by Cody Hodge

Created on: January 29, 2009

Even if your work at the busiest of businesses, you will run into some sort of downtime. Whether it be a day, or a few minutes, or just long enough to catch your breath, we all have some slow time during the day. Typically I find that I have my most amount of free time either just after the lunch rush, and late at night, if I am stuck working the 1130PM shift. I can't just stand there the whole time with my hands in my pockets. So what do I do, to avoid boredom, and look like I am being productive?

The best way to keep busy at work, is to do busy work. I like to grab a duster, and just start dusting stuff off. Not only am I helping to clean the place up, but it gives me time to think, while I am doing a mindless job. Dusting is pretty easy too, and since most of the stuff I end up dusting is pretty much clean, nobody can tell me if I did a bad job.

I like playing around with company sales figures some nights when it is slow, and I have nothing do. Putting the sales numbers, and cashier counts into the spreadsheets on the computer seems to be the most overlooked, and least liked job in the store. While it only takes about ten minutes to do even if I have to put in the number for every hour, it allows me to sit down at least. I also get to be in an office, which is tucked away from the rest of the Front End, so I can get away from all the people for a few minutes.

If I am really bored, I will spend time conditioning aisles, and making sure all the displays have been staightened. This is the ture definition of busy work, just spending time making sure that soda bottles are all in a line. It does help out though, to make sure that things look clean, and organized. They say that presentation is 90 percent of making a sale in retail, so I want to be sure I am doing my part.

Another thing I like to do is take my time clearing the parking lot at night. While this is supposed to be a ten minute or so job at night, I will take as long as it takes to cure my boredom. If there is nothing to do, there is nothing to do, so why not kill a few more minutes while doing your job at the same time? While I never advocate stalling when it is busy, if it is slow, you have to find ways to survive. Survival of the fittest applies at work too ya know.

Sometimes you have to be creative when you are at work, and you have little to do. There are some things that you can do when you are slow that you don't get a chance to when you are busy. It can be good, you finally have time to catch up on work, but if you work at a company that is always slow, hopefully this gives you a couple of brainstorms, so that you will have something to do while you are bored at work.

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