when on bench, what do you do?

[former_member182378]

Hello,

Most of us, at some point of time, have been on bench...no project "tagged". We go to office and then return home...no "work" (or no "hard core" work). What do you do then? What are you goals when on bench?

TW

PS: I did not want to put this in coffee corner instead wanted to put it in career forum, as this has lot of learning potential.

[Colleen · Accepted solution]

Hi TW

Bench time is annoying when you are used to the fast-paced nature of consulting. It's also frustrating when you are benched as the client no longer has budget but there is heaps of work you could still be doing for them

I tried being a consultant once and was benched for 2 months. Kept getting a heap of false starts on new client work that fell through. The problem with being on the bench is you don't know how long you are there. I made the mistake of not enrolling in activities or classes thinking it'd be a waste of money as I'd only attend 1 or 2 before having to cancel. Well that was a mistake in hindsight

With the company I was at, we had quite a few people benched that there wasn't enough office space for us to come in. We got told to stay home. Now this sounds fantatstic for the first few days. But then you get worried that you'll be getting a HR calling telling you you're redundant and no more job for you.

So you want to first try to create value for your company

1. Offer your services to Senior Management to assist in client tenders and bids. It's a way to network, get noticed for promotion and expand you skills as well as the stakeholder engagement levels
2. Clean up - do the cull and clean up of papers and your kit bag of tools. Go through and cull outdated material
3. Training - hit Learning Hub, demo systems, internal company training - anything you can get your hands on
4. Extend training and set a certification exam date that you work towards
5. Business Development - if you are a solo in your area, start building templates and material to increase your company's IP. Think back to all those times on client sites when you wish you had a document template for X or a load tool for Y
6. Advertise yourself - let your company know who you are and keen to get onto a new project

On the personal front, most consultancies recognise that consultants don't work an 8 hour day when they are billable. You'll do a full day for the client and then you have all the company specific activities to do (telcos, HR work, internal training, business development). You'll also work a heap of extra hours on the client (especially if you are on a fixed priced client work and your company's deliverables are slipping). As a result, when you are on the bench there is this unwritten rule that you are entitled to some down time and recovery

So if you have done your professional development, the personal stuff to consider:

1. Focus on your fitness - get your strength and general fitness back. Many of us drop fitness when work gets busy.
2. Diet - take the time to learn to prepare healthier meals and remove a few inches of your waistline if you found yourself living on chips and gravy for lunch most days (I'm guilty)
3. Sleep - it's catch up time if you've come of a busy client. But not too much sleep
4. Establish a routine - you need to fill your days in so you don't feel unproductive
5. Get a hobby or develop it further
6. Get out and see people - be it work collegues or friends. Get networking and keep communications open
7. Make an effort with your family - your partner or kids or whoever. Take the kids to school or help out more. Make up for any time away from the family
8. Plan a holiday somewhere and get some proper downtime

There the sort of stuff I tell myself what I'll do next time after having a miserable two months of lying on the couch watching cable tv and eating junk food. A case of hindsight thinking how much I could have achieved in that time frame!!

P.s. - if you want this thread in Careers Center then alert moderator and ask for it be moved. I'll allow it over there

Cheers

Colleen

[hasan_ahmed1]

Hi,

25% time in thinking to what to think! 50 % on SCN!. 25% with colleagues and friends  from previous project.! 25 % on profile preparation!!

[former_member182378]

Hidayathulla, 3X25 + 1X50

TW

[hasan_ahmed1]

Yes. 25% extra time spending on bench...:)

[former_member182378]

Thanks for this strong and informative response!

marking this thread as "answered" but please post...by no means is this thread closed.

Finally, paraphrasing the underlying theme of this thread "improve continuously" and in the words of

I learn, I read, I code, I read code, I look for opportunities, I rest, I recharge, I realise how much I don't know, I repeat, ....

TW

[Former Member]

WHILE office EQ "on bench".

SCN reading.

Sandboxing.

Errors or just anything strange findng.

LOOP.

[former_member182378]

do you comment anything? tw

[Former Member]

Just decided a couple of weeks ago it would be nice to do this also if I have something to propose. Previously commented only on local non-english speaking webpage, not SDN->SCN.

[former_member182378]

Ekaterina,

sorry for not being clear! by "comment" i meant the ABAP comment, do you consider to not do something?

you can excuse me as i am not an abaper

tw

[Former Member]

i'm not also. On bench try to find new and interesting on SCN, today it was this space.

[joao_sousa2]

ABAP is quite readable. While benched at the office, read SCN, use a sandbox, try to find things that are wrong, even if noone noticed.

With the importance that ABAP has on the SAP world, and considering how useful it is to be able to read SAP code, learning ABAP would be a great way to use available time.

I know people (a top SAP functional consultant) who learned german so she could read the comments in the ABAP code.

[Matt_Fraser]

Back in the days before Google Translate, I used to keep a "cheat sheet" of German terms typically found in an ABAP system, and so did pretty much everyone else I knew who worked with SAP at more than an end-user level. I had heard of ABAP developers who went beyond that and studied the German language in more detail for this reason.

[JL23]

I created such kind of cheat sheet when I read the first time "Clockwork Orange", it was just a translation by guessing, years later I found out that most of these strange words were Russian words,  I was pretty proud that i guessed about 99% right, see Nadsat dictionary.

[Matt_Fraser]

Oh yeah, Clockwork Orange was an interesting read. "Hi hi hi, my droogs..."

[Former Member]

In BW German comments are rare. The whole BW itself is rather more English, we have COMPCODE but not BUKRS

[former_member182378]

Ekaterina,

Is BUKRS german (derived from a german word)?

TW

[JL23]

Buchungskreis

[Former Member]

You can imagine it to be something like VKORG, just bigger and stronger and it can be sold.

Cheers,

Julius

[former_member211462]

At time of a support project you dont get much of a good chance to learn something since you could be busy with other support projects.

But on bench its the real time when you get to spend on your own to understand and get to do R&D's on new portions.

Not only about the learning part but also could go through the old discussions on SCN.

[former_member182378]

You mention that in the time available, you read, do research the topics/issues/tickets that during work you did not get (that much) time. But when on bench, we do not get the specific task/ticket which helps us define the scope of what to analyze. So how do you pick a point/theme and stick to it (do the research etc.) and get the deeper learning.

Something similar is that the advantage of going to office is that it structures your day and if you WFH there is a risk of not maximizing because of lack of structure.

TW

[narnei]

Dear Mr.TW Type Writer,

To pick a point/theme i have considered the below points.

1.Issues faced during my previous projects where i need to improve (solution design part)/ throw some light.

2.Some scenarios where i am not expertise related to my previous projects and similar projects running in my organisation.

3.Integration with other modules and its subsequent process overview..etc

Regards,

Rao

[narnei]

Hi TW,

In-fact its very short time i was there on bench, that time was referring the module related books / related materials to refresh on new concepts which we have not used in recent days & referring the previous project documents and solution designed in past / analyzing on the same with current situations...

and working/analyse on complex scenarios where we have challenges in past projects, getting discussions with fellow mates to discuss on that as well as more on Module integration's and related stuff.

One more thing following SCN to know the new/related issues & solutions from our experts.

Knowledge transfer activities with in the projects..etc.

Regards,

Subbarao

[joao_sousa2]

You can develop "assets". Accelerators for projects, new pre-packaged functionality, you can do MOOC for Screen Personas which is useful for everyone.

In this new age of SAP, if I were a functional consultant I would use my free time to learn some technical skills, which I believe will be much more important in the years to come.

Personally I'm a bit more free now (well I'm not overburdened), so I've been learning Node.js, Angular, Polymer, etc (which don't make good blog posts on SCN ) It's good to see how some of them compete with SAP/OpenUI5.

[former_member201275]

I sleep in late, then get up shower and go out for a coffee. Then I take my picnic blanket and lie in the sun, and swim in the river. I will also try and eat something in the day. At night I go out dancing and try and meet women.... this doesn't always work out for me. Then I go home and sleep.

[Matt_Fraser]

I go to the beach, or the mountains. Oh wait, I don't have bench time, I'm not a consultant anymore....

Though seriously, when I was a fresh new consultant, after my first project finished I was on the bench for, hmm, I forget, one or two months. As I was a new hire in the company, I was freaking out, certain I was going to be let go, calling my boss asking for projects. He assured me everything was fine, he had a project in mind for me and was keeping me in reserve til it started, that sort of thing. So, I relaxed, checked my email everyday, kept my phone by my side, and enjoyed a beautiful summer. Then that next project started, and I never, ever had bench time again, nor time for a formal vacation for that matter.

There were no MOOCs in that day, nor SDN, or any other "online self-paced" learning opportunities that I was aware of. There were some SAP Press books, which I read (and also, especially, the ones from the "R/3 Simplification Group" operating out of SAP Labs Palo Alto), and formal SAP classroom training, which I tried to get myself sent to, and that was it.

[Jelena]

Matt Fraser wrote:

There were no MOOCs in that day, nor SDN, or any other "online self-paced" learning opportunities that I was aware of.

Yeah, kids consultants these days don't know how good they have it!

[Colleen]

Have to agree with you and Matt... to an extent. I remember starting in SAP and Google wasn't as great (think I was still checking Yahoo first)

However, if we also go back to the good ol' days, SAP was not as complex as it is today. We didn't have a bunch of components that needed to talk to each other. There was a lot less functionality and change was not as often.

If anything, MOOCs became a necessity to keep up with the products. I consider how much I have to learn and relearn today. Someone starting out afresh in this industry would be completely lost

[dairolozano]

I start doing MOOCs, updating my profile on every Social network, seek every single jobseek site I know... 

After some days of this routine, I'm so desperate than I start to call every single friend and relative I know and have forgotten to call.  It feels bad that sometimes you only remember to contact people in such situations.

Fortunately it's been a long time since the last time I was on bench.  But you never know.. so thanks every one for sharing your tips..

[GrahamRobbo]

I learn, I read, I code, I read code, I look for opportunities, I rest, I recharge, I realise how much I don't know, I repeat, ....

[Jelena]

My consulting days are long gone, but from what I recall I was using this time to work on my resume because I don't like being out of work (involuntarily).

Maybe some suggestions from the folks bored at work would help?

[mohsinabbasi007]

Dear TW,
Bench time is only for blessed people...., But company don't pay you for spending time on bench, company even plan some thing extra, By the way when there is hunch of not having any project in coming future, company arrange some short assignment like any support project, issues as well. In consultancy i don't think so you can get the time of bench......

Best Regards

Mohsin Abbasi

[Steffi_Warnecke]

TW Typewriter wrote:

PS: I did not want to put this in coffee corner instead wanted to put it in career forum, as this has lot of learning potential.

So why didn't you?

There is no bench time for me when there are no projects, as I also support a lot of systems. And there is always something to do. ^^

And it's some years ago, when there was a "no project" time for me anyway.

[JL23]

Agree, haven't been on bench since starting with my work in 77. Only our developers in India have this luxury.

I have a huge migration project currently and was planned 100% of my time for this project at the beginning of the year. Since then I got placed on 3 further migration projects plus an internal career development program. It's already clear that this year goes by without any chance to reduce the parked overtime  from a couple years ago.

[Prasoon]

I was in bench for 1 week when I joined as a fresher and that was the last bench time!!!! I too would love to be in bench for atleast for one week, but company is always planning over time for us. Last month billed hours was 290 hours, even though its 5 days a week!!! Its a habit now and now love to take up challenges!!!! - Amazing SAP!!!