longest period doing nothing at work?
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- fadein110
Theres some really excellent advice in this thread - well done guys. This is why I absolutely love you guys and this website and why I have kepy coming back since about 1999 (well it was defo before the towers fell anyway)... Keep it up guys - you make this site what it is today. Thanks you.
- vaxorcist0
quiet spell often means account execs aren't generating new work, and/or client staff changes are happening... suits need to hit the road and cold call...
If you're a creatively driven agency, cool creatives would do some great pro-bono work to win awards and get into a new sort of work/clients/etc...
waiting is poison
- pinkfloyd0
I spend all my time on the QBN.
- vaxorcist0
whenever I had a quiet spell at an agency it meant shit was about to hit fan.... calm before the storm
- funkage0
I've had a quiet spell myself—two or three months coming—but I'm not worried about getting the sack. It's a rare period in the mostly busy 2-year spell I've had. Also, the culture here is 'rush to wait, wait to rush'.
- aanderton0
I've had a quiet spell lately. Only little things to do here and there. I've taken to listening to various podcasts on itunes and just sitting there relaxing.
- cannonball19780
^ see this makes some sense.... although looking at real estate online is still more entertaining to me.
- LOL! I troll trulia all day looking for expensive house in other cities I'd like to live.fooler
- dMullins0
I'm with you, cannon—fight the good fight, and enjoy it while you can. If they can't get you some real work, why waste your time toiling away on a holiday calendar for this year's holiday season?
If I had an agency or was a higher-up at one, it would be policy that busy work does not exist. If you've got nothing to do, learn something and prove you've learned it by educating us all, a la a lunch and learn or something. You bring value to the agency by growing your skills, not by tinkering away on some crummy busy work.
I hate busy work.
- there was an agency I wanted a job at who had a free subscrip lynda.com for all the designersVikingKingEleven
- it seems like people dont want to learn anymore.VikingKingEleven
- huh? free learning is cool, and the agency's getting more skilled people cheap!vaxorcist
- monkeyshine0
This is one of those online moments where I think people are clueless to the persistence of the web and how this could come back to bite you in the arse one day when you are looking for another opportunity. Just sayin...
- +1studderine
- Thats sort of paranoid. Anyway I don't want to work for people who hold my opinions against me.cannonball1978
- don't write cannonball1978 on your resume. problem solved.mydo
- cannonball19780
Am I wrong for not caring? Get me on client work, and I'm off and running like a god damn greyhound. Other than that, I just dont care. For a bit I was saying it's overtime karma paying me back, but now I'm like... meh.
- bjladams0
my last office job got like that. work started getting really slow - and when it was there i couldnt be bothered. i took a vacation, went to thailand for a few weeks - came back with some new inspiration and quit. I stayed around for a month or so to train the new guy, on full time pay but was only there an hour or 2 a day to answer questions and used the remainder of my time to start my own company. motivation is a lot stronger now, as 8 people are depending on me for chicken and rice - plus i'm loving it. life's good outside of the rut man. do something to shake it up.
- studderine0
i can't remember the last time i was under 30 hours of billable work a week.
- edd-e0
when im bored, i try to learn an different industries creative work. like web or 3D. i feel that positioning yourself in the creative realm outside of your comfort zone or outside of what you do best, will greatly help you when you return to your work. i say this because it create avenues of learning that which you didnt have previously and can benefit you for doing something stronger when you are back in the realm of your industry as now your ammunition for solving a creative problem can be handled with more and a stronger design visual and understanding.
dont lose yourselves when you arent getting a paycheck, always keep yourself busy, and keep your mind fresh. working for another industries goals will generate your need to want to get back instep with your career goals.
this is what i do to stay on top of my industry.
- fooler0
I've had as little as 0-.5 of an hour to as high as 3-4 hours of billable hours per day all year. It's gets really boring and I'm starting to get paranoid.
- formed0
Really? Besides being worried about your job I'd think it would be a wonderful time to try to impress, do things that will really help the firm, not just a client.
Get engaged with the dialogue surrounding the future of the firm. It'll give you insight into where things are going (your job) and offer opportunities to offer help for things moving forward.
- Eh, I just dont care. It's like get me some billable work or fire me already.cannonball1978
- find yourself some freelance work.Amicus
- cannonball19780
Yeah I'm doing all that.. I'm just sort of not really caring about all that.
- Fax_Benson0
Impressive. I once dragged a 3 week job out over a whole summer. You've had a month to work out how you're going to keep that up for another month. No excuses.
- mikotondria30
Yikes, yeh - learn rails, java, obj-c - go through all Greyscale Gorrilla's c4d tutorials and set your machine on a rendering spree. Create a typeface, make some retro posters, explore after effects, learn processing.js, write your own jQuery plugin, create a free WP template.
Anything.
- moldero0
"research"