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Help me! I need the most boring job you can think of More

Help me! I need the most boring job you can think of

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  • How about going around recording meter readings from instruments located at remote, unmanned stations? That would give lots of travel time and the remoteness ensures little human contact.
     
  • overnight security guard

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Talinom ( 243100 ) *
      I've done graveyard security guard duty. It was in a guard shack and I was guarding an electrical substation that was being torn down and rebuilt. I ran into a person every once in a while, but that was rare. I could watch people when it was briefly light out but that was about it. No CCTV, but they had a radio. I read a LOT there and brought an ancient (386) laptop with a monochrome LCD display.

      Another one was graveyard stock replenishment when I worked at the local S-Mart. First part of the night was t
    • Seconded. I use to work the night shift at a gas station. Dull as hell except for the (relative) high points: Restocking, and sharing a cuppa for a half hour with the local filth.

  • Nothing more exciting than answering the phone during the graveyard shift...

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I knew a girl who worked in her dad's lawyer office doing filing. She said it was terrible.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nizo ( 81281 ) *
      I have to admit to me that sounds like it would be an incredibly boring job too. Hmm, though it may have sparked another idea...... some kind of filing job in a warehouse or something.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RM6f9 ( 825298 )
        Filing clerk leapt to mind, although... Spider Robinson's career started because he was sick of guarding a NY sewer at night...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nizo ( 81281 ) *
          See this is the problem with journal entries like this; now I have to stick with my story and not go off and write some other story idea that comes to mind.......


          I wonder exactly how/why someone would be guarding a sewer? It isn't like there aren't a million ways in.......

  • Most jobs with a lot of spare time would allow you to bring a book, so the spare time could actually be considered a major bonus. (Think working at a movie theater with less than 5 screens.)

    So, the trick is to find a job with spare time that can't be filled up by bringing a book, I reckon. Are you wanting this student to have a lot of time to daydream? I suppose a job where he has to watch for something that never actually happens - like the night-time security guard job already mentioned.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nizo ( 81281 ) *
      Ahh actually I want to give him plenty of spare time to do as he pleases (security guard is what came to my mind, but is it too cliche?) He isn't a people person, so again security guard seems good. Some kind of "warm body must be there" kind of job.....
      • Perhaps a *little* less cliche is as someone who runs the movie projectors in a theater. Of course, with digital technology, those are probably a dying breed. (As a manager of a small movie theater, I often ran the projectors myself, including splicing in the trailers, combining multiple reels into a single, bigger reel, etc.)
        • Perhaps a *little* less cliche is as someone who runs the movie projectors in a theater.

          That was a great job! I got to see such greats as "Pippi Longstocking" and "Orca: Killer Whale" and "Saturday Night Fever" at least 10 ten times. Missing only those parts during the reel change. Peerless, with carbon lamps. The biggest challenge was making sure the reel ended before the rod did. Smallest audience? Four people. Anything less and we would cancel.

          Want boring? Master control operator at Home Shopping Network

          • All of our reels were spliced together on a massive platter so no reel changes were required. I can't say for sure that I ran a movie for only 1 person, but I'm pretty sure I did. This was in the early days of central locations polling stores for data, and I recall a memorable conversation with hq about how we sold concessions even though no one bought any movie tickets. (Someone was walking by the theater and had a hankering for some movie popcorn at those hard-to-beat movie theater prices!) As it was prob

            • All of our reels were spliced together on a massive platter so no reel changes were required.

              Yeah, I remember seeing those things long after I left the business. That and those "new" xenon bulbs. Watching them operate was kind of impressive. The only time I had to splice anything was to put the trailers and the cartoon(do they still show cartoons before the movie anymore? We showed the classic Warner Bros. and MGM stuff Oh, Wolfy, Oh, Wolfy...) on to the first reel, or if the film broke. I liked splicing fi

      • "actually I want to give him plenty of spare time to do as he pleases"

        Embalmer? Or maybe the embalmer's assistant? Funeral home director - many only do one or 2 "shows" a month. Of course, if he's an embalmer, his "doing as he pleases" can get quite creepy.

  • ...and both of 'em I used to do myself in college, because _nobody else_ wanted to.

    After-hours filing clerk, which means coming in anytime between 6pm and 6am and filing away all the things that were pulled for research that day. The guy who briefed me on it was actually the guy who was quitting, and I never even got interviewed or met the folks I was filing for (though, because of the paperwork, I did get paid). I was like a ghost, and could come and go anytime (including two in the morning) as long as t
  • At a company that sells on-line ads (side bars, pop-ups, etc.), your job is to go to the sites that you've contracted with, and make sure that your client's ads are coming up with the repeat rates they've paid for.

    9:00. Turn on computer.

    Go to Site A. Reload 100 times, recording how many times the ads for "Super Lube", "Happy Fun Ball" and "Toast On A Stick" come up in rotation. Record this info.
    Go to Site B. Repeat.
    Go to Site C. Repeat.
    etc.
    etc.

    Repeat entire circuit during various times of the day.
    Don't try
  • Sit in a tower over the bridge, and every couple of hours raise it for a boat. It gives you options as far as shift, and also lets the character see the world without necessarily interacting with it.

    As an added bonus you can finally justify that trip to Portland through "research."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nizo ( 81281 ) *
      Woohoo research trip!


      So uhh no special training is needed to operate a drawbridge? Hell do they even build drawbridges anymore?? So many questions.....

  • Most Network Operations Centers have NOC monkeys whose job is to page the on call if anything happens. It's pretty dull in a well-run data center.
  • I see a lot of students used as parking lot attendants. They sit in a tiny booth behind bulletproof glass, and read algebra textbooks until quitting time. It's even more boring at a parking ramp like mine where most of the customers have paid contracts -- we don't even drive through an attended booth. Occasionally there's a busy time (like when the neighboring sports arena has an basketball game or a concert) and 3PM to 6PM sees a lot of traffic, but that's about it.

    Either that or baseball umpire. My

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