During the summer, college students tend to have a wide variety of plans. Some students are traveling the world, while others are taking summer classes, working 40+ hours a week or just chilling on the couch at home. I personally fit into the working 40+ hours a week category, and while working at my summer internship I have realized quite a few things along the way in terms of how to learn the most while doing the least. In fact, I wrote this very article while sitting at my desk and even referred to my coworkers for ideas. Meanwhile, my boss thinks I am helping my deskmates out with various projects. Therefore, I present to you the seven best ways to get away with not doing work.
Change your angle
This was probably the first thing I learned to do when I started working. One thing I realized was that no one can catch you playing Spider Solitaire when they can’t see your screen. Simply turn your computer screen away from prying eyes, place a focused look on your face and enjoy the hours of free time this can afford you.
The scheduled rounds
In order to get by without doing much work, you must keep a careful balance between doing nothing and looking like you are at least trying to help out. This means that from time to time, you will have to go around and offer your services to coworkers in order to keep up the appearance that you are the handy-dandy, go-getter intern you somehow tricked them into thinking that you are. While this might sometimes land you with a pile of work you don’t want, more times than not you will only leave with nothing to do, and coworkers will not see you as the true slacker you are.
Evade, evade, evade
Much like sharks, I have found that if you keep moving, no one will be willing to stop you to give you more work. What I mean by this is to keep moving and don’t always be planted at your desk. This gives everyone the idea of “wow, they have really been everywhere today, they must be getting a lot of work done” while in fact you are simply walking quickly to the corners of the office or to the water fountain to fill up your water bottle. No one is going to stop someone that looks like they have places to be. The plus side to this tactic is that you end up getting a lot of steps in and get to explore the office along the way.
The “in case of emergency” plan
This is an important thing to have as a slacker. You need to have a go to task or job and be able to talk a bit about it whenever the boss walks by and asks what you’ve been working on. For example, if you have the task of entering in data or creating a new filing system, make sure to be able to talk up how much work you have been doing on that to your bosses. For some of you, you will already be required to write a weekly summary of what you did at work, so you will need enough material to fake it till you make it. On top of that, you should have these at least pulled up on your computer or at arm’s length in case anyone walks by. A good go to computer screen to switch to in a pinch is at least your company email.
Get a partner in crime
A slacker can always somehow find a fellow slacker. This can be very helpful in evading work and providing the cover stories you might need. Look to your fellow interns or deskmates to see who you can count on to not do work. Personally, I don’t think I would be able to accomplish the lack of work I do without my fellow slacker letting me know when the bosses are coming.
Clocking in tips
This can be dependent on the company and how they keep track of hours, but if you work somewhere where you clock in or you get to choose your hours, my advice to you is to get to work as early as you can. To some of you, the idea of getting to work at 7 a.m. sounds terrible, but doing this means you also get to leave at 3 p.m. and have more free time than those working 9 to 5. On top of this, you skip traffic, and your coworkers believe you are a star intern that works so hard they come in at the crack of dawn. In addition, no work will really even have to get done until 8 a.m. when more workers start to come in.
Find new hobbies
In order to make it look like you are actually doing work, you need to have something to work on. During your newfound, secret free time, find something to do like playing Spider Solitaire, scrolling through social media or even working on newspaper articles like this that you hope your boss will never read. The point is, try to find a hobby that will let your work days fly by. It’s truly amazing to see how much work can be done when you are procrastinating at your actual job.
To my fellow slackers out there, I hope you find these tips helpful during your long day at work. To my potential employers reading this, look at this article as a representation of how amazing my time management skills are! Feel free to let me know how these work out for you, and if you have some tips, let me know as I would love to find more ways to get off with slacking at work.
To contact Nicole, email [email protected]. Or tweet your ideas to @thetigerCU for a shoutout.
