Re: Lull standsill period - ideas please

["Lopez, Andrew" <alopez@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> as a new person my work load is pretty lite to begin w., but now it has
> come to nothing for 2 weeks, and I am going insane from it.
>
> What do you during slow times? I am seeking to ideally implement some
> utility that we don't have, but open to other ideas, please.

Hard to remember that I was in the same position once.  My personal
choices were:

1.  Expedite month-end and daily reports by requesting a trial version of
spool splitting software.  Fix up a demo for the powers that be, get
approval for a minimal software expense and start making life easier for
everybody.

2.  Take on the job of reviewing security on our box.  Implement exit
programs/authority lists to control FTP, ODBC, etc.  Work through getting
us from security level 30 to 50.

3.  Build a datamart using already purchased tools.  Demo to
sales/finance, get finance backing to rollout to the field.  Build another
one for manufacturing on outstanding orders.

4.  Review day-end and month-end CL's, documenting which reports were no
longer needed, streamlining the process.

5.  Review regularly scheduled jobs for the same as #4.

Everything but #2 were done initially in less than two weeks.  Security
took quite a bit longer, but I did it on loose days here and there over
the course of a year.  One and three got me a lot of recognition outside
the department.  Two, four and five happened "behind the scenes" but
reinforced the idea that I was actually doing something.  Works really
well when your boss is pleased by something you do _and_ gets positive
feedback from outside the department [and none of the work was assigned to
you to begin with.....].