MetaChat - Ask MeCha...work stuff

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13 June 2006

Ask MeCha...work stuff →[More:]I started temping this week, and I have a few things I want to ask you guys:

The preface is that the people at the office are laid-back, and the lady who works in the front office with me told me something to the effect of - "Surf the internet all day, so long as you answer the phones and let the staff know when their clients are here." She also said don't let certain staff members catch me doing this.

I'm in a high profile area, and people walk behind me all day long. I don't want to get caught, so I'm limiting myself to a few hours of surfing a day (yes, the job really is that slow and boring. I begged for extra busy work and was shut down). Here are my questions:

What are your favorite time-wasters to keep you from going nuts when performing mindless work? These would preferably be non-internet things that can be done somewhat discreetly in a busy office. A book or magazine wouldn't work.

Can you recommend sites that don't look too splashy or ad-ridden that are good for browsing on the down low (I thought Mefi would fit this bill, but it's too bright and colorful and the ads shrink with the window, doh)?

post by: SassHat at: 19:11 | 8 comments

If you have Firefox, install the Web Developer extension and disable page colors, css, and images. But if you're temping, you probably don't have Firefox.

posted by matildaben 13 June | 19:18

how about putting portable firefox on a thumb drive. you could use the developer extensiln then. Also, leave no trail on the coputer.

posted by jelly 13 June | 19:29

*cringes at his speeling*

posted by jelly 13 June | 19:30

Portable Firefox is truly the duck's guts for work surfing. Apart from the whole, you know, portable thing, there are no incriminating trails left for other uses to stumble across. Unless you work for an organisation big enough to log your use (which I do ;-(), but at least someone else won't see "http://www.fistingsluts.com" in the address bar when they start to type "www.fiscalaccounting.com".

Also, you can disable images in MeCha to make it look quite innocuous.

posted by dg 13 June | 19:44

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Do you consider the government of Canada a "big enough organization?"

posted by SassHat 13 June | 20:02

I use the computer to listen to stuff. I really like NPR's series-es; they have many archived sets of good things. There's also "Talking History", a series of conversations on odd history topics. I listen to No Depression and Paste streaming audio for new music. When the phone rings, I just turn down the speaker. This way, I tend to learn things while I'm collating, addressing envelopes, or doing other relatively mindless work.

posted by Miko 13 June | 20:09

You can read a lot of news sites (NYT, Salon, etc.) without looking like it if you just choose the print version of the article you're reading. That was one of my tricks while temping.

posted by occhiblu 13 June | 20:48

You could write letters to all the people you know who aren't on email. This is probably more in the UK than North America, where it seems that 99.9% of the population has email, but in the UK, a surprising number of people don't have it, or never use it. I always like getting real letters in the mail.

posted by essexjan 14 June | 02:55

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