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Thumb Twiddling for Fun and Profit
Mar. 10th, 2003 08:54 pmIt didn't look like it was going to be a good work day today, especially when I shoed up on time for my 10:00 shift, only to discover that my 10:00 shift was in fact a 10:30 shift. But then, a wondrous thing happened: 45 minutes in, the system went down.
Or rather, most of the system went down. I don't pretend to know all the technical hoop-di-doo about this, but somehow we were left with nine working terminals out of a possible 43. (Oddly enough, the Dover office was experiencing the same thing at the same time.) This sort of thing happens from time to time, and usually lasts for about ten minutes or so, so we started gabbing, making jokes at the managers' expense (a popular pastime, that), and razzing poor Rob Wiggins, whose computer was still working, which meant he actually had to continue taking calls, the poor dear.
But ten minutes stretched to twenty, then thirty, and all of a sudden, the lot of us sitting around with our proverbial thumbs up our equally-proverbial tushes was no longer an option, even though it was the easiest $21.50 an hour ever. So we spent the rest of the day doing bits of grunt work like hauling outmoded PCs into and out of dumbwaiters and stacking empty boxes in the store room, alternated with taking 30-minute shifts on the few functioning terminals and standing around looking as busy as we could without actually having to do anything. This meant lots of free time for the conspiracy theorists to parlay the stoppage into a Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory about how this was some sort of test by the Company that would end in the office being shut down three months from now. No, it didn't make sense to me, either.
The system stayed down for a good five hours, which seemed extraordinarily long, given that no actual work was worked while I was working. But then again, I really should enjoy this while I still can. This is when I really profoundly regret getting an English Lit degree when I have absolutely no desire to teach.
Or rather, most of the system went down. I don't pretend to know all the technical hoop-di-doo about this, but somehow we were left with nine working terminals out of a possible 43. (Oddly enough, the Dover office was experiencing the same thing at the same time.) This sort of thing happens from time to time, and usually lasts for about ten minutes or so, so we started gabbing, making jokes at the managers' expense (a popular pastime, that), and razzing poor Rob Wiggins, whose computer was still working, which meant he actually had to continue taking calls, the poor dear.
But ten minutes stretched to twenty, then thirty, and all of a sudden, the lot of us sitting around with our proverbial thumbs up our equally-proverbial tushes was no longer an option, even though it was the easiest $21.50 an hour ever. So we spent the rest of the day doing bits of grunt work like hauling outmoded PCs into and out of dumbwaiters and stacking empty boxes in the store room, alternated with taking 30-minute shifts on the few functioning terminals and standing around looking as busy as we could without actually having to do anything. This meant lots of free time for the conspiracy theorists to parlay the stoppage into a Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory about how this was some sort of test by the Company that would end in the office being shut down three months from now. No, it didn't make sense to me, either.
The system stayed down for a good five hours, which seemed extraordinarily long, given that no actual work was worked while I was working. But then again, I really should enjoy this while I still can. This is when I really profoundly regret getting an English Lit degree when I have absolutely no desire to teach.
