How do you fare with repetition?

Potential-Monke

Another work based rant, but made me think of other jobs and activities. I was always of the impression that repetitive tasks are just not for me. I lose interest quickly, my mind wanders and I inevitably make a mistake. Current job for example has a lot of admin which I wasn't aware of when I took the job. It's different insofar as the information is different, but the steps are the same every single time. Testing of new "assets". It takes anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes depending on how well the person put the info on, and how friendly the systems want to work at the time (the main cause for long delays, has a habit of freezing half way through and have to start again!).

Got me thinking back to older jobs, working in Keytech and similar asssembly line factories for a while. Monotonous work that I was willing to do at 17/18 but the thoughts of putting the same crimp on cables 500+ times a day now brings me out in the sweats. I get so bad when I'm doing jobs with a lot of repetition that I end up putting myself into a foul form.

Now, I'm talking about the current covid repetition, that's a different kettle of fish. But job repetition in general. I go for troubleshooting roles because at least every case can be somewhat different, and there was no mention of admin in the current role when I took it, so genuinely finding it difficult to get things done in time because of it. (Should point out the admin work really should be done by other "more important" teams, but they're too important for the grunt work, by us doing it the whole process takes longer because we work nights and the people we need to communicate with work days...).

Anyway, rant over. How do ye fare with repetition?

Ubbquittious

Not too good, I can do the crimp job for a short spell but then Ill want to move on to something else

I worked with a few fellas who put the same through-hole resistor into the same boards for 12 years, dunno how they stick it. One of them had his own business before he did that job

Fake Scores

Another work based rant, but made me think of other jobs and activities. I was always of the impression that repetitive tasks are just not for me. I lose interest quickly, my mind wanders and I inevitably make a mistake. Current job for example has a lot of admin which I wasn't aware of when I took the job. It's different insofar as the information is different, but the steps are the same every single time. Testing of new "assets". It takes anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes depending on how well the person put the info on, and how friendly the systems want to work at the time (the main cause for long delays, has a habit of freezing half way through and have to start again!).

Got me thinking back to older jobs, working in Keytech and similar asssembly line factories for a while. Monotonous work that I was willing to do at 17/18 but the thoughts of putting the same crimp on cables 500+ times a day now brings me out in the sweats. I get so bad when I'm doing jobs with a lot of repetition that I end up putting myself into a foul form.

Now, I'm talking about the current covid repetition, that's a different kettle of fish. But job repetition in general. I go for troubleshooting roles because at least every case can be somewhat different, and there was no mention of admin in the current role when I took it, so genuinely finding it difficult to get things done in time because of it. (Should point out the admin work really should be done by other "more important" teams, but they're too important for the grunt work, by us doing it the whole process takes longer because we work nights and the people we need to communicate with work days...).

Anyway, rant over. How do ye fare with repetition?

.anon.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

How do ye fare with repetition?

Quite well, actually.

.anon.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

How do ye fare with repetition?

Quite well, actually.

.anon.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

How do ye fare with repetition?

Quite well, actually.

Potential-Monke

You're only getting 1 Thanks...

Your Face

I had a job many years ago where I just cut plastic tubing and flared with a heated iron.

I used to just zone out and daydream. I did that job on auto pilot.

I could go back and do a job like that if I had to.

Potential-Monke

That genuinely sounds like hell to me.

dreamers75

Small company and once a month I have to post invoices, **** me it kills me. Its in Sage so its tab, enter number, tab tab, enter number, tab tab tab, enter number Post to system, Print No, Ledger Save, repeat about 40 times.

I dont mind doing 2 or 3 a day it takes about minute each but once a month one supplier will send in about 60 and i hate it.

LimeFruitGum

Well, my role is to get people away from repetitive/manual/inefficient tasks! I hated that shoite so much when I was a project minion, I signed up to do a Diploma in Lean Systems.

Many employees don't care unless the process truly sucks and they just can't stick it anymore. Ad-hoc processes can go on for years in that mode. I should have the Mrs Doyle "Maybe I LIKE the misery" meme pinned up in the office.. people get very attached to their processes & routines. I get better results with a process walk-through, and asking lots of questions. The most influential person in a department isn't always the manager. Find that person, show them how much better Process X could be if they changed Y. I might lead them through a small change to start them off, knowing they'll get to Y eventually - it depends. I'll take any win

My exec board take their ISO 9001 cert very seriously, so I have a better chance of getting something done if I connect it to ISO and outline financial improvements. I'm lucky there, I haven't had that level of support in previous companies.

I don't know if you're familiar with Lean Six Sigma, but it sounds like it might be up your street?

Potential-Monke

I've heard of that before, and I would genuinely look into doing it, but I've burned my bridges in management roles, they're not for me. Too much circle jerking for my liking. The current company has something like that, but I don't think the people in charge of it are any way clued in about the work we do, and seems to be tailored more for management themselves than the agents. And I've gone too grumpy these days to filter my speech so I don't offend managements ears by telling the truth. I'll never understand the reluctance to hear the truth, and instead it has to be dressed up in fancy words that make it sound less bad, which in turn means t won't get the attention it deserves because some manager somewhere is trying to get a promotion off the process or something like that.

Tom Mann Centuria

I liked repetition in a clothes warehouse job I had, the easiest job there in fact, picking up boxes after they'd been emptied. I started at six in the morning, didn't engage brain again until knocking off time at half three.

The most relaxing year of my working life.

Rodin

I once did a factory job. Assembly line.
Lasted 3 days.
Couldn't stand it.

Northernlily

Working on large volume data migrations at the minute. I have to pull a huge amount of reports, parse out the data we need, organise it properly, distribute to the business for decisioning and migrate into new systems out of hours. I must say it is absolutely soul destroying and I can only work in 45 minute bursts max before needing a break.

Sometimes I just up and out to the park to clear the mind or watch some netflix before returning. I can work hours of my choosing which is great but I'll give it another 6 months as do not think I can work the project any longer. The cycle and repetition of pulling reports is tough going. The positive for me is decent pay as a contractor and it will reflect well on the CV.

Ultimate goal is to get enough money to get into property development. Love creating things and actual manual graft. The Finance/IT world is not for me.

ToxicPaddy

If its a repetitive task for a specific piece of work with the end in sight I'm fine, doing it on a daily basis for months, definitely not for me.

I need to put my brain to use in my work, thinking things out, looking for ways to improve something or automate it so it's not a repetive task for me or anyone else for that matter.

Witchie

As an editor it's something I haul my writers up on all the time.

I love that I get to read and write for a living.

Rodney Bathgate

Potential-Monke wrote: »

You're only getting 1 Thanks...

That’s 2 too many.

Aongus Von Bismarck

Not very well in my work life, but I enjoy repetition in other aspects of my life. I practice mindfulness each day for 20 minutes - 10 in the morning, and 10 in the evening. I run every morning for 30 minutes. There's some days where you'd almost wonder if you should do it, but it's like a habit now. It's automatic.

There's some sort of comfort in repetition. It's recognising if the repeated actions are good for you or not that gets to the heart of the issue.

pgj2015

I zone out when doing repetitive tasks. it is a big cause of deaths on building sites so im told, people loose concentration and can end up getting killed because if it.

AndrewJRenko

dreamers75 wrote: »

Small company and once a month I have to post invoices, **** me it kills me. Its in Sage so its tab, enter number, tab tab, enter number, tab tab tab, enter number Post to system, Print No, Ledger Save, repeat about 40 times.

I dont mind doing 2 or 3 a day it takes about minute each but once a month one supplier will send in about 60 and i hate it.

Time to start managing your supplier - set up some form of electronic invoicing and import to Sage

dreamers75

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Time to start managing your supplier - set up some form of electronic invoicing and import to Sage

Irony is that I left a digital company that specifically sold this type of product.

Feisar

I'm ok if it's a manual task but data entry kills me.

In private life and hobbies I fare very well with it. Many of the hobbies I have require constant repetition of forms or movements or activities to perfect or at least improve them.

In work life it depends. If I had a job completely based on repetition I think I might be ok. If I had a job completely without it I would be ok.

I suffer a lot with a mix of the two - when repetition tasks get in the way of progressing creative or new tasks.

Probably because in such a job I am measuring my self worth and well being and values on my outputs and achievements. So each repetitive task taking away from that is something I could let cause suffering in me if I am not aware of it.

Adyx

dreamers75 wrote: »

Small company and once a month I have to post invoices, **** me it kills me. Its in Sage so its tab, enter number, tab tab, enter number, tab tab tab, enter number Post to system, Print No, Ledger Save, repeat about 40 times.

I dont mind doing 2 or 3 a day it takes about minute each but once a month one supplier will send in about 60 and i hate it.

I had similar inputting invoice details into Excel before importing to Xero. I almost went blind.

I also had a summer job in a radio station many years ago and one job I had was copying songs from CD to a computer for playing on air. This was so long ago, that meant listening to the whole song. I then had to trim out any silences at the beginning and end. It took me a week just to do the trimming on 10,000 or so songs.

Mr. CooL ICE

My first ever job as a teenager involved was as a paper shredder. Was in a financial institution where they were supposed to shred any paper records that were 4+ years old, and the porter there was supposed to do it when not needed but there was a backlog of stuff going over 8 years.

Sat in an office by myself, in front of a shredding machine, feeding in paper and taking out staples. And then had to find somewhere to store the massive pile of bags full of shredded paper. It was only for a week but by god did it kill me.

EmmetSpiceland

Mr. CooL ICE wrote: »

My first ever job as a teenager involved was as a paper shredder.

I always love using the shredder. Granted, the only extensive “use” I’ve had with one was whenever I would be leaving a job I would shred any “problem” files that might be discovered after I’d left and could damage my legacy, and reputation.

kowloon

Washing bones and pottery shards on a dig. You could do it without thinking and talk to people. Would happily do it again over other more involved work I've had.

Hyperbollix

Not good. Did a spell in a call centre, which is effectively repetitive factory work.... on a phone. I would argue that it's actually worse than a repetitive physical task because at least with those kinds of jobs you can zone out, listen to a podcast and just go on autopilot. I think I could actually handle something like that quite well as Im not a gregarious people person who needs to be bouncing off others all day.

A call center is an endless procession of pissed off people in your ear from the first second of your shift, til the last second, 8 hours later. There's no zoning out, no autopilot, you're constantly in conflict resolution mode. It's absolutely mentally draining, if not damaging in the long term.

JustAThought

worked in horticulture during college -seperating out & lifting a tiny seedling from ten thousand siblings in a tray, poking a hole in peatmoss in a pot to putnin into, pinching in the seedling, putting the pot on the floor behind you - repeat for 9 hours.

If you were by yourself or with someone quiet it was mindnumbingly painful but if there were food people there you could have the craic. If the boss came in and demanded silence and stood behind you scrutinising your work it was frightening and boring as he could tell you to go home if you wern’t working hard or fast enough and then you wouldn’t get paid.

You can put up with a lot if you have job security and a bit of craic or good fellow sufferers around you. I think it would be unbearable if you thought you woiod only he doing that for the rest of your life and were struggling in poverty/endless debt.

corner of hells

I worked as a maintenance electrician in a large food plant, other than a machine breaking down or tripping out very little happened.
There hordes of staff doing repetitive jobs , all quite happy .

"Flycatcher loaded the produce onto a conveyor belt , Hopalong took it off further down the line , ClippityClop drove it down an ailse in his forklift , Beaker packed it and Doctor No loaded it into the truck"

Rinse, repeat , 5 days a week.