How useless are you at work?

Question

On a scale of 1 to 10, how useless have you been at your current job since you were admitted to business school (1 = I am an oxygen thief, 10 = this place would fall apart without me)?

Me: 3 - I still get some stuff done, but I'm not sure if my share of productivity covers the cost of the office supplies I consume. In my defence, I've put in three years here as a solid 8.

westsider · Answer

Good question

I am about a 4.

I think i *just* cover what they pay me. I would feel a little guilty if on average they lost money employing me.

Notice i said "a little".

ryguy904 · Answer

March Madness just dropped me to an all-time low.

knowshonmoreno · Answer

1

I collect paychecks and surf the internet...

lanter1 · Answer

More motivated since i am 100% commission...need to pay for grad school. March Madness actually gives me something to talk to customers about other than business though i have to admit that my production will be 50% during the thurs and fri games of march madness.

jsnooky33 · Answer

It's 3:30 pm and I just left work after getting in at 9:30 am. Enough said...

jingy77 · Answer

Browsing the internet for about 4 out of the 5 hours working today. That's is basically what i do. Only problem is, I haven't even applied to business school yet.

westsider · Answer

Be sure to include this in your application essays. Perhaps one of your recommenders could note it as well? :-D

bsd_lover · Answer

about 2 hours of productive work a day. The rest of the day spent daydreaming and browsing gmatclub.

jsnooky are you going to matriculate from NYU ?

riverripper · Answer

About a 9 when something is given to me to accomplish.

Rounded down to about 0 when I have to keep myself occupied.

bherronp · Answer

I would say my drive/motivation is still around an 8. I have alot of stuff I wanted to accomplish before I left. However, people are throwing up alot of roadblocks right now, so my effective productivity is probably about a 4 at best.

jsnooky33 · Answer

Yup, sent in the deposit a few days ago. I'm guessing still no word on your end? Hopefully the next week speeds up for you, you hear about your acceptance, and then we can take over the admitted student board!

bsd_lover · Answer

Amen to that !!

togafoot · Answer

2 when it`s quiet, 8 when it`s something i`m needed for, and 10 when i get sent on business trips (off to Beijing next week)

kryzak · Answer

well, going down to 20 hour part time means squeezing 40 hours of work into 20 hours... so lately I've been 8-9, with a bit of 0-1 squeezed in between.

djhouse81 · Answer

I'd say a 5. Part of work is getting your "status-quo" work done, and the other part is trying to learn more to get ahead. I'm just getting my work done, but no "WOW" strategies here. Bonus has been paid, so now it's time to coast just high enough not to get fired.

PEtoMBA · Answer

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one slacking. After spending 3 months writing essays about how dedicated, hardworking, and ambitous I am, I've really been starting to feel like a fraud lately. Its amazing how quickly work can dry up when you cease actively looking for it (at least in my office). My hats off to those who still have there hands to the flame.

togafoot · Answer

well, i`m already working on products for 2009 (still in concepting phase), so i have to be on the ball. Plus it`s tech stuff, so I`m still interested in it.

branson · Answer

That, and, once your boss knows, he is not involving you in those long term projects anymore. At least, thats happening in my case. I was supposed to start building up an international b2b marketing structure, but no word of that anymore since I gave notice. That's really motivating in itself so I'd say I am in between 3 and 6, changing on a daily basis.

westsider · Answer

One thing I do at work - is send out emails. I own the process from front to back and a small error could lead to > 1 million customers (a.k.a. ALL of them) getting something that turns them off to our company. I have done it 30 or more times already, and it is a very manual process. eventually I *will* make some mistake - it is impossible not to. I just hope it is a small one with little effect. I have 2 months left at work. I discussed this with my manager my fear of screwing up something absolutely huge and having it reflect poorly on me. luckily he has agreed that it makes sense for them as well to use me more for "throughput" work than anything else.
Plus since i am switching from an IT role to an extremely NOT IT role - all I am really getting out of work is a paycheck. Lets hear it for the 4 out of 10 ten folks!!

How useless are you at work?

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