I’ve been out of college and working now for almost 3 and 1/2 years. The first year or so, I was a good employee. However, soon the idea of staring at a computer in a cubicle for the next 40 years did not sound appealing.
As a result, by the time I left my old job, I was probably in the office a maximum of five hours per day. Come in late, leave early, take midday trips to Target while my boss is in a meeting, take long lunches and it all adds up quickly.
From the years of research I have done, this is best formula to stretch your lunch out to at least an hour and forty five minutes.
1. For the first couple of weeks at your job, make sure you leave the office for lunch and try do so alone. This way your coworkers will get used to the idea that you like to go out for lunch. Avoid invitations. Soon, they’ll start to forget about you.
2. Learn the lunchtime habits of those around you. I know at my current job that the important people to my continued employment (my manager and my team lead) come back from lunch a little bit after 1 o clock.
3. Model your lunch around the time of those around you, making sure to overlap for 15 minutes or so.
4. Always have an excuse ready. I’ve had the same one ready for the past month, but nobody has ever questioned me.
EXAMPLE:
I currently leave for lunch around 11:15 or so. I know that the important people to my continued employment go from noon until 1 o clock. They probably assume that I come back around 12:15 or so.
All i need to do is make sure that I am in my seat when they get back from lunch. So basically, I take lunch from 11:15 to 12:50. I am back at least 10 minutes before they will be.
And do i feel guilty?? NO!
Why? Because if it was a problem, somebody should say something to me. Nobody has. Therefore it is not a problem.
I can’t imagine only taking one hour for lunch…
Now, off to do some free printing.
Technorati Tags: cubicle, lunch, long lunch, slacker, slacking
February 9th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Stealing from your employer. Cool!
February 9th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
You are so naughty. But you make me laugh, so I can forgive some of the naughty. Heh.
February 21st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Kudos! I do something slightly different at my job… i leave after my boss and most other people do. Since they have no idea exactly when i leave, I can come back after they do. No one ever says anything about it and i get all my silly meaningless tasks done on time, if not before a deadline. if they wanted me to care more, they should pay me more.
February 28th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
What was your excuse? I’m guessing “prostate exam”.
February 28th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Dude.. I used to be just like you. (Although I worked at small company where everyone generally went to lunch together, but not on a specific schedule, so I left right after they did and came back 2 hours later.) Unfortunately, if you have any ambition in you at all (which you seem to) you’ll eventually get bored with getting paid to do nothing and quit with some crazy scheme to play professional poker or start a company or something. When reality finally sets in you’re going to end up in grad school. You’ll try to slack there but it won’t work and in the end you’ve got a bunch of debt and actually have to bust your ass to get a degree and then you’ll be faced with the same weaseling to get paid to do nothing situation, but in a slightly higher pay bracket.
Maybe you should think about getting a job you actually care about. Stock options help, but you’ve gotta believe that your company might actually make a killing.
Good luck! Hope you don’t go through the shit I did..