You probably saw the story about how New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire, had a lowly desk jockey making $30k a year fired for playing solitaire on his computer during work hours... leaving the father of a three-year-old without a job. "The workplace is not an appropriate place to play game,” said the mayor, who claimed he wasn't over-reacting. But we've all seen people goofing off during work hours. Here are ten ways I've seen people goof off, or signal their full effort wasn't in the job any more.
1. Colleagues set up a multi-player online game, and the only calls are to say "it's your move!"
2. Every time you walk by their cube, you can see them minimize their browser window.
3. AOL Instant Messenger seems to be the majority of their typing.
4. They're on their cell phone more often than they're on their office phone.
5. The IT guy would rather finish his hearts game than change the printers' ink.
6. Your colleague in the next cubicle has told his old college buddies how he got engaged so many times, you could tell the story with the same emotion.
7. They're making calls for a charity she works on the side, but won't answer your e-mail.
8. You ask about an e-mail you sent, only to find it's in their In Box, in Bold. Meanwhile, eBay and Monster.com are minimized.
9. The commissioner of the company's fantasy baseball league has more adds and drops than everyone else combined.
10.Your boss gets grouchy when you interrupt his online game to ask about edits on collateral.
We've all seen stuff like this. If Bloomberg were roaming the halls of your office, how many would make it through the whole day?
