits of working-- i.e. sense of purpose, accomplishment, efficacy, being part of a team, etc.

*Raises hand* I can believe that sister.