I don't really have the sort of job where this can happen. I go in for 8 hours and deal with whatever is thrown at me for 8 hours and go home. I suppose with the recession we've been slightly less busy so I've had slightly less to deal with but now we're back in almost record levels of business territory (the students have hit town) I get more to deal with. Having said that I prefer to have more to deal with, it helps pass the time
I suppose in one respect I did have to answer calls as a telephonist last night for a few hours, which it could be argued isn't strictly my job but management have realised the shortfall in staffing levels in those areas and now business has picked up again are in the process of recruiting and training new staff, so that is a temporary thing and its understandable in our business and the current climate that there will be a few weeks lag between the increase in business and the increase in staffing levels but we know its in hand and don't mind "lowering ourselves" for a while. If we didn't we may lose business, an abandoned call is treated as business lost