How to Slack off at Work in Japan

People who are said to be good at their jobs in any industry are also good at skipping work. Skipping work tends to give people a bad image. Personally, I don’t think it’s a problem at all, as long as the work is well done. In fact, I think it can increase your productivity because it gives you more mental freedom.

However, there are a lot of people who slack off on their work and cause trouble for others. In this article, I will explain how to successfully skip work.

Take a long toilet break

Human beings are creatures that defecate, and there is no blame for this even during work. It is perfectly acceptable to go to the bathroom once every hour or so. Human concentration does not last for hours. Try to get out of your seat every hour or an hour and a half and go to the bathroom. It will refresh your mind.

Surfing the Internet

Look at various internet news and hobby pages while pretending to do business-related research. If you don’t want to be caught looking at a site, copy the text of the site onto a notepad and read it. However, be aware that your work computer is connected to the internet via the company’s server, so the company’s systems department will have a record of all your site visits. To make it harder for them to find you, keep Excel up on your computer screen and the internet screen in a small corner. Wikipedia is a good place to start.

Take a cigarette break

If you are a smoker, try to increase the number of times you take a smoke break in the smoking area as part of the information exchange. You’ll probably find other big barcode guys smoking in the smoking area, so try to make small talk with them.

Going out to buy drinks and throwing away the containers

If you are allowed to eat and drink during working hours, go to the vending machine and buy a cup of coffee or juice. This will give you a change of pace and allow you to leave your seat when you go to dispose of the container. When you leave your seat, take a detour back to your desk. This will save you a lot of time. More time means more money.

Rely on others

If you don’t know how to do a task, ask someone else to do it for you. People don’t feel bad when they are asked to do something, but don’t ask for too much. When you get the job done, thank the person and praise him or her anyway. This will make it easier the next time you ask for help.

Move to a meeting room with partitions

A partitioned meeting space is one of the best places to slack off because you can’t be seen. It’s a good place to zone-out while pretending to be checking off a list or something.

Outside work

If you travel a lot for business, do as much traveling as possible. Use the time you spend on the road as your own time to think about free things, play games, read books, etc.

Work from home

Working from home is a very lucrative and rewarding way to work. It’s a great way to work (or pretend to work) at home at your own pace. Use your work PC only for work, and have a separate PC for watching videos, surfing the web, checking stock prices, and writing blogs.

Napping in the sales car

If you work outside the office, go to a convenience store with a large parking lot and take a nap in the recliner.

Web Conferences

Participate in unimportant web conferences and do something else. Take a recording of the meeting and play it back at double speed if you need it later. If your name is called during a meeting, say, “I couldn’t hear you because of a bad connection. Could you repeat that?” and you’re good to go.

End meetings early and go straight home

Pretend that the meeting took until the evening, but actually end it around 3:00 p.m. and go home. Go home directly. As long as the company does not call you, you will not be found out. If you get a call from someone, you can just lie and make it up as you go along. Lying is a good excuse.

Tidy up around your desk

If you are not too busy with work and want a change of scenery, spend some time in a drawer getting rid of unused files or organizing them. You’ll have to leave your seat to throw away files or shred, but since you’re just keeping things organized, it’s hard to know you’re slacking off.

Pretend to think

If you are not feeling well or you are not feeling motivated, pretend to think while staring at the screen. Writing down a list of what you are going to do when you get home on a notepad or jotting down blog posts that come to mind can also make you look like you are working. People can’t read other people’s minds, so if you claim you were thinking about work, you were thinking about work. There are many ways to have fun, such as making your own asset management chart in Excel, or overtime and take-home pay management chart.