From Googling-Based Work, Local Man Has Earned Googling-Based Break
HOUSTON — After completing a 3.5 hour shift as an IT Specialist for Innovative Solutions Corp, a position which required him to periodically answer the phone and professionally Google whatever questions he was asked about the company’s website, Geoffrey Doyle rewarded himself with a company-mandated hour-long break, in which he planned to Google several interesting topics with which to entertain himself.
“Trump,” “Mummy 2017 box office,” “GSW records,” and “best 80s music” were among the dozen or so searches that Doyle completed, which led to various articles and YouTube videos for his edification, each of which he consumed about 10–25% of before skimming the rest and moving on. This came after a full morning of searches which included “Innovative Solutions Corp Website,” “ISC Website,” “Internet Explorer not loading,” and “how to set company website as home page.”
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“I like to keep up with things,” Doyle said, quickly scrolling past a Vice thinkpiece before completing another Google search which led him to a Slate thinkpiece. “I don’t have enough time to drive anywhere for lunch, so I just go down to the building’s deli, grab a turkey-and-cheese [sandwich], hang out there for a little bit, then I come back up here and still have 30 minutes left to do whatever.”
Doyle, who graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Computer Information Systems in 2012, earned his degree after eight semesters of Googling tutorials and Wikipedia pages for his courses. He matriculated from the University of Houston to the Innovative Solutions Corp office after graduating on scholarship, which he attributes to “working really hard in high school,” where he Googled the answers to various study guides in Math, History, Science, and English, and utilized Google Translate “para [su] clase de español.”
“It’s just really nice to unwind before getting back to work,” Doyle concluded, knowing that his work would ultimately consist of Googling similar, if not identical search queries from earlier that morning, while leaving the tabs open of that which he Googled during his lunch break. “By the time my lunch break is over, it’s already pretty close to the end of the day.”
Upon concluding our interview, Doyle cheerfully waved goodbye, left the ISC offices, and arrived at home 37 minutes later, where he was seen opening Facebook, scrolling down his news feed for 2 minutes, and refreshing Facebook again.
