New Jobs
 

Ok, so i just started a new job and am rediculously bored. what do you do when you are bored at work and not allowed to have IM?

make lists of things i can do when i get home

usually....let my mind wander around. Sometimes, just so my neurons won't stop firing, I'll take an adventure in my mind and imagine everything thats there in vivid detail. Sometimes i do that when i'm not bored, and should be working on other stuff.

Maggie,

I can empathize, my job can super boring sometimes, ok most of the time. When I can't really go online I read the newspaper or a book or if you can't do that, I write, try to organize things, work on my volunteer reports, etc.

GREEK CHAT!
 

Funny thing about this question...I was in the exact same situation and that is how I found GC and became a regular poster way back when. Now I have a stupid fire wall at work and can't even access GC. So I e-mail. A LOT. It's the only thing I can do to keep myself from going insane. Good luck Maggie. I feel your pain!

Balance your checkbook.
Maybe get a new address book and copy all your old numbers into it.
You can file your nails but not paint them since the polish smell is a dead giveaway.
Internet shopping??

Get IM. :D

Seriously, although I am allowed to have IM (need it to communicate with some of my more antisocial coworkers :) ), if I have a little down time, I read the New York Times online or check other news sites. I wouldn't dare visit GC when I'm at work - I know my web surfing is monitored - but I figure if I'm reading the Times, it's semi-excusable. :)

I have also been known to play games on my Palm Pilot. To the casual observer, it looks like I'm updating my phone book or calendar. ;)

Ha ha, why do you think I post on GC during the workday? I also catch up on news web sites, email my friends, use ICQ, post to my blog ...

Too bad HomeGrocer folded or you could order your groceries from work!

I really feel for you. Where I work we have the luxury of having tv/vcr combos at our desk - so my biggest dilemma is what to watch before 12:30 and after 4:00 (I watch all the CBS soaps lol). Like everyone else said, balance your checkbook, make out a shopping list, pay bills, read the paper, organize your work email, your desk. Heck check out the websites I produce (for my job), and get some ideas for recipes or do-it-yourself projects:

www.diynet.com
www.hgtv.com
www.foodnetwork.com
www.fineliving.com

also, i like looking at www.ilovebacon.com

I checked out I love bacon. I was so disappointed to learn that it was not about Kevin Bacon. ;)

Wow Sarah, you work for Food Network? That's awesome! I watch that channel all the time. I would love to work for someplace cool like that. (I work for a boring old healthcare publication :rolleyes: )

One good thing about my job is that (as far as I know) our internet time isn't monitored, which is how I found GC a couple of weeks ago. It would be nice to have IM's, but that's pretty much the only thing that's blocked. When I'm bored, I write and check my email all the time and I look at random websites that I stumble across and that my friends tell me about. A couple of fun ones are:
www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com (self-explanatory!)
www.threebrain.com (funny music videos)
www.snopes.com (urban legends)
www.thespark.com (I've taken almost every quiz on there!)

okay I know this sounds stupid, but I didn't know this so..maybe it will help.
You can sign on through im on their webpage instead of the traditional means...I used to do it at work, but mayber you already tried that.

Or, you can get yahoo's instant messenger, and tell your friends to get it too so they can talk to you with that. We couldn't use AOL IM, but yahoo worked.

If you can use the web, you can get AIM Quick Buddy which just does messaging through the browser :) They uninstalled IM from all of our computers at my old job, so everyone just took to using Quick Buddy.

Get a new job????
 

Well, if it's a new job and you are already bored - maybe you should spend your time looking for a new job. I know that I would go crazy if my work wasn't interesting.

You don't say what your job is or what the company does. Best use of your time is to use it to learn something, anything. If there are manuals, be they product or technology, read and learn. Study past documentation on past projects or products your company has produced or is producing. See if there are any computer based training products or tutorials available. Learn the corporate structure and how business is done. Ask others within your area if there is something you can help with, if there isn't then check outside your area. Do something that increases your value to the company. You are in the real world now, this isn't school anymore so don't expect things to be spoon fed to you as though you were an animal in a zoo. Initiative is a valuable commodity. You will be seen as a 'go-getter' rather than someone wasting company resources by playing on the internet. If there is a lay off who do you think that the company will keep? Someone who has looked for more to do and offered to help or someone who spent their days surfing?