What do you guys do at work, when not working?

I'm at my internship right now, got the assignment done early, my mentor is busy, so I do nothing but pass time. This internship is boring. So what do you guys do during your free time at work, assuming you have some? Just roam around internet? Bother co-workers? Prono? This topic is stupid. But I'm bored. I was thinking of enabling remote access to my mac, so I can work on my projects during my free time here, but I haven't started to set that up yet, will do it tonight possibly. I hope actual job isn't this boring.


regards, D.Chhetri

Check if you can get another assignment first of all, if you can't you can always read up on interesting topics, check with your boss/mentor if its ok if you work on some opensource project or similar during your downtime, anything that can improve your skills and isn't competing with / harming your company can be acceptable if you run it past your boss first.

Don't do anything without checking that its ok first though, if you work on personal projects while at work without permission your boss won't be very happy.

you should never have free time. Always ask for more work if your done. First be sure you are super done and all the cuffs are ironed out. Sometimes its a good idea to let your boss know when your nearly done so he can prepare good work for you to do.

if they are disorganized enough so that they can't give you any work you want to be doing something which will make you better at your tasks. What is your process like? Is there anything you could do that would make life easier for you or your colleagues?

Honest answer: surf the internet - visit gamedev.net, funnyjunk, youtube... etc. I also often eat, kid around with other co-workers, go for a walk to the supermarket, and space out thinking about my personal projects at home.

- I Doubt this helps!

Play my favorite game: Wikipedia!

I never had an internship nor directly dealt with interns at jobs, but as the others have said I would think that asking for more work would be the best thing to do. Put on a good face and look productive to possible future employers. You don't want to give them the vibe that you are lazy and just want to do the bare minimum to get by.

As for me, to paraphrase Office Space I average maybe two hours of real work in a day. At the office I will just surf the internet, talk to other people in the office, play the office PS3, and if its one of the days I'm working at home I'll play regular PC games. As long as you get your stuff done taking some time to mess around a bit is a good thing. Staring at a computer screen filled with code all day will make you bonkers.

I usually research related topics when I am waiting for something to build/compile etc. Been looking at various version control systems recently.. Or take the time to get away from my desk and quickly shoot some pool.

I talk to the female employees when I'm not working.

If you want to make an interns salary for the rest of your life surf the internet. If you want to get promoted then ask your boss for a larger project that you can work on when you finish with your immediate duties. Ask him if it's ok if you help out other departments if he has nothing to do. Ask him if there's something he's doing that you can help him with to free up his time.

I always did this when temping and always got offered a job when I was done. It's also how I got my job now and how my intern got hired on full time.

As above, bug your mentor!
In no particular order:
Read gamedev forums
Go for a coffee.
Read useless crap on the internet.
Chat with workmates.
Research new stuff that will actually help me in my job.

Porno?

At all the jobs I've worked at, this is the only thing I've ever seen people get fired for. Don't load porn on a corporate PC...

Time you're not working? Man, I wish I had days like that. Currently I'm on the clock but not working, as I'm waiting for the team lead to finish up their morning notes and assign builds. At best I get 15 minutes in a day, and even that I usually use as part of my listed break times anyway.

Why would you stick around at a job that you didn't Want to do? (Beyond the obvious reasons of requiring money and what not,... Stupid money.)

At all the jobs I've worked at, this is the only thing I've ever seen people get fired for. Don't load porn on a corporate PC...

Or at the very least, don't load porn on a corporate PC assigned to you,...

Gamedev.net.

Unfortunately, I have a nice but sometimes (especially now) extremely boring task: making a manual for a machine. *YAWN*

*YAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN*

So lots of Gamedev *YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN*

Why would you stick around at a job that you didn't Want to do? (Beyond the obvious reasons of requiring money and what not,... Stupid money.)

Why would you want to breathe beyond the obvious reason of requiring air to live?

Not everybody has the privilege of being both skilled enough to do something they want to do and have jobs available to them.

My bosses have all learned at various points in time that they have to keep me productive or I specifically become anti-productive. It's not just the absence of productivity, I mean a reversal of productivity already had. I start building medieval siege weapons out of office supplies (which invariably leads to something like a plate glass window getting broken), hacking security card readers in the lobbies, or starting office chair jousting leagues. One time, I built a flame thrower out of a paper towel tube, a ballpoint pen, and a can of compressed air. Between my general knowledge of how things work and my constant need to be entertained, if I'm not distracted by legitimate pursuits, I'm on the fast track to trouble.

Play my favorite game: Wikipedia!

Have you tried http://thewikigame.com/ ? ;-)

My bosses have all learned at various points in time that they have to keep me productive or I specifically become anti-productive. It's not just the absence of productivity, I mean a reversal of productivity already had. I start building medieval siege weapons out of office supplies (which invariably leads to something like a plate glass window getting broken), hacking security card readers in the lobbies, or starting office chair jousting leagues. One time, I built a flame thrower out of a paper towel tube, a ballpoint pen, and a can of compressed air. Between my general knowledge of how things work and my constant need to be entertained, if I'm not distracted by legitimate pursuits, I'm on the fast track to trouble.

What did you use the ballpoint pen for?

[quote name='capn_midnight' timestamp='1306330084' post='4815590']
My bosses have all learned at various points in time that they have to keep me productive or I specifically become anti-productive. It's not just the absence of productivity, I mean a reversal of productivity already had. I start building medieval siege weapons out of office supplies (which invariably leads to something like a plate glass window getting broken), hacking security card readers in the lobbies, or starting office chair jousting leagues. One time, I built a flame thrower out of a paper towel tube, a ballpoint pen, and a can of compressed air. Between my general knowledge of how things work and my constant need to be entertained, if I'm not distracted by legitimate pursuits, I'm on the fast track to trouble.

What did you use the ballpoint pen for?
[/quote]

just the tube that everything goes into. The paper towel tube got filled with the raw fluid from the can of compressed air. The pen tube was taped to the paper towel tube to make a tight seal. The reduction in tube diameter increased the stream pressure and made for longer flame shots. I was able to reach about 3 feet with it, which isn't very far but I'm dealing with office supplies here, and they're just lucky I didn't hit up the powdered creamer.

I'd fire you lot if you were an employee of mine and NOT working

And don't give me the "I'm just waiting for the build to finish" nonsense - LOL !!!

I'd fire you lot if you were an employee of mine and NOT working

And don't give me the "I'm just waiting for the build to finish" nonsense - LOL !!!

100% productivity is not possible. And for every day I'm goofing off because there is nothing to do, there are 2 days where I'm in the office for 12 hours at a time to support product deployments. If you're doing software dev right, it's not really 9-to-5 work.

I don't disagree with you at all...still I'd like to *think* at least, that all my (former) employees were working and not surfing the web all day long.

As long as the work get's done on time and to the quality expected, and stays within budget....I honestly do not care what people do (as long as it's legal)