Bored at Work?

Bored at Work? Not as bored as this guy.

I don’t know whether to be proud or depressed, but I do know that I’ve got a great and haunting memory to recall the next time I think I’m bored while coding HTML or something similar. The other night I discovered the true peak of tedium.

You see, it was inventory day at my retail store and of course, everything needs to be precisely counted. Understandable.

After counting DVD’s, blue-rays and other mildly annoying things, I was then chosen for what I hope was a task that nobody else had the mental stamina to undertake.

I had to count prepaid phone cards. Hundreds – actually thousands of those $10 and $20 top-up cards for prepaid cell phones. The final number came out to be three thousand, three hundred and something.

Imagine if you would, dealing out a deck of cards and how long that takes, the dexterity and concentration involved in the grasping and gentle tossing. Now do it again, and again, and again, and about SIXTY more times after that.

Not so bad? I’m sure you’re thinkin “Ya it would kinda suck, but I’d just throw on the old iPod, and groove away the hours.” Wrong. No music allowed – it would drown out the horrible *beep* that the inventory scan gun you’re holding makes when it scans a barcode. Still no sympathy? Think you’d just socialize and chat your way through the night? Did you forget you were trying to count to 3000? Chatting doesn’t work! I know, I tried.

Furthermore, you can’t have cranky salespeople counting products during regular business hours when people are buying products – I did this from 5pm to 2am!

Sleep deprivation, sound torture, social isolation, intense mental stress and seemingly endless repetition; I think I’ve gone to the other side of bored at work and back.

Should I feel a sense of pride for completing the impossible and living to tell about it? Or should I send off a quick email to HR?

Don’t for a second though think I’ve gotten all woe-is-me and Sad-Sally. No no, because even if someone evil did put me up to this it completely backfired in their face – because we were also running a productivity contest, and guess what lucky guy counted the most items!! Ha!

And, now that I’ve discovered the peak of tedium, I know that everything else I undertake can’t hold a candle to the level of boredom I experienced that fateful night. Even if it is lines upon lines of HTML, JavaScript – hell, even my wife’s cooking will seem less boring now. I guess it’s safe to say it’s all downhill from here

-Peter Pyne
Administrator | Pyneonline.com – Websites for Beginners

(Have your own bored at work story? I doubt it’s as horrible as mine, but I’d welcome the challenge… Reply as a comment or make your own bored at work blog post and comment the link)

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