Job gets slow at times...

[ryan123]

Like right now...

 

I work at a consulting engineering company and sometimes I find that theres not enough work. Now the bosses must know that we can't be busy ALL YEAR(as the job revolves around construction which doesnt go on all year) but what am I supposed to do when we have to pass in timesheets stating what we worked on at the end of the week? Like today I have about 4 hours that I did nothing...What am I supposed to do? Its not like im sitting her not asking for work.

 

Should I be honest and say look there wasnt enough work so I sat there for 4hours and risk them thinking im expendable? Which I often feel like I am and it's not a good feeling.

 

Anyone in similar fields that rely on construction to keep them busy? How do you pass the hours?

[Blue Skittles]

just say you were doing some cleaning or something. or reviewing the safety procedures. Ask your bosses for a list of things you can be doing when its slow.

[ryan123]

So I should bring it up?

 

The same thing happened around this time last year and I didn't get fired so i'm thinking the bosses know that it does get slow and that when its busy it makes up for the slow times in revenue.

[QuietWolf]

I would bring it up. I used to do software consulting and there were slow times. I'd just go to the manager and ask if he had something to work on during slow times... I'm sure they appreciate knowing that you are the kind of person that would rather stay busy then sitting around. Who knows, maybe they can have you do some kind of online training to improve your skills when there is little else going on... the online training thing is what I used to suggest if he couldn't think of anything, and it was great.

[Gath]

Like right now...

 

I work at a consulting engineering company and sometimes I find that theres not enough work. Now the bosses must know that we can't be busy ALL YEAR(as the job revolves around construction which doesnt go on all year) but what am I supposed to do when we have to pass in timesheets stating what we worked on at the end of the week? Like today I have about 4 hours that I did nothing...What am I supposed to do? Its not like im sitting her not asking for work.

 

Should I be honest and say look there wasnt enough work so I sat there for 4hours and risk them thinking im expendable? Which I often feel like I am and it's not a good feeling.

 

Anyone in similar fields that rely on construction to keep them busy? How do you pass the hours?

 

Been there! Done that! Have the stack of T-shirts!

 

I actually had my boss come up and tell me to "look busy" one time. Made my head hurt!

 

What I did was always ask to see if there was any work that needed to be done, and then if not, I'd work on a personal project related to work. At the time I was doing engineering estimation while we waited for some more field jobs to open up, and I tended to finish my part waaaaaaaaaay ahead of everyone else, and then help them with theirs. Or I'd fiddle with one of the databases I'd helped make. Construction engineering bosses tend to turn and run when they walk up and see a screen full of programming code.

 

What kind of construction your firm do? I work for an industrial contractor, we're currently working up in Alberta on an oil sands project.

[ryan123]

I'm not an engineer...I work with engineers I just do the AutoCAD work.

 

And it's a MEP/FP company.

[ryan123]

I did go to school for Civil & Environmental Engineering I just didn't have a firm base with algebra and pre-calc and the math killed me. I want to go back for Mechanical(I hated the chemistry with the environmental) but I don't want to leave my job to do so.

 

Yet I feel that the older I get theres going to be more and more people with degrees and I will be stuck outta work...

[glegend]

My job gets slow at times. However on certain days its very busy. Well its in a mall and now its back to school shopping so there is a lot of people coming through the mall. Honestly I would just love for it to get real slow where I can just sit back and relax and get a breather for a few minutes. Especially when I am doing brew and I have to brew new coffee and change the coffee every 60 minutes.

Your job seems pretty cool. I wanted at one point to be a engineer well actually and Architect but I wanted to work with engineers at the same time.

Maybe you should just pace yourself so you are at least amused until you finish work. Honestly I wouldn't mind just sitting around not doing much and getting paid for it. Of course you will be bored beyond your mind.

[ryan123]

The people are work with are douchebags though...They think just because theyre 30 and have a house and new cars that they can just pick on me because im 20 and I live at home. And today I was like "so what...you were just born with a house and a new car" and they totally didnt get it and thought I was saying that he had everything handed to him. When I was really trying to say that give me time and betime im your age i'll have that * * * * too.

 

And I do pace myself. Its just theres deadlines you have to make and get the stuff out by.

[glegend]

Yeah with deadlines its hard to pace yourself since if you work to slow then in the end you may end up screwed since you may have to rush to finish on time. Well your co-workers seem that they are very cocky and I personally hate people like that. Who have everything handed to them and they take things for granted. While theres other like you and me who have to work up from under the primordial ooze to make it to where we are today.

When I was working at this supermarket I had 3 managers in my department. 2 of them were really nice and the thirds guy really cocky. He was only good for time management, if you were scheduled to work until 10:30 at 10:30 you were out of there. But he thought he was better then everyone and giving a cold shoulder since they put me as a buggy boy. Me who was working harder then him outside with the weather conditions and he was always complaining that I was working too slow, when I counted how many buggies I would bring and how many would be taken by the time I would bring more.