How To Deal With Work When There's Not A Great Deal Of Work To Do ...

[bednobs]

my project is coming to an end, and the work is diminishing. The three of us working on the project have an end date coming up soon, which we must stay until. i have never been in this position before and i'm having trouble dealing with work days as the work diminishes. No one else in the department has any work that needs doing that they are not already ding themselves. has anyone been in this position befre and how did you cope??

[Hopkirk]

Can you position yourself so you look as though you are busy on your computer, but actually be on AB?

[andy-hughes]

Get a portable DVD player and line up some box sets.

I watched all seven seasons of The Shield last time I was in your position.

[bednobs]

neither of those things are really possible. plus i do them on my non-work days :)

[woofgang]

community singing works for me....likely to get you sent home early :)

[Tilly2]

Are you actually going to be out of work at the end, Bednobs, or do you have an upcoming project? If so, is there some preparation that you could be doing for that?

[bednobs]

out of work; i suppose i should work on my cv

[DTCwordfan]

or, as an extension, putting out feelers for what you want to do.

Have you prepared a general cv for others - recognising that you may want to tweak it to an actual 'interested' candidate company?

[Tilly2]

...and looking for your next job?

[DTCwordfan]

you answered it as I typed.

You need a generic cv for general pitches - and then, for those that really interest you, focus the cv on your experience relevant to what they are looking for - and then the rest, well add that as an 'additional info page as in, ' I happen to have a Masters in Latin, speak Arabic, volunteer for the AB-addict Society, cook the most wonderful meals and have a stroppy cat or two.'

[bednobs]

not really quite sure how my current boss would view me working on getting my next job during time they are paying me to do their job (they know that the work is finishing)

[DTCwordfan]

fact of life, bedknobs, they want to move you on.......

[Tilly2]

Don't know what else to suggest, Bednobs. I hope someone can help you out.

[-SharonA-]

Go home early. I couldn't see the point of sitting there twiddling my thumbs.

[Prudie]

On days when I've not so much to do but need to keep busy (if only to stop me clock watching) I find things to do like sorting, filing and deleting emails (have 13,000 in my inbox which is awful), creating folders in my Word and Excel files and generally tidying them up, sorting my drawers - things I usually can't be bothered to do.

[jennyjoan]

I had to retire - trying to get those days in were putting me nuts.