How to look insanely busy, and super diligent, without getting anything done:
- Inspect the equipment required for your job early and often. This is for safety and quality, take as much time as you need.
- Go back over areas you've already done to ensure quality. This is QC, take as much time as you need.
- Have a clipboard somewhere with a checklist containing items that generally fit the description of the task at hand. Check them off while looking at things, appear to think hard about it.
- If you work construction, get the measuring tape and double-check everything (as long as you know for a fact it was accurate the first time).
- If you work in an office, always have a spreadsheet open that relates somehow to your job. That shit is like the Jedi Wave to micromanaging bosses.
- If you work in tech, it's a system error no matter what. You're working on it.
- If you code native, its a compilation error no matter what. You're working on it.
- If you code back-end, it's a loading issue with with the server, no matter what.
You're working on it. - If you code front-end, it's a CORS error or a caching issue. CSS trampling works too. Could also be a network resolution issue. Regardless, you're working on it.
- If you work in UI/UX or product design, the feature set needs another usability test. Working on it.
- If you're a PM, the sprint needs to be QC'd, you're working on it.
- If you're in food service, the trash needs taken out, bathrooms cleaned, stove cleaned, etc. Take as much time as you need, this is sanitation we're talking about here.
- If you work as a technician, the equipment has an LF-142 error and you're working to get it fixed.
- If your boss asks you what you're doing, show them something you did recently (makes ABSOLUTELY no difference what it is) and then ask them what they'd like to see moving forward. Keep asking them more and more various questions while taking notes. Email them about it later, and have lengthy conversations about it when they come back around to micromanage.
- If you work in design, you need to QC the work. Take as long as you need, this is quality we're talking about here.
- If you work in retail, triple-check the shelves and prices you were assigned to. Gotta be diligent.
No matter what it is: you look busy, you understand what's going on, and you're working to fix the problem. That's the mental takeaway you want them to have.
The bottom line is that there are three major things that people use to evaluate whether or not you're “doing your job”
- Do you look busy?
- Do you seem serious?
- Does what you're doing make sense in the context of your job?
These are the three, and only three things, I have found that managers ever honestly look for. They will almost always overlook performance if they think you're a diligent worker (EG: You look constantly busy).