Finally, a question where i can shine. You don't have to do anything specific. Just do things.

Use a headset with your phone or laptop: You are on a call. Most people don't speak much at online meetings.

Take a little nap? Thinking.

Want some time alone? Go to a meeting room. Works even better if the room has glass walls since you can see them and they can see that you are "busy", but no one sees your screen.

Have multiple monitors. There's always something work-related on at least one screen.

Have fields of interest that blend in. If one of your hobbies is vaguely related to work you are golden. You can totally read something unrelated to work during working time if it seems most your attention goes towards work. (See multiple screens and some switching back and force.)

Shift your working hours slightly from the norm, i.e. come 5 min earlier than others.

Don't hide windows with non-work stuff when someone sees them. Too late. Act as if you have nothing to hide.

Do a reasonable work-life blend. Work overtime occasionally at odd hours and make managers know that you solved an emergency in your free time. Gives you an excuse to leave early or slack off the next day and any other day.

React to emails with a resonable delay. Of course, you can help, but not right now. You are busy.

Block your calendar and decline invites.

At my last company, we would walk around with our laptops. People would just assume we were looking for a meeting room or had something important to do.

I can’t quite remember what we did at our desks specifically. However, I do remember a guy I worked with used to browse Wikipedia and Tinder.

Use the buddy system. Years ago I had a work-friend, we'd just book meetings with each other a couple of times a week, go to a meeting room and just hang out, I taught him to juggle, or we'd watch an episode from a series etc.

It was fun feeling like we got away with something, but realistically nobody questioned it because we both got our work done and it was a good company where that mattered more than time spent at a desk.

Don't do what they did: https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/wells-fargo-fires-more-than-a-dozen-employees-for-faking-work-using-mouse-jigglers-and-keyboard-simulation

Terminal -> vim with syntax hilighting -> some source code. Passerbys won't know what your code is for or what it's supposed to do, but it'll make you look busy and you can tinker with your own projects.

A friend of mine has a highly complex spreadsheet open at all times at work. He's a D&D DM and uses that sheet to easily calculate price fluctuations in finished goods based on changes in resource price.

Find a boss who doesn't care. So far I've never had a boss that insists that I look busy all the time. As long as I'm getting my work done they don't care what I do. I spend a lot of time at my desk reading books on my phone. If your boss is being an ass about you using your downtime how you want when all of your work is done then that is not someone you want to work for.

Back in the day, I used to grab any piece of paper, and then walk around the entire office with a slightly angry and urgent look on my face as if I was going to talk to someone important. Do a lap. Back to your desk. Job done.

Even cleaning up junk from your OS Filesystem looks like you are working, and you discover things you forgot you had

One of my prior roles was moved from a proper office to an open office and one of the "selling" points was "you can work from anywhere in our cool new building!". So, I spent most of my day anywhere but my desk. I got my work done and half my time was spent in meetings either way, but if I didn't have somewhere to be, I'd be in the quietest spot I could find in the building (cafeteria mid-morning/afternoon, conference area when there were no meetings, outside, the lobby, etc.). I was regularly commended for adopting the new culture.

Im the sole IT guy at a non profit. I could probably have a movie playing, but if power shell is open I'm covered. It's hilarious and glorious.

Have a look at online courses. w3school, udemy, coursera have IT related courses if that’s your thing, there are other sites that have online courses too. Free ebooks at gutenberg.org that you can download or read online. Do a search for “text only news”, find a site you like, catch up on the daily news; just looks like a page of text from a distance.

Compile arch

Seek more work. Find tasks you can help on, earn brownie points, don't offer to do anything extra that takes more than 30 minutes to get done. Don't overdo it, and make sure to also use the downtime to grab a federally required break, stretch, drink water, meditate, do some calisthenics.

The first part boosts how you're perceived by others: your bosses will take note of your enthusiasm, your coworkers will appreciate you more; this is why it's important to not overdo it—you don't want your extra effort to be the new baseline expectation.

The second part boosts your health, mood and productivity.

If you find you have more free time than these fill, consider asking your employer to sponsor certifications/continuing education in your field to further your career, or just talking with your boss about taking on more responsibilities for a raise. But still make sure to "leave room on your plate" to do the aforementioned breaks. If the money/career growth isn't an issue, consider negotiating reduced hours so you have more free time.

Leave. Go for a walk, or a coffee, or go home. Nobody knows you aren't in a meeting room.

If your co-workers are into it, have a LAN party. I used to work at a place that had a daily management-approved kill session. It was good.

I go from one place to another, greet people, talk, drink coffee, have a snack, go to the toilet, etc, etc. They are pushing working from the office more and more saying it's better for connecting with colleagues, so I go to and do that.

I think once I saw a web browser that made websites look like its code. So you were looking for bugs while browsing.

I mostly wfh so not really a problem anynore. However, I had a trick from before covid. My companies av is trash, it scans any new files created with a single thread, there's a exception for the directory we compile in (although it's frequently failing and scanning anyway 🙄) but I keep a repo outside that directory for when I want make my compile take 6hours instead of 10minutes. I also have this as my screensaver

jerking off. nobody bothers a man who is jerking off.

Make jokes about not being busy. Make them boldly in slightly non appropriate circles. Then lean with the same amount of conviction into compliments. Agree with full heart, be non apologetic with the same force used to joke about how little work you have.

This duality is powerful because on the one hand you clearly have nothing to hide, and on the other hand you're painfully truthful. Works a charm. Then go have brunch on the clock.

Gawd I'm so glad I work in a factory.

Y'all's jobs sound fucking awful lol

Don't. Nobody cares cause they're all pretending to be busy too.

Find a job where you're never without something to do.

Play BitBurner, use Links browser.

I'm seldom observed, and I just wear my headset all the time and pretend I'm answering the phone if my boss comes along. I do surveys for money on my phone when I have down time. Made 5K over the last few years and haven't paid for anything on Amazon since I began.