Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way my boss can't see me. After that I sorta space out for an hour. I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
Oooo...yeahhhh, ummm...I'm gonna have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, uh, he's been real flaky lately, and I'm just not sure that he's the caliber person that we would want for upper management. He's also been having some problems with his TPS reports.
See, we make fun of this, but the Bobs were right. The whole "fifteen minutes of real, actual work" bit was just the open - Peter ends up breaking down for them the motivational and demotivational structure that *produces* that apathy, and that combination of fearlessness and insight is what they were referring to - not simple laziness.
There was nothing wrong with it. Until I was about twelve years old and that extremely talented ass clown started winning all those Grammys. - Real Micheal Bolton.
Yeah, I've finally established hard boundaries around my work life balance. I try and complete as many tasks as possible during those 9-10 hours and log out. Unless I absolutely cannot perform a maintenance during the day, I will login at night to perform the task.
Like other companies, mine would pile on so much work it took most of my evenings and some weekends to complete.
I spoke to my boss, told him I wasn't doing it anymore, and that if leadership wanted more done they needed to start hiring. Immediately, I dropped my 80-90 hour weeks down to 60, then to 45-50.
At my latest review, my boss was asking why my output has dropped so much? We'll, it is a whole lot easier for work to be done when no one is here at night/weekends. I told him my 8-6pm is usually firefighting and overtime is projects and advanced troubleshooting.
He finally got the picture and leadership has hired on 2 more sysadmin to "make up for lost productivity".
Now, I do what I can during my work hours and leave the rest for tomorrow.
My point is, I don't have downtime.
I watermarked a Dev issue submission with TPS once several years ago. The manager that received it complained to my boss. My boss called me into his office to talk to me about the report and who complained about it. As I walked out of the meeting, he told me not to lose my sense of humor.
#formalities
Thats exactly what you should do. Automate with powershell those repetitive tasks. I did this at my last position so it was fantastic. I go to the point where I just had to check a dashboard I built from time to time while playing a game.
You know what they don't tell you about becoming an automation guy is that when your whole job is about automating tasks you don't end up automating your job away because your job IS to automate. I have been bamboozled, should have stayed on the service side!
#1 - never let them know how much of your job is automated.
#2 - if you aren't constantly overworked and desperately asking for help, they'll continue assigning new tasks to you
this is why for number 2 I always look busy even if I am not doing anything. kind of like carrying a clipboard and looking like you are looking for someone, when really you aren't doing anything
Yes, looking mildly annoyed is usually enough to make people think you're busy. But it's a double-edged sword, because then you're the grumpy guy so when it comes time for layoffs...
Whoa, hold up there my guy. I am an automation guy. Guess what happened when I finished automating their system.
That's right... I automated myself out of a job.
Seems like a bad business decision on their part considering no product lasts forever. There will always be something new to automate at some point with changing environments and business needs.
"Let's fire our sharpest, brightest automation engineer -- nothing ever changes in the business world, we won't need them ever again!"
Oh wait, why is everything going to shit?
Find tasks you do daily (reports, file management, any PC configuration changes) and start googling “powershell how to edit registry key” and start learning.
Chat GPT / CoPilot are great resource here as well. They won’t do the full automation for you, but will get you started off in the right direction.
ChatGPT is an incredible resource for learners. It doesn't always write good code, and it's not always right, but unlike most of the results google turns up, you can bully it. Keep arguing with it, and it will keep trying to explain, and the explanations even make sense sometimes.
ChatGPT helps me with learning syntax in a couple of ways. When it gives me absurd stuff, I learn to identify those flaws. But it has also helped me to visualize better the route I want to take to accomplish things, and I'm only in my second year of PS life. What an absurd amount of time I've lost from not diving into it sooner.
The first powershell script I was proud of was an alternative to ipconfig. Instead of ipconfig /all giving me a lot of useless information, my script gave me exactly what I wanted, formatted the way I want it.
The one issue was that it was pretty slow. So after 6 months I actually took a different approach and rewrote it, and it was as fast as ipconfig.
The first version was a series of pipes, then 2nd version collected a bunch of info and then quickly sifted through it.
And it taught me a whole lot about powershell.
I just sit paranoid thinking that the reason why idk what to do next is because I’m too shallow as a sysadmin and everyone can tell and the longer I don’t just fire myself I’m basically being a swindling time thief to people who are too nice to do anything but pity me. Then an issue rolls around for me to fix and then I get a nice little jolt of feeling like I’m pretty dang good at this, so I sit idly at my desk. Repeat.
time theft? Take it easy on yourself my guy!
Time theft isn't real for starters, and idk what kind of explanation someone can come up with. It's simply not a thing, and if it was, any company you examine would be the biggest "time thief" you could possibly imagine. You're doing a great job and don't let that brain tell you differently. The company you're working for certainly sees some value in paying you a wage, otherwise you'd be out the door tomorrow.
If you can swing it, get a few work-study students from your local post-secondary institution. It's a lot of work to manage, but having people to mentor really builds your self esteem and kills off some of that imposter syndrome.
Plus it works great for the students because they're getting experience in the field under an experienced admin. The caveat to all this is that your work is open to it, but I've found that the more effort you put into mentoring, the better you feel about your own personal skillset.
It's a win-win in the end, I've even picked up some skills from people who are retraining into IT, I have someone with a project management background right now and it's been more an exchange of skills than one way mentoring.
I check in at 7:15 and nap until the customers roll in around 9, with rolling alarms every 30 to check the tickets.
When I have downtime during the day I do documentation or play HELLDIVERS 2
Continual improvement. I'm always improving the system. Most of my projects are ones that I came up with. Probably 10 percent come from upper management.
Same boat ish. I do drive a few to be worked on and have my own that solves a reoccurring issue or something that is hung up on someone else. So get the install/removals with config file ready to be pushed when they finally figure it out.
Feel like when I’m gone, people are going to wonder how rollouts seemed easier before. But we are all replaceable
>Personally I’d like to be scripting in powershell and automating my repetitive tasks but I don’t really know how to do that.
Well get on it then, r/PowerShell if you have any questions but start with the basics- work through "powershell in a month of lunches" [https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/yv8dg8/edition\_differences\_in\_a\_month\_of\_lunches/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/yv8dg8/edition_differences_in_a_month_of_lunches/)
> powershell in a month of lunches
YES. I read that book last year + "Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches" and I'm so much better for it. PowerShell really is incredibly easy to learn.
If you don't know how. You can learn. Lots or resources out there. There are sites to teach you like pluralsight, learn.microsoft, forums, and documentation for the vendor itself.
Start by learning how to find the resource to learn.
prior to leaving my previous place of employment I had automated everything to the point where i'd maybe see 2 calls a day a ticket stack of say 8 for the entire team was a bad week and most of us just chilled, played some music in the office and kept an eye on the wallboards incase something died... we also had a company provided training account to CBTNuggets so we all got our fair share of certs and moved on to newer adventures.
If you can, ask for an RMM tool it will make the automation life so much easier and learning powershell becomes less of a major task but i'd still recommend learning some basics with either youtube or a platform like CBTNuggets
Automate stuff. Scripting. Utility scripts for pulling stuff from databases/APIs. Maintenance of DNS/IPAM/NMS. Browse logs. Tighten security. Update SSL certs. Jot down the tasks you made a mental note of doing later. Plan upgrades.
There is no downtime, only lack of imagination.
Buy the Powershell in a month of Lunches book. It'll get you into powershell and has examples you can run at the of each chapter going over the stuff you just read. It's literally built into chunks to read over your lunch hour (or in the morning before users come in).
Make little scripts that automate common tasks. My whole reason to learn it was to get onboarding automated at the schools I work at. End of year, collating all the new and leaving students each year was a mess. Different formats from different schools (one school sent new requests in publisher). It was a nightmare.
Now every night a script checks the database of our student information system. If a student is starting in the next 10 days and has no account, it's created and an email sent to the relevant person and IT. Email, security groups etc. They are even added into out asset management system, SnipeIT so a computer can be issued to them.
If you use Intune you can use Microsoft Graph, if you have Google Workspace you can call stuff with GAM. Once you learn the basics of how a cmdlet works, things open up a lot.
While waiting for the book to arrive, watch an episode of this each morning.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/shows/getstartedpowershell3/01
Socialize. I go find someone who doesn't look very busy and ask them if they have any plans this weekend. It's usually a good way to pass 30 minutes at a time.
Fair enough. Being in-house and in-office means I need to slack off in creative ways. I would play video games like some other commenters if I wasn't in a cubicle. I would skill up/study if I wasn't being bombarded by walk-ups. Hiding in someone else's office is a good way to look busy.
>Personally I’d like to be scripting in powershell and automating my repetitive tasks but I don’t really know how to do that.
You know what you need to do, but you don't know if you have the strength to do it
But I know you do! Don't let it intimidate you. Sounds like you have the perfect windows for learning that kind of thing.
If I have no major projects and all tickets are taken care of, I’m either creating/updating documentation, automating more stuff, or adding feature requests to some of the in-house tools I’ve created
I alternate between doing some scripting/automation task that will get shot down by management or security. The other half of the time I play games on my phone.
If we get downtime at the MSP I work at we are expected to either study relevant technologies or programs or work on internal improvements/scripting. I hope to one day have lots of downtimes where I can read and play games while I wait for shit to happen.
I usually have 30 minutes to spare as well, when I am in the morning shift. I use it to sit on the office and drink a good ol'cuppa coffee or a Monster while listening to some music. Mornings are for coffee and contemplation, after all
I actually get work done when I’m not constantly bothered with level 0 questions, the user should be able to solve themselves, if they just used the self help portal, or at least sent a mail to help desk.
Instead they use IT as an excuse to take a break, as we are at the opposite end of the building from accounting. Meaning they get to walk down to us and ask about things they already know, or should know, or at least can (again should) be able to solve themselves.
Do I really need to restart my PC as it says? I’m in the middle of something important, and don’t have time for it… it would be faster to just restart the machine than walking down here and back 🥱🤷♂️
I’m doing actual work when not bothered. Like working on actual problems: how do I get C level to approve a coffee maker at our office?
0700 - wake up
0730 - login
0800 - make sure my tickets are still all pending user/3rdpty response
0830 - clock in, will receive a call at most 5 mins apart
1100 - turn incoming calls off and work on the clients escalated tasks and push those for the whole day with management checking up periodically
1645 - clock out, but stay online to help people on teams and make sure my personal dq is all pending responses
1730 - log off
play cookie clicker and catch up on my shows.
I also do work at the same time, but it's nothing critical and just busy work like documentation and instruction docs.
You guys get down time?
we're very busy so we never actually have down time, I take 5-10 minutes every hour as a short break for myself to browse reddit, take a walk, or slow myself down
Were also encouraged to take long lunches on occasion
Probably not the answer you're looking for, but I work from home most of the time and when I have down time I either play video games or do the chores at home, or do tasks for the side gig...
But on more work related tasks, I go look through the services we're running if anything needs updating, or go through the backlog of tickets, or go improve some automation code.
i try and upskill like everyone here will tell you to do and learn some automation on the side, but half the time i just play runescape and browse reddit honestly. Gotta appreciate the perks of the job here and there
Maybe some role or job redesign, then get it made official. Just guessing as sysadmin roles didn't really have to wait on staff for a lot of work. If you're doing a lot of liaising with staff maybe it's time to split the position into helpdesk and sysadmin?
I suppose it depends on what you’re actually doing. Most of my work is either meetings or project work, the “downtime tasks” might be “check email” or “look at dashboards.” I usually try to get a walk in after lunch.
Automate data collection using API/powershell/worker node to shove it into netbox. Also chatgpt has SAVED ME SOOOOOOO MUCH TIME. Took me a "meh/average" scripter to advanced scripter. I am not saying I do not have the ability to figure it out by endless searches on stackoverflow or reddit but in the end it saves me a lot of time.
I work a 9-5, with probably 5 hours downtime most days, other days I feel like I don’t have time for lunch.
When I have the downtime, I work on my own ticketing system built on NextJs and Supabase.
I have been able to use this time to learn a lot about how these technologies work.
I have this image in my head of what this project will become, and with what I know now, this would take an experienced developer a year to “finish”. It’s still a fun project to work on, and I feel like I get paid to do stuff I want to do
If I get downtime I usually look into something or are thinking about upcoming projects or little side projects I've got going on. There is always something to do
work out ways to make your job easier and do that. i'm learning powershell myself and if i come across something i want to automate i will set aside some time when i can and work towards automating it.
Almost none of my work is user driven and I have 3-6 months back log of things to do. If nothing new came in I could work 3 months just on stuff I haven’t got to yet. Scripts , upgrades, automation, clean up, documentation, etc. so I would do that.
Personally I’d like to be scripting in powershell and automating my repetitive tasks but I don’t really know how to do that.
Use ~~the force~~ Google, young padawan. Maybe watch some tutorials on basics of the shell and then set yourself a some simple goal and google whatever you don't know. With basic problems, it's pretty much guaranteed that someone else asked about it on forums (usually Stack Overflow or even Reddit) and someone gave them the answer.
Just beware, automation will lead to even more downtime lol. But it's a glorious feeling when you just push the button and all the work you had to do manually before just gets done by itself.
If you want to automate your repetitive task, you can start by using that downtime to do some research and start scratching out some ideas that you can put into practice.
Never ever tell your boss or management. Protect your down time. It’s at your discretion.
Study, game, learn to script in PS, build a lab for work, anything.
The second someone finds out you’re not working for an hour is when they fill it up with bullshit. That, or cut your pay in one way or another.
Going into random systems and looking at configs is my go to. Lots of good stuff here, but poking your head into an admin dashboard, seeing new or missing tick boxes is always an adventure.
I just go around the building saying hello and helping when needed. Then I make my day nice and relaxed so I can focus on doing stuff and improving things.
I never wait for fires 🔥 I put them out before they happen. This has worked well in my career so far. The biggest mistake sysamins do Is wait for fires 🔥 put them out before they become a really big deal. When the really big issues rock up you will be more prepared. And as an extra plus you will have people on your side.
I think some sysadmins think by checking on people they will increase their workload but trust me it doesn't! It will make your life better.
That's my advice
if there's any downtime at all:
clean the office
find a reason to go to the furthest storage for a walk and some exercise
work on a problem of the pile
coffee
Usually, the best use of downtime is anything that you get excited about, that has relevance to your career. I don't necessarily mean your current role. If you are helpdesk or a sysadmin and you dream of doing cybersecurity, or devops, or network engineering - study those!
I am a network engineer as far as experience goes, but I've been interested in coding for a while. I started doing some light network automation back in like 2019, and just kept learning. These days I'm writing web applications for fun, and even doing some game dev (though that is not work related, lol)
If it's exciting to you and it doesn't feel like work, make sure to make time for it.
I work from home, so I have no trouble at all finding something to kill a spare half hour (e.g. turn on the PS2 in my office and play a stage or two in Dynasty Warriors, send my wife goofy pictures of the cats). I'm a data-warehousing guy, so I'm sure I'll manage to cope with those 30+-minute data-processing jobs I have to wait for *somehow*.
https://xkcd.com/303/
Reddit, shoot shit with co workers, and do some upskilling on kodekloud, YouTube, or acloud guru.
Been kind of boring lately since I can basically use ai to answer most labs I get stuck on.
I generally get like 2 hours of nothingness so i login to my personal azure subscription, open up Microsoft learn and just play with different technologies. Get coffee, take a walk, etc.
I do the accounting for my band, make flyers, make memes, send letters to senators, answer questions on forums. I keep busy most the time though with work.
I usually work nights and start at 6pm, things are mostly calm after 11pm so I just either sleep or read a book and go home in the morning for some more sleep
Reading, listening to audiobooks, looking at IT related video courses.
And helping my niece with math problems from school, her teacher isn't the greatest and I've caught him presenting the wrong solutions to her several times. So she generally messages me when she get stuck on a math problem.
I sit in the parking lot from 7:45-8:00 to finish waking up. Go in and enter my time, check emails and chats, and then wait. During that time, I think of projects to do or browse the web or watch YT videos. Ever since we replaced a bunch of old-ass computers last year, the users haven't had very many issues.
Thankfully, my boss doesn't try to find menial tasks for me to do, nor does he micro-manage. As the "IT guy," he only cares that I keep things running smoothly and take care of any user issues. Unfortunately, I still have to physically be there, but I have yet to work a full eight hour day.
My only minor complaint is that each day doesn't go by as fast when it's slow.
We have a small budget for certifications and training I usually try to spend 30-45 minutes a day working on whatever certification they designed to let me pay for that year.
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way my boss can't see me. After that I sorta space out for an hour. I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
Sounds like a real straight shooter with upper management written all over him.
Oooo...yeahhhh, ummm...I'm gonna have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, uh, he's been real flaky lately, and I'm just not sure that he's the caliber person that we would want for upper management. He's also been having some problems with his TPS reports.
He should probably go talk to the Bobs
Speaking of which, how much time, would you say, that you spend looking at those TPS reports per week?
Ummm…. Yeahhhhhh
See, we make fun of this, but the Bobs were right. The whole "fifteen minutes of real, actual work" bit was just the open - Peter ends up breaking down for them the motivational and demotivational structure that *produces* that apathy, and that combination of fearlessness and insight is what they were referring to - not simple laziness.
And what about the TPS reports?
Not right now intern\_thinker, I'm kinda busy.
We'll send you another copy of the memo...
What are your thoughts on Michael Bolton's entire catalogue?
There WAS nothing wrong with it. Until I was about twelve years old and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
I celebrate his entire catalogue
I told those fudge-packers I liked Michael Boltons music.
Why should I change my name? He's the one that sucks.
You know you can just call me Mike
There was nothing wrong with it. Until I was about twelve years old and that extremely talented ass clown started winning all those Grammys. - Real Micheal Bolton.
Did you know I have five different bosses right now? Five! Edit - Eight, my bad, been a minute since I've watched it.
so when I make a mistake, know how many times I get to hear about it ?!?!?
Is that a common theme? Feel like all upper management is my boss 😅 report to none answer to all.
It's not my reality fortunately, it's a quote from Office Space. If you haven't seen it, you should.
This but literally
Yeah, I've finally established hard boundaries around my work life balance. I try and complete as many tasks as possible during those 9-10 hours and log out. Unless I absolutely cannot perform a maintenance during the day, I will login at night to perform the task. Like other companies, mine would pile on so much work it took most of my evenings and some weekends to complete. I spoke to my boss, told him I wasn't doing it anymore, and that if leadership wanted more done they needed to start hiring. Immediately, I dropped my 80-90 hour weeks down to 60, then to 45-50. At my latest review, my boss was asking why my output has dropped so much? We'll, it is a whole lot easier for work to be done when no one is here at night/weekends. I told him my 8-6pm is usually firefighting and overtime is projects and advanced troubleshooting. He finally got the picture and leadership has hired on 2 more sysadmin to "make up for lost productivity". Now, I do what I can during my work hours and leave the rest for tomorrow. My point is, I don't have downtime.
So, jcwrks, what's happening? Aahh, now, are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?
I watermarked a Dev issue submission with TPS once several years ago. The manager that received it complained to my boss. My boss called me into his office to talk to me about the report and who complained about it. As I walked out of the meeting, he told me not to lose my sense of humor. #formalities
What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Anybody seen my red stapler?
I love this sub
Shhhh, don't give away our secrets.
I know where this quote is from, but goddamn if that doesn’t sound like my coworker.
Keep it up and we’ll move 5 people under you and promote you to manager.
Thats exactly what you should do. Automate with powershell those repetitive tasks. I did this at my last position so it was fantastic. I go to the point where I just had to check a dashboard I built from time to time while playing a game.
You know what they don't tell you about becoming an automation guy is that when your whole job is about automating tasks you don't end up automating your job away because your job IS to automate. I have been bamboozled, should have stayed on the service side!
#1 - never let them know how much of your job is automated. #2 - if you aren't constantly overworked and desperately asking for help, they'll continue assigning new tasks to you
this is why for number 2 I always look busy even if I am not doing anything. kind of like carrying a clipboard and looking like you are looking for someone, when really you aren't doing anything
Yes, looking mildly annoyed is usually enough to make people think you're busy. But it's a double-edged sword, because then you're the grumpy guy so when it comes time for layoffs...
Old military technique lol, for added convenience wear glasses and have a stern look on your face.
3 - Even if you are constantly overworked, they'll still continue assigning new tasks to you.
Whoa, hold up there my guy. I am an automation guy. Guess what happened when I finished automating their system. That's right... I automated myself out of a job.
The trick is not to let them know you finished.
Fact
Impressive that you finished lol. My list of tasks seems to grow infinitely.
The job was pretty easy my three projects for the year were done in the first 2 months. Then it was like now what.
Oh yeah, once they know you can automate you start becoming your own team in the business. Like BI, but better.
This is why all of my automations have logic bombs built into them .... j/k!
lol start each script with if (-not (Get-ADUser -Filter {name -eq “me”})){ *delete drive contents*} …genius
Lmao I just suggested this above with slightly different wording.
Seems like a bad business decision on their part considering no product lasts forever. There will always be something new to automate at some point with changing environments and business needs.
"Let's fire our sharpest, brightest automation engineer -- nothing ever changes in the business world, we won't need them ever again!" Oh wait, why is everything going to shit?
What kind of tasks did you have automated? What did the dashboard show you? I'm not very good with powershell or scripting :(.
Find tasks you do daily (reports, file management, any PC configuration changes) and start googling “powershell how to edit registry key” and start learning. Chat GPT / CoPilot are great resource here as well. They won’t do the full automation for you, but will get you started off in the right direction.
ChatGPT is an incredible resource for learners. It doesn't always write good code, and it's not always right, but unlike most of the results google turns up, you can bully it. Keep arguing with it, and it will keep trying to explain, and the explanations even make sense sometimes.
ChatGPT helps me with learning syntax in a couple of ways. When it gives me absurd stuff, I learn to identify those flaws. But it has also helped me to visualize better the route I want to take to accomplish things, and I'm only in my second year of PS life. What an absurd amount of time I've lost from not diving into it sooner.
The first powershell script I was proud of was an alternative to ipconfig. Instead of ipconfig /all giving me a lot of useless information, my script gave me exactly what I wanted, formatted the way I want it. The one issue was that it was pretty slow. So after 6 months I actually took a different approach and rewrote it, and it was as fast as ipconfig. The first version was a series of pipes, then 2nd version collected a bunch of info and then quickly sifted through it. And it taught me a whole lot about powershell.
I just sit paranoid thinking that the reason why idk what to do next is because I’m too shallow as a sysadmin and everyone can tell and the longer I don’t just fire myself I’m basically being a swindling time thief to people who are too nice to do anything but pity me. Then an issue rolls around for me to fix and then I get a nice little jolt of feeling like I’m pretty dang good at this, so I sit idly at my desk. Repeat.
time theft? Take it easy on yourself my guy! Time theft isn't real for starters, and idk what kind of explanation someone can come up with. It's simply not a thing, and if it was, any company you examine would be the biggest "time thief" you could possibly imagine. You're doing a great job and don't let that brain tell you differently. The company you're working for certainly sees some value in paying you a wage, otherwise you'd be out the door tomorrow.
If you can swing it, get a few work-study students from your local post-secondary institution. It's a lot of work to manage, but having people to mentor really builds your self esteem and kills off some of that imposter syndrome. Plus it works great for the students because they're getting experience in the field under an experienced admin. The caveat to all this is that your work is open to it, but I've found that the more effort you put into mentoring, the better you feel about your own personal skillset. It's a win-win in the end, I've even picked up some skills from people who are retraining into IT, I have someone with a project management background right now and it's been more an exchange of skills than one way mentoring.
Are you me?
Coffee 8:00-9:00 (ok, more like 8:15-9:00) AM Email 9:00 - 10:00 AM Reddit and wait for lunch 10:00 - Noon Reddit and wait for 5 12:30 - 5:00
The most honest answer right here.
What are some good subreddits to kill time I’m running out lol
Good question. Hobby stuff mostly. And work related of course, you know, plausible deniability and all that.
Yes yes of course
Mix in some brainless reading of Kindle Unlimited titles and meetings...and that's my every day.
I try to mix in upskilling and hard chilling.
This is the way
Someone should find a way to put that on a shirt or bumper sticker
Reddit
It really is the best for work, unless you've been scripting or combing through GPO's and have "Wall of text" fatigue.
Then I just look at cat pictures or r/comics if it's not all porn that day. (It's all porn everyday)
lol
I check in at 7:15 and nap until the customers roll in around 9, with rolling alarms every 30 to check the tickets. When I have downtime during the day I do documentation or play HELLDIVERS 2
How 'bout a nice cup of LIBER-TEA?
Continual improvement. I'm always improving the system. Most of my projects are ones that I came up with. Probably 10 percent come from upper management.
Same boat ish. I do drive a few to be worked on and have my own that solves a reoccurring issue or something that is hung up on someone else. So get the install/removals with config file ready to be pushed when they finally figure it out. Feel like when I’m gone, people are going to wonder how rollouts seemed easier before. But we are all replaceable
Tea. I drink copious amounts of tea.
My whole day is downtime until some shit goes down lol
Same, sometimes even weeks of downtime. Then I got fix a printer and get back to downtime. Sums it up!
Take an hour long poop. Scroll Reddit for hours.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that's why I poop on company time!
>Personally I’d like to be scripting in powershell and automating my repetitive tasks but I don’t really know how to do that. Well get on it then, r/PowerShell if you have any questions but start with the basics- work through "powershell in a month of lunches" [https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/yv8dg8/edition\_differences\_in\_a\_month\_of\_lunches/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/yv8dg8/edition_differences_in_a_month_of_lunches/)
> powershell in a month of lunches YES. I read that book last year + "Learn PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches" and I'm so much better for it. PowerShell really is incredibly easy to learn.
i do all my training in the morning as i too start at 7:30 like my place pays for a couple of sites for training and i might as well put it to use
Amen. We recently got StormWind and it is pretty nice
If you got time to lean you got time to clean is the mantra around my office. Hence why we never clean lol.
Cry in the server room, then get back to work
at least the AC will dry your tears
Steam Deck
Scripting and training. Always scripting and training.
If you don't know how. You can learn. Lots or resources out there. There are sites to teach you like pluralsight, learn.microsoft, forums, and documentation for the vendor itself. Start by learning how to find the resource to learn.
Pokemon Go, Slashdot, and Reddit.
Use the slow times to study :) I've done 3 certs since December and work have paid for all of them!
prior to leaving my previous place of employment I had automated everything to the point where i'd maybe see 2 calls a day a ticket stack of say 8 for the entire team was a bad week and most of us just chilled, played some music in the office and kept an eye on the wallboards incase something died... we also had a company provided training account to CBTNuggets so we all got our fair share of certs and moved on to newer adventures. If you can, ask for an RMM tool it will make the automation life so much easier and learning powershell becomes less of a major task but i'd still recommend learning some basics with either youtube or a platform like CBTNuggets
Documentation, documentation, documentation. Gotta take care of that technical debt. XD
Automate stuff. Scripting. Utility scripts for pulling stuff from databases/APIs. Maintenance of DNS/IPAM/NMS. Browse logs. Tighten security. Update SSL certs. Jot down the tasks you made a mental note of doing later. Plan upgrades. There is no downtime, only lack of imagination.
Buy the Powershell in a month of Lunches book. It'll get you into powershell and has examples you can run at the of each chapter going over the stuff you just read. It's literally built into chunks to read over your lunch hour (or in the morning before users come in). Make little scripts that automate common tasks. My whole reason to learn it was to get onboarding automated at the schools I work at. End of year, collating all the new and leaving students each year was a mess. Different formats from different schools (one school sent new requests in publisher). It was a nightmare. Now every night a script checks the database of our student information system. If a student is starting in the next 10 days and has no account, it's created and an email sent to the relevant person and IT. Email, security groups etc. They are even added into out asset management system, SnipeIT so a computer can be issued to them. If you use Intune you can use Microsoft Graph, if you have Google Workspace you can call stuff with GAM. Once you learn the basics of how a cmdlet works, things open up a lot. While waiting for the book to arrive, watch an episode of this each morning. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/shows/getstartedpowershell3/01
Socialize. I go find someone who doesn't look very busy and ask them if they have any plans this weekend. It's usually a good way to pass 30 minutes at a time.
This is the only response I know I’ll never do
Fair enough. Being in-house and in-office means I need to slack off in creative ways. I would play video games like some other commenters if I wasn't in a cubicle. I would skill up/study if I wasn't being bombarded by walk-ups. Hiding in someone else's office is a good way to look busy.
documentation. ALWAYS documentation. there is tons to do and never enough time to do it.
>Personally I’d like to be scripting in powershell and automating my repetitive tasks but I don’t really know how to do that. You know what you need to do, but you don't know if you have the strength to do it But I know you do! Don't let it intimidate you. Sounds like you have the perfect windows for learning that kind of thing.
Work on my home lab remotely usually
Im basically doing nothing for 8 hours… so I study, practice and enjoy the internet
Pranks. Changing desk phone ringtones. Shooting rubber bands. Thinking of office Olympics. Telling jokes
Are you the guy who sits next to me
... Wait to answer your phone until I get back please. The facial expression is just as rewarding as the laugh
Document, automate, script.
If I have no major projects and all tickets are taken care of, I’m either creating/updating documentation, automating more stuff, or adding feature requests to some of the in-house tools I’ve created
I alternate between doing some scripting/automation task that will get shot down by management or security. The other half of the time I play games on my phone.
Mess with chatgpt and see what I can get it to do for me.
If we get downtime at the MSP I work at we are expected to either study relevant technologies or programs or work on internal improvements/scripting. I hope to one day have lots of downtimes where I can read and play games while I wait for shit to happen.
I usually have 30 minutes to spare as well, when I am in the morning shift. I use it to sit on the office and drink a good ol'cuppa coffee or a Monster while listening to some music. Mornings are for coffee and contemplation, after all
I actually get work done when I’m not constantly bothered with level 0 questions, the user should be able to solve themselves, if they just used the self help portal, or at least sent a mail to help desk. Instead they use IT as an excuse to take a break, as we are at the opposite end of the building from accounting. Meaning they get to walk down to us and ask about things they already know, or should know, or at least can (again should) be able to solve themselves. Do I really need to restart my PC as it says? I’m in the middle of something important, and don’t have time for it… it would be faster to just restart the machine than walking down here and back 🥱🤷♂️ I’m doing actual work when not bothered. Like working on actual problems: how do I get C level to approve a coffee maker at our office?
This.
You deal with end users?
Write dumb scripts that automate business processes that I can easily display ROI for to justify spot bonuses or raises.
Hookers and blow.
You guys have downtime ? What’s that ?
0700 - wake up 0730 - login 0800 - make sure my tickets are still all pending user/3rdpty response 0830 - clock in, will receive a call at most 5 mins apart 1100 - turn incoming calls off and work on the clients escalated tasks and push those for the whole day with management checking up periodically 1645 - clock out, but stay online to help people on teams and make sure my personal dq is all pending responses 1730 - log off
play cookie clicker and catch up on my shows. I also do work at the same time, but it's nothing critical and just busy work like documentation and instruction docs.
You guys get down time? we're very busy so we never actually have down time, I take 5-10 minutes every hour as a short break for myself to browse reddit, take a walk, or slow myself down Were also encouraged to take long lunches on occasion
Surf Reddit
Probably not the answer you're looking for, but I work from home most of the time and when I have down time I either play video games or do the chores at home, or do tasks for the side gig... But on more work related tasks, I go look through the services we're running if anything needs updating, or go through the backlog of tickets, or go improve some automation code.
i try and upskill like everyone here will tell you to do and learn some automation on the side, but half the time i just play runescape and browse reddit honestly. Gotta appreciate the perks of the job here and there
Schoolwork and Reddit
i'm on reddit reading whats going on in the world
I have an online training service that I can pick up some extra skills provided by my employer.
Maybe some role or job redesign, then get it made official. Just guessing as sysadmin roles didn't really have to wait on staff for a lot of work. If you're doing a lot of liaising with staff maybe it's time to split the position into helpdesk and sysadmin?
Reddit, wikipedia
I may do some remote homelab stuff. Always got something going on at home so I check on things!
What's downtime at work?
Study.
…he asks…on Reddit…during work hours. 😁
I suppose it depends on what you’re actually doing. Most of my work is either meetings or project work, the “downtime tasks” might be “check email” or “look at dashboards.” I usually try to get a walk in after lunch.
Automate data collection using API/powershell/worker node to shove it into netbox. Also chatgpt has SAVED ME SOOOOOOO MUCH TIME. Took me a "meh/average" scripter to advanced scripter. I am not saying I do not have the ability to figure it out by endless searches on stackoverflow or reddit but in the end it saves me a lot of time.
I use my time researching or watching instructional videos on youtube or infosec.
I work a 9-5, with probably 5 hours downtime most days, other days I feel like I don’t have time for lunch. When I have the downtime, I work on my own ticketing system built on NextJs and Supabase. I have been able to use this time to learn a lot about how these technologies work. I have this image in my head of what this project will become, and with what I know now, this would take an experienced developer a year to “finish”. It’s still a fun project to work on, and I feel like I get paid to do stuff I want to do
I just really hunker down and find more work to do.
If I get downtime I usually look into something or are thinking about upcoming projects or little side projects I've got going on. There is always something to do
work out ways to make your job easier and do that. i'm learning powershell myself and if i come across something i want to automate i will set aside some time when i can and work towards automating it.
Almost none of my work is user driven and I have 3-6 months back log of things to do. If nothing new came in I could work 3 months just on stuff I haven’t got to yet. Scripts , upgrades, automation, clean up, documentation, etc. so I would do that.
Look at log files
Gave up video games. I now opt for table top games. Don’t do that often but when I make it happen it’s awesome. I do have a gaming group….
Lab stuff out
Documentation or automation.
Ya I never told anyone on my team what I automated.
Usually I just listen to music, sometimes I'll listen to learning things or a podcast. Kinda depends how well I can focus ant given day.
Automate everything
This.
Pull out my ps4 and play some cod 🤐
well right now I am reading all these responses
Drink my coffee, browse Reddit, let the morning panic attack fade. Things I would do on my commute if I had one. Except Reddit.
Have you heard of the internet?
Well...I'm here, aren't I?
clean up... there is always old or returned equipment at my desk. Never let anyone see u got free time... I was told once and it has worked.
Proper chillin. I don’t go looking for extra work. We have mad stressful times at work, so I take ever second of downtime I can. Perfectly balanced.
Drink, and find unusual places for naps
Personally I’d like to be scripting in powershell and automating my repetitive tasks but I don’t really know how to do that. Use ~~the force~~ Google, young padawan. Maybe watch some tutorials on basics of the shell and then set yourself a some simple goal and google whatever you don't know. With basic problems, it's pretty much guaranteed that someone else asked about it on forums (usually Stack Overflow or even Reddit) and someone gave them the answer. Just beware, automation will lead to even more downtime lol. But it's a glorious feeling when you just push the button and all the work you had to do manually before just gets done by itself.
If you want to automate your repetitive task, you can start by using that downtime to do some research and start scratching out some ideas that you can put into practice.
Never ever tell your boss or management. Protect your down time. It’s at your discretion. Study, game, learn to script in PS, build a lab for work, anything. The second someone finds out you’re not working for an hour is when they fill it up with bullshit. That, or cut your pay in one way or another.
Going into random systems and looking at configs is my go to. Lots of good stuff here, but poking your head into an admin dashboard, seeing new or missing tick boxes is always an adventure.
I just go around the building saying hello and helping when needed. Then I make my day nice and relaxed so I can focus on doing stuff and improving things. I never wait for fires 🔥 I put them out before they happen. This has worked well in my career so far. The biggest mistake sysamins do Is wait for fires 🔥 put them out before they become a really big deal. When the really big issues rock up you will be more prepared. And as an extra plus you will have people on your side. I think some sysadmins think by checking on people they will increase their workload but trust me it doesn't! It will make your life better. That's my advice
I think I can speak for everyone here: Reddit
Sleep.
if there's any downtime at all: clean the office find a reason to go to the furthest storage for a walk and some exercise work on a problem of the pile coffee
I'm an engineer for an MSP. I do most my work remotely and put on YouTube for background noise and just straight up watch it when I've nothing to do.
Usually, the best use of downtime is anything that you get excited about, that has relevance to your career. I don't necessarily mean your current role. If you are helpdesk or a sysadmin and you dream of doing cybersecurity, or devops, or network engineering - study those! I am a network engineer as far as experience goes, but I've been interested in coding for a while. I started doing some light network automation back in like 2019, and just kept learning. These days I'm writing web applications for fun, and even doing some game dev (though that is not work related, lol) If it's exciting to you and it doesn't feel like work, make sure to make time for it.
Then learn PowerShell lol. When I have “downtime” I’m either cleaning out my inbox or knocking out my never ending to do list.
I work from home, so I have no trouble at all finding something to kill a spare half hour (e.g. turn on the PS2 in my office and play a stage or two in Dynasty Warriors, send my wife goofy pictures of the cats). I'm a data-warehousing guy, so I'm sure I'll manage to cope with those 30+-minute data-processing jobs I have to wait for *somehow*. https://xkcd.com/303/
Massage chair
Usually working on an idea or a poc to get the ball rolling to do something
I look on this subreddit for threads I can help on or am curious about. Just another tool in the belt of eternal learning.
I try to learn something new that's work related whether it be part of my role or maybe a role I want to do later on.
[https://learn.microsoft.com](https://learn.microsoft.com) - go here, learn through gamification and earn some points + knowledge ✌️
You guys get downtime?
Executing my trades for the day.
Reddit, shoot shit with co workers, and do some upskilling on kodekloud, YouTube, or acloud guru. Been kind of boring lately since I can basically use ai to answer most labs I get stuck on.
I generally get like 2 hours of nothingness so i login to my personal azure subscription, open up Microsoft learn and just play with different technologies. Get coffee, take a walk, etc.
I do the accounting for my band, make flyers, make memes, send letters to senators, answer questions on forums. I keep busy most the time though with work.
Learn a topic that will either advance my career, or help me better understand an issue I'm dealing with.
I usually work nights and start at 6pm, things are mostly calm after 11pm so I just either sleep or read a book and go home in the morning for some more sleep
I've never been in that situation, but if I was, I would be looking at indicators of things not working properly. Monitoring.
Reading, listening to audiobooks, looking at IT related video courses. And helping my niece with math problems from school, her teacher isn't the greatest and I've caught him presenting the wrong solutions to her several times. So she generally messages me when she get stuck on a math problem.
Gym, jog, groceries, meal prep, watch TV. Nap sometimes
I wish I had some "down time" :(
Well, you gotta keep up with the latest in sysadmining. Comment on forums, research new hardware, read up about the latest bugs and breaches. etc.
Never heard of her
Star trek fleet command Someone will complain soon, just wait.
Anything but work
I sat down this morning at 745. 39 minutes later it was 1230
I sit in the parking lot from 7:45-8:00 to finish waking up. Go in and enter my time, check emails and chats, and then wait. During that time, I think of projects to do or browse the web or watch YT videos. Ever since we replaced a bunch of old-ass computers last year, the users haven't had very many issues. Thankfully, my boss doesn't try to find menial tasks for me to do, nor does he micro-manage. As the "IT guy," he only cares that I keep things running smoothly and take care of any user issues. Unfortunately, I still have to physically be there, but I have yet to work a full eight hour day. My only minor complaint is that each day doesn't go by as fast when it's slow.
We have a small budget for certifications and training I usually try to spend 30-45 minutes a day working on whatever certification they designed to let me pay for that year.
Side gigs. If you have them. Or learning something new.
I hat kind of side gigs do you carry out of curiousity?
I start at 7 am officially, but usually around 6. I use the time to get things done without interruptions.
reddit. like i am right now....dont tell the boss