Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

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Yurt
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Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Yurt » 04 May 13 1:52 pm

I've only cached since being self-employed so any time I spend on this pursuit is my own loss to my business. However I know plenty of people who have jobs and squeeze in a fair bit of geocaching. Good luck to them I say but I wonder if anyone has landed in trouble with their employer (no names please) due to them geocaching when they should have been doing something else.

Interested to hear your stories. Points for anyone who could justify what they were doing as beneficial to their work!

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by LouiseAnn » 04 May 13 2:34 pm

Not been sacked yet, but a lot of my work is on excel anyway, so puzzle solving looks a lot like work.

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by JABs » 04 May 13 4:55 pm

No trouble for me, before my move to Tassie, I worked for a Business that meant I sometimes had trips to the city or Canberra and always was able to fit in a little caching with bosses knowledge. A two day trip would sometimes run into three or four. Even took the pay accountant out one day as she was interested in what is was I did. Once I even just excused my self for an hour for an FTF and often stood outside work talking to other cachers doing a cache I had out front of work or offering help and hints for caches around town.

Now if I could only post a picture I would put up one that would be different.

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by noikmeister » 04 May 13 5:00 pm

I've often wondered how some cachers seem to get away with it. There was one guy in Canberra who was a real FTF nut. Word on the streets was that his workplace got sick of it and he was nearly sacked. He doesn't cache much anymore.

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Papa Bear_Left » 04 May 13 6:19 pm

I had an understanding boss. He twigged early on that urgent visits to customers who weren't usually on our radar coincided with FTF opportunities, but I actually uncovered some new business this way, so it all came out in the wash!

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Laighside Legends » 04 May 13 8:27 pm

Papa Bear_Left wrote:I had an understanding boss. He twigged early on that urgent visits to customers who weren't usually on our radar coincided with FTF opportunities, but I actually uncovered some new business this way, so it all came out in the wash!
I thought you drive a bus? Do you take them on a detour past a FTF? :mrgreen:

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Richary » 04 May 13 10:19 pm

My job tends to take me around Sydney (and occasionally Newcastle/Canberra) with the odd interstate trip. I sometimes stop and grab a cache on the way to or from a job if there is time, but generally it doesn't interfere with my work. If I can't make a quick find and I am expected back at the office for something then I won't waste time on it. Of course with Sydney traffic if it takes me an extra 10-15 minutes nobody would notice anyway.

The interstate trips have generally been good, lately they have been going somewhere to survey an install (that usually takes an hour). Then there is often time to kill before the next flight home so I can usually get 1 or 2 at least. With Ayers Rock and Alice Springs that meant waiting until the same time next day for the only flight home. This week it is off to Adelaide (Gawler) on Wednesday afternoon for a service call on Thursday that will take an unknown amount of time. So Wednesday night might offer some opportunities depending on how night-friendly the Gawler caches are. And unless I knock the job over really fast I will be staying until Friday and booking a flight back when I have finished. More caching opportunities in between I am sure.

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Bronnie_1990 » 04 May 13 11:01 pm

My boss doesnt care what i do before/after work/during my lunch break.

I'm not the type to drop everything and run off for a FTF during work..just because well, i physically cant!

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Papa Bear_Left » 05 May 13 2:39 am

Laighside Legends wrote:
Papa Bear_Left wrote:I had an understanding boss. He twigged early on that urgent visits to customers who weren't usually on our radar coincided with FTF opportunities, but I actually uncovered some new business this way, so it all came out in the wash!
I thought you drive a bus? Do you take them on a detour past a FTF? :mrgreen:
Yes, I do now, but I haven't always.
I do get to check up on, and once replace, a cache of ours that's close to a timing point that I often have a couple of minutes at, though. Plus I've found a few that were hidden near the end of bus routes, where there's often a few minutes before a return trip. Having that sort of time pressure sharpens the ol' cache sense!

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by fdsawq » 05 May 13 9:13 pm

I can tell how busy or perhaps engaged I am by looking at my stats. Last year I was in a "transition" role, developing strategy for our division, and not really working that closely with others, which gave me time to find many of the caches around the Sydney CBD. I felt guilty for the time I spent (usually combined with jogging), until I realised that nobody really noticed. Since I got my current role I've been too busy to cache much during the week (doesn't mean I wouldn't like to ;-) ).

I've wondered how senior cachers get ie are there many corporate CEO's spending their weekends looking for Sistema containers in the bush?

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Rainbow Spirit » 05 May 13 10:39 pm

I know of one cacher who is a travelling salesperson, you can track their selling trails by watching their cache stats...

Then there is all those caching tradies who have extra long lunch breaks....you know who you are!

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Zalgariath » 06 May 13 12:28 am

I spent 4 years travelling Australia, the UK and Ireland for work. Tens of thousands of km a year crisscrossing the countryside which allowed my streak and find rate... my boss still doesnt know what a cache is >:)

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by LouiseAnn » 06 May 13 11:47 am

Zalgariath wrote:I spent 4 years travelling Australia, the UK and Ireland for work.
jealous!

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by blossom* » 07 May 13 8:57 pm

I haven't got into trouble for going caching in work hours but I have been accused of spending work time logging :( Since then, I've discovered the gsak function of downloading the finds from my gps and it's a lot easier to do my logs (which I now do at home)

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Re: Anyone ever get sacked (or nearly) for geocaching?

Post by Hoojar » 08 May 13 9:56 am

I find the odd cache between meetings when on the road, if I have time to spare. But for the most part I try to keep caching out of work time.

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