A general question that happens to be my predicament at current. I’m a general safety admin/manager that has automated most of my tasks(emails/excel sheets)

Most days I doomscroll fediverse and lurk irc/matrix channels on the work desktop but am curious about more practical or useful things I should be doing instead. It’s looking like this will be my life for a good while since job market is abysmal and promotions are hyperstagnate(have also hit a wall in improving my scripts). If anyone has any similar experiences, please share and advise, as I feel quite lost and trapped :/

  • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
    3·
    15 hours ago

    Contribute to or make my own open source project. I dabble right now, but I just don’t have the time to polish up my projects for public release or to learn an unknown codebase…

  • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11·
    1 day ago

    Spend it all trying to look busy.

    But actually, I’d take online courses in something you have interest (learn a new language?) or something you just want to know better (networking? programming?)

    Or maybe I’d start developing something for myself. You know that dream app you always wanted but doesn’t exist yet? Maybe you can create it?

    Or maybe I’d take a look at the currently open issues for the FOSS stuff I use and try to familiarize myself with the code base enough that I can start submitting bug fixes

    • Michal@programming.dev
      4·
      1 day ago

      Anything you build on company time, the company will claim ownership over. The FOSS stuff isba good idea.

      Or try to automate the remaining 5%

  • RepleteLocum@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    I have to do 40/w but don’t have enough work. So I spend about 70% of that time reading manga online. I’ve also read up on a bunch of wiki articles.

  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
    5·
    2 days ago

    I work in a highly automated job so there is plenty of downtime between tasks. We are allowed to use our phones even though officially we are not meant to be. That said, there is plenty of self-productivity activities you could do. You could read books, ebooks or audiobooks, listen to podcasts, watch gym training videos, learn and hone skills in self-learning sites like Udemy or Brilliant, etc. Of course, one could consume brain rot media like Tiktok, Netflix or Instagram to unwind but we all know it’s not productive in the long run.

    This is not imploring anyone to do it immediately, but in my case, I do side hustle of day trading and market speculation. While I am doing it, I learn as much as I could with how to trade better and reading the stock market news. I am not rich but I get couple of bucks every now and then. On the luckiest of days, I could earn hundreds within days. That supplements my income. It does not always work of course, I had my “bull run” two months ago but the stock market slowed down and declined even due to uncertainty in the market.

  • laranis@lemmy.zip
    38·
    2 days ago

    First of all, DON’T TELL ANYONE.

    I’d use the time to learn a new skill, though at this point I have no idea what to recommend.

  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
    11·
    2 days ago

    Educate yourself and learn a new skill that is useful for the job you really want, assume this doesn’t last long and that you might get fired or laid off one day. I remember a story on reddit about some guy who had outsourced his job to India. The guy only played videogames the entire day every day, after a few years the gig was up and he was fired. Dude had a hard time finding a new job since his skill set and knowledge base was several years behind of where his field had advanced to. Don’t waste this opportunity, sure play some games, fiddle around now and then but use most of the free time to improve yourself.

    If I was in your situation I would just learn how to make videogames and then eventually try to release one on Steam made entirely during the boss’ time.

  • superduperpirate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    122·
    3 days ago
    • take professional development on my employer’s budget
    • bring a book
    • don’t be afraid to take slightly longer than usual lunches for errands or for exercise or whatevs
    • if monitoring is lax enough, and there’s unmonitored guest wifi, bring your personal laptop and play some vidya
      • wirelesswire@lemmy.zip
        28·
        3 days ago

        Courses or other training to develop your professional skills, preferably provided or funded by your employer.

      • Ziggurat@jlai.lu
        5·
        3 days ago

        Platform like LinkedIn learning, on books no matter whether it’s about programming or management (or any other field, may be you want to learn material science or Korean). Usually, these ones are pretty tolerated by HR, especially if you can find even a remote link to your work. I would add fun side projects on work data/material, that you can use to get promoted (not only I am doing my job but I am experimenting with XYZ, meaning I should be at the next puygrude)

    • cRazi_man@europe.pub
      14·
      3 days ago

      Bring a whole laptop to play games? Get a Steam Deck! Or if you want a smaller form.factor then get a Retroid Pocket 6.

      Other than this:

      1. Learn something (language, art, etc)
      2. Read something
      3. Listen to podcasts
      4. If it’s a private office then do a Costanza and sleep under your desk
      5. Watch TV shows or movies
      6. Take up knitting or crochet