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Surviving in a "workless" Job
13

Surviving in a "workless" Job

Surviving in a "workless" Job

(OP)
Hi folks,

I am a new engineer(just a couple of years of exp) and I am working in a company where practically there is no work for me to do for more than 3 months.

All I can do is to sit and wait for the work to be assigned to me by my immediate supervisor who is a good for nothing person.

I know that he has got loads of experience behind his back and I know that he knows his stuff, but for a person of his caliber he should be good engineer not a manager.

What exactly is happening is that when I have joined this company I had to put in a lot of overtime to cope up with the schedules and deadlines as others.
But after that period there is literally a slump and nothing to do.
When ever I get my paycheck I really feel bad for taking it as I have done nothing productive. I feel that this thing is jeopardizing my career.
Is this the way it is around in all the corporate environment or is that myself the anomaly here.
It is getting really hard for me to watch the clock from 8 to 5. Please suggest

Nick

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I would suggest, if you have nothing productive to do, make something productive. You can do research on your products / process, you can delve into reference books giving you a technical edge over others, you can even try to find other projects for your particular company that might be out of the norm for what they produce or sell. There are many ways to be productive, and not all of them require you to make things.


Byron T. - P.E.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Nick, find something to do to enhance your skills that will make you more valuable to either your current or future employers. Learn AutoCAD, or take a class in Finite Elements, and study these subjects during the lulls in your work day. By staying positive and doing something productive, you will be able to get through the day more easily, and feel better about yourself in the process. Just sitting there and feeling underutilized is the most aggravating part of it. Find something productive to do.


Maui

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Workload is always cyclic.

If you work in manufacturing you can always take a stroll through assembly or manufacturing and talk with the people in the trenches.  Understanding their point of view of your company's products can only help you in engineering better ones.

Instead of waiting for work to be delivered to you, seek it out.  Stay proactive, not reactive.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I agree,look of something to do, and if you really can't find it, crack open the books or journals relevant to your area of interest and invest the time in improving yourself. If your employer is willing, now is the time to sign up for conferences or training opportunities. They won't let you go when it is busy. This approach will pay off for your employer later.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I agree with the others. When I have down time, I learn something new. Between learning, I clean up my office and PC files.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

7
Things I learned during slumps:

•Pro/E
•Visual Basic
•boss's salary
•fly casting (don't ask)
•juggling (what?)
•how fast money disappears when daytrading
•Monster.com
•IT department monitors Monster.com queries
•anyone can write an article for a CAD magazine
•having time to write is a bad sign that there isn't enough work

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Here's a good trick for cold climates...
Bring two coats.  Leave one on your chair so it looks like you're around.  Sneak out and see a movie after lunch.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I had been working as a young engineer for a mechanical contractor, just finishing a multi-million dollar cehmical plant, with the next major project starting for at least 9 months.  I wrote a proposal to upper management to develop the quality system to obtain the ASME B&PV U, PP & S stamps.

Look for something that can be improved or would open up new markets.

Take an online course. If you have plans on obtaining your PE license take the Universityof Alaska-Anchorage course on Arctic Engineering.

Read up on law, patent. copyright, management, human resourses ... ad infinitum. Topics that are remotely related to your work .

Learn a few simple magic tricks that you can use during presentations.

Spend time on the shop floor, learn to weld, the shop procedures, et cetera.

Do not have an affaire de coeur during your work slump.  I know an engineer and clerk that did, both were terminated, and then divorced by their spouse. They managed to tranformed a minor slump into a vexing dilemma.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I dunno,
- you're not doing anything
- you're boss knows you're not doing anything
- you're still getting paid.

Sounds pretty good to me.

Seriously, there's good advice here, albeit TheTick's suggestions may require some contemplation before implementing.  Take a graduate class, study at work.
Create/modify spreadsheets that will help expedite your tasks.  Learn new software.  Refine your solitare skills.

Or, you may have to consider other employment opportunities.

Earlier in my current job I had several months like that, how I yearn for those days now.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Geez....I wish I had that once in a while. It must be nice not to have someone breathin down your neck all the time.

My advice, enjoy it while it last. I would hate to work 12 hours straight in 2 months and have another month off before doing it all over again.

APH

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Always do something that makes your more marketable.  That is makes you worth more money, if not to your present employer then to the next.  
Some people wind up with 1 year of experience repeated 20 times.  If you see that it's happening to you it's time to hook up and stand in the door.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

In the ten years that I have worked, I have been part of three companies.  I have realized that in each company that there was a cycle of work.  I’ll have months of work to the hilt and then a month or two of down time.  Enjoy and make use of the down time.  It is a good opportunity to teach yourself or improve a skill that you did not have time to do in the past.  I always have a list in the back of my mine on what I would like to learn or improve my self in (engineering related).  The only person who is interested in your progress is yourself.  To be honest, I have yet to have a manger teach me anything.  I have picked up most of my analysis skills from a book and computer (CAD, ProE/ProM, TAS, MATHCAD,…) skills from just jumping into the software and practice.  When you are improving your self during company time (during down time of course) it is a benefit to the company.  So when you come up to a task that needs a set of skills that you have learned during your down time, you will be prepared.

Good Luck!

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Hey Nick,

Since you posted here, I must assume you haven't gone the way of most underemployed engineers and gotten yourself addicted to minesweeper.  (I'm a twelve-stepper on it myself)...

My only sincere advice is to mix up your days with both technical and non-tech self-enrichment.  Learn a new skill in your technical area, then learn or improve a business skill (get Covey books Good to Great, whatever, the best-sellers in the business area at B&N).

Having some planned variety makes it easier to get up and go to work in the morning for me...

Good luck!

Old Dave

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

The other one I forgot to mention is write a paper for a conference or an article for a trade journal or magazine. Great way to impress your boss and add fodder to your resume if you ever go look for a new job. Conferences and journals are always looking for content, and it doesn't even need to be very high level or sophisticated.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

First of all you should get rid off the idea that you are being paid for nothing. This may be appropriate to think in your capacity but what you are getting may be a fraction of your company's expenditure and your higher ups may be thinking something better about you(for future).

After 8 years of hardwork I joined this company and was without work for almost a year. During initial months I thought like you but when I realized that another person(very knowledgeable) who was getting 10times my salary was just roming around explaining people how hard he was working, I stopped bothering.

Then the work started afterwards with full swing and it is going on. Now I am thinking about how to avoid work.

Meanwhile try to improve your skills as suggested by others.  I used to participate in eng-tips.com frequently during those times. I improved my knowledge and starcount as well during those days.

Nice idea by The Tick. It's bad that we in hot climates can't try with two shirts.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Come on, Nick, it's not up to you to look for things to do. This is a problem for management, it's not yours. Talk about it, they should solve it. Meanwhile it never hurts to get your cv up to date. Having no work is just one small step away from having no job, so you wouldn't want to stay there long if the slump seems to have become a permanent situation.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I feel for you.

I worked on a company where I came in at 7:00, read the USATODAY webpage all day.

It is HARD doing nothing and feeling guilty about it.
I did it for 5 months and I quit and move to a smaller but busier company.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Berserk
Doing nothing is really hard. You never know when your done.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

2
When I first started working, I didn't know how to do anything, and all I could do was read up on things, which puts me right to sleep.  There was a lot of sleeping those first few months.  Good thing at the time we still had offices instead of cubicles so the sound of the door would give me a chance to pick my head up out of the book.

I went through a training rotation a couple of years ago where the manager said he'd tell me when he had a project insignificant enough to risk on me and then I sat around waiting for weeks.  I whined about this to others, and finally someone else offered to give me something else to do, and when I told my manager I was thinking about taking on this other task, lo and behold he found me a project.  (It was a pretty yucky task, so it was kind of like I walked in pointing a gun to my own head...)

There's some truth to epoisses' statement that it's management's failure, not yours, but you'd be missing an opportunity to show off your motivation if you just march in and demand that they find you something entertaining to do.  Instead follow sms's and others' suggestions--march in there, tell them you're underutilized, and then give them some suggestions for how you'd like to fill the time, such as off-site training courses or conferences, which have the added advantage of increasing your network.

Hg

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Cansuco: Lucky you! You'll never realize how valuable this free time is till you hit your 40s!!!

I do alot of work in the Hollywood entertainment industry - and here, everyone is always laid off during slow periods between projects. Lucky for you that you can stay employed - use the time to research, invent, or learn.

Go visit nearby trade conventions and meet people, particularly other engineers in your field. Networking can be very useful for your future career.

Look into the latest developments in string theory or particle physics. Loads to do - I always look forward to down time, because I know it's already filled with things I want to do.


Regards


Andy

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Nick,

Of course, every job has slow times, even the ones where it appears that everybody is running around looking very busy.

1. When I have a lull, I write Work Instructions. This is an express part of QS9000, and the QC types solicit this activity. On one job I wrote 14 such WI, and the boss started getting very nervous. I wonder why.

2. I had a two year stint on a tech magazine, and there was a phenomenon we observed; submitters of articles tended to have low job security. Figure that one out.

3. One boss casually mentioned a need for a challenging gearbox/motor arrangement (single motor/dual function). I outlined a concept that would appear to work.

4. Learn new things like: Dimensional Analysis, elements of Operations Research, data reduction of a class of data like strength/toughness of plastics - form benefit/cost groups similar to dimensional analysis to make the data jump off the paper. Others can report on their pet studies.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Your boss is probably a very good engineer. He was probably recently promoted to management - Why? because the first thing a manager learns is to keep everyone busy in something that looks productive (even if it isn't). How you do that can be difficult. Your boss would probably rather go back to engineering. Managing is tough, especially when there is no work.
So talk to him. Never say you don't have anything to do. tell him you have some time available  and if you could do anything to help before things get busy. Slow times are always good times to revise or start new proceedures update or start new software and make other departmental changes. Many times the manager knows what has to be done but needs someone to make all the little details happen. It can keep you busy and put you in good with  the boss.

Good Luck

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Quote:

Never say you don't have anything to do. tell him you have some time available

Good point!

Hg

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Start learning something new.  If you have internet access, that's a good place to start.  Lots and lots of information to be tapped.  Start doing some "technical writing" - In the short term, it can fetch you $$$ and in the long term, you improve your skills.

I am doing exactly that right now !!!

There are so many things that you can learn.  Explore the wonderful MS Excel - there are so many functions you can learn which can be used at a later date.

Enhance your vocabulary, writting skills, presentation skills - I can go on and on.

It's a blessing in disguise to get paid and not have work - obviously, this shouldn't continue for a long time.  A short break like this is great, if you use it properly.

HVAC68

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I started a job as an EIT and had little to do for 6 months while my employer found work for me.  The first time I mentioned that I need some work, I was instructed to review the company’s engineering specifications and to study old projects. I stopped asking for tasks after that.  After eight months, I found myself so busy that I started to think about how I was going to get my work done.  The owner of this company often hired new personnel when there was no work.  His reasoning was to have a workforce in place for some speculative projects that he knew about but an entry level person would not know about.  As soon as one of the large proposals was accepted, there was plenty of work.

In hindsight, I should have looked at this time as an opportunity to learn and not to hide.  So it may be difficult for you to appreciate the study time now; however, it may be valuable in the long run.  From my past experience being in your position, I would recommend:

1. Study your company’s engineering specifications.
2. Go to the drafting department and find out how to get drafting details and study those.
3. Review past project’s RFIs, DCVRs, calculations, proposals, drawings, etc.
4. Learn the project history of your company.
5. Learn about the clients your company serves.
6. Study your company's contract documents.
7. After completing 1-6 above, you should be able to start a personal study project that will make you more valuable to your company.
8. Be careful who you talk with about your feelings at your new workplace, you may get some bad advice.  Talk to the people who hired and interviewed you about your concerns.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

If your work is in a slump, it is safe to say the company is in a slump.  Dig up some cost savings and not only will you be busy, but you will be a hero.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Just remember you are salary...you get payed by the year, not the day.

The Automotive industry is absolutly terrible for this.  I am in the R&D area of things and this is the norm for me.  I can go 3 months and never sit in my cube, then spend 3 months surfing the net.  During that 3 month slump of waiting for new parts, I do all kinds of things.  I look for jobs(make sure pay and benefits are in check at current position).  Go for 2 hour "test drives" (guess this only works in the auto industry).  Research new data acquisition hardware and software(it changes by the week, I swear).  Surf forums like this one and try to help out others(yep...I'm in the slump now).  Plan vacations(pick a place and do some massive research).  Enjoy them, because the 12 and 14 hr testing days are just around the corner.  And never feel bad about getting a pay check.  They hired you to do a job, and you did it, so you get paid.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

        Interesting replys, especially from Mr. Tick. I once had an electrician working on a project I was leading tell me about how he had handled this type of situation several times in the past. Seems the older fellow had done alot of shutdown work and had always gotten hired at the initial prep stages of the project. He said it was always a fight to stay busy, or at least SEEM busy, before the actual work started. His immediate supervisors often would instruct him to go hide. The only problem was that the company white hats had a propensity for inadvertently "finding" him hiding. His solution was to carry a stub of conduit a few feet in length around with him. When he seen the white hats approaching, he simply went over to the wall, stood the pipe up on its, bent over and yelled into the end "keep pushing, it's almost hear, I can hear it". It apparently worked very well. He also shared with me a story of how he was offered a raise once  and declined the pay increase. When his astoninshed boss pressed him as to why he would refuse a pay increase, he replied it was killing him drinking up everything he was making already!   

Bigbillnky,C.E.F.....(Chief Electrical Flunky)

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

"If your work is in a slump, it is safe to say the company is in a slump."
Not necessarily... I've been at a company where manufacturing was swamped, but there was no new design work.
The company was doing great, but it was on repeat orders that required no engineering.
There is some great advice here, even for those of us that are not working. I'm doing some of this at home while job-hunting. I'm learning about automation and robotics, to add to my knowledge of injection molding and CAD design.
What are these acronyms? "RFIs, DCVRs"
"His solution was to carry a stub of conduit a few feet in length around with him. When he seen the white hats approaching, he simply went over to the wall, stood the pipe up on its, bent over and yelled into the end "keep pushing, it's almost hear, I can hear it". It apparently worked very well."
That's hilarious! Unfortunately, I don't know how to work something like that into an engineers position...

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

You can always wander around the plant with a bundle of prints.  Usually nobody gets in your way.

If anybody gets too close, just smile and say "Good, a volunteer!"  Watch them run.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Start writing - technical writing.  There's a huge demand for that.  There are some online courses like PDH who are constantly on the look out for course providers.  You get the satisfaction of making use of an otherwise wasted time and in the process earn money too !!!

Good luck.

HVAC68

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Just curious,

How do you start technical writing, where do you go about to do that?



APH

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

re: technical writing

Authors for most technical journals are in fairly short supply.  If you have a good idea for an article for a magazine or journal, send them a proposal and abstract.  A good idea is rarely rejected.

I could be the world's greatest underachiever, if I could just learn to apply myself.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com-SolidWorks API VB programming help

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

I've always thought a good place to start writing would be to take one of our interminable threads in one of the technical forums, and try and produce an article based on that.

I would especially like to see "Forces due to impact between an elastic body and the ground" done properly. The engine forum also produces a lot of useful stuff that could usefully be rewritten.

To publish it, post it as an FAQ, and invite comments.

In the long term I think it would be interesting to do the same thing as a wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page albeit with a more heavy handed editing strategy.

Cheers

Greg Locock

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Tick--submitting to a journal does not make one a technical writer (as I whined about at great length over in the writing forum).  

Hg

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

If you don't want to use the word "technical writer", so be it.  English is an alien language to many and may be that's causing some confusion.  Write something technical, (being an engineer) otherwise write on any subject you like - these are just ways and means to spend otherwise wasted time.  

I am having a "slump" in my work environment for the last 3 months or so.  I struggled during the first month trying to figure out what to do.  Surfed the net a lot and ended up learning about "technical writing" or being a course provider.  Have already started writing something, hopefully, things will take shape soon.

HVAC68

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Technical writing:

Don't let the phrase scare you. If you are adept in a segment of a field, you have the material for a tech article. It might be a special insight that you have gained with experience or an analytical method or a mfg process. Some may think you are giving away secrets, but the overall effect will be positive for your company.

I edited articles and wrote feature articles in a tech magazine several years ago. Some of the better ones:
- Plant Engineering at the --- Co. - This was an eye opener in the maximum use of the computer in food manufacturing. They had automatic purchase orders for commodities (prices were fixed for a year). The power plants and HVAC exhibited real time visibility of performance with flags where attention was needed. Plant engineering mechanics entered data on the computer before and after making fixes. An elevator for moving finished goods down and raw materials up had a prioritizing system.
- Wringing out moisture in Hydraulic oil.
- Selecting the proper lube for bearings.

However, there was an inside story at the magazine that submitters of articles had low longevity. They probably got hired by the competition.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

cancsco,
You now have gobs of good suggestions for getting busy on something.  When "work" gets busy again and you don't have time to do an efficient job here and there because the tools and methods are  not in place, take a minute and jot down some notes on how you can improve the process and file it in a COLORED folder so it is not easily forgotten or overlooked.

Then when slow times come, drag out out your COLORED folder and read comments like, "make a macro in xyz CAD program to streamline pqr process."   or "write an Excel program for...."  but of course you won't just read them but DO them.  The point is that in the heat of battle, we can think of numerous things that would make things more efficient and later these things don't always come to mind when the adrenaline causing pressure is removed.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Make a spreadsheet.  At least you can learn something, maybe even useful.  Learn software, download demo's and have at it.  Read a book.  Perfect your minesweeper score!  If you can get the beginner level complete in less than 10 seconds you're pretty good

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

hmmm...it is good to know somebody else taking interest in minesweeper. My best scores are

Beginner - 7seconds
Intermediate - 38seconds
Expert - 192seconds

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

c'mon -- get a life.







When my kids were still at home, I was attempting to reach 1X10^6 on pac man but wore out the joy stick at about 250,000.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

"Blind Minesweeper"

I've only been able to do this with the beginner level...

Don't plant any flags.  Only clear spaces.  When all unmined spaces are clicked, the game ends and all flags appear.

17 seconds personal best.

RE: Surviving in a "workless" Job

Ah, but what about when you're faced with a slump--and you're on HOURLY WAGES!

No one's paying me to play minesweeper, or write articles on spec, or...post to eng-tips.com

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