What tasks in your workplace or office could you tolerate but would drive neurotypicals nuts?

1.  My work taking a 1991 Census Bureau table of contiguous counties and revising it for 2006.  Tedious comparison of database rows to maps.

2.  Entering a development server's subfolders into an Access database I built to document the current status of the server (this is up to five, six, seven directories deep).  Good thing the form is Visual BASIC enhanced to tell you what the parent folder is when you are typing in a new folder.

39 top level folders have over 2000 folders in them.  

3.  OH MY GOD!  Entering files inside each file folder.  If you have nothing to do this will keep you busy for a month or two.

NTs running screaming from the computer keyboard/monitor!

Yeah, I think I could handle something like that.

In my workplace, we have to shred paper. Others think it is very boring, but I love it.
I love the sound of the machine, and the paper slowly going down. Though I don't like the sound when it is shredding paper that is too thick, because the machines engine is straining, and the sound that is produced is thick and very nasty sounding.

It is also very interesting when I shred a very small paper, and it disappears very quickly. lol.

I think it is weird that they think it is boring, I could shred paper all day.

I have gerbils who do my paper shredding for me!  I love to watch them, and the sound they make.

When I was at school I had a Saturday job in a shop and my favourite task was folding the towels and keeping them tidy on the shelves.  Everyone else hated doing that, but like hundred4ever with the shredding, I could happily spend a whole day folding the towels, and arranging them according to size and colour.   If anyone was looking for me they always looked in the towel section first!

Oliver North could have used you at one time.  I remember an old bulletin board site (call in with modem) with ANSI graphics:

White House:
Flash on screen: Ollie, is that you?
Flash on screen: shred shred.  Then, shred shred.
Flash on screen: Strange things are going on at the......

In my workplace, we have to shred paper. Others think it is very boring, but I love it.
I love the sound of the machine, and the paper slowly going down. Though I don't like the sound when it is shredding paper that is too thick, because the machines engine is straining, and the sound that is produced is thick and very nasty sounding.

It is also very interesting when I shred a very small paper, and it disappears very quickly. lol.

I think it is weird that they think it is boring, I could shred paper all day.

Well, I'm somewhere between aspie and NT and I just love to sort/organize.  I'm a real neat freak and one job I had, I worked at a residential home for the elderly and I re-organized their huge linen room (er......without being asked ) I re-folded each and every sheet, pillowcase, duvet cover and towels and colour co-ordinated it all.  It was a mess beforehand and drove me nuts.  

I also did their store-room where they kept all the bleach and cleaning equipment.  The head housekeeper loved me

My daughter got the bright idea of delivering advertising pamplets once. Funny thing is I rather enjoyed the mind numbing task of organizing them. Folding and stacking. She only delivered them once and enlisted my son to do it for her.

Sorting large boxes of frozen herring according to size at an animal rescue center.  Also stuffing thousands of envelopes for mass mailings.  Very meditative and you can't get in trouble for doing something wrong.

I love sending out my Xmas list, it is a mass mailing of 100+ people.  I stuff that many envelopes.

Christmas is a time of year to remember that one life touches so many others, informally or formally.

I don't send to large bureaucratic organizations like my health insurance.  But their are several classes of Christmas mailings:

Class 1: Friends, Church, and Family: They get a newsletter too of my life in 2008 review.  Adding an address change to the newsletter, to the envelope, and to the card lets them know loud and clear that I moved too.    

Class 2: Around the 'Hood as a Customer (you'll catch my drift)
                The Supermarket, and separately to the Pharmacy
                A 24-hour supermarket
                The Gym
                Blockbuster
                Arlington Diner, two Subway locations, another sub shop, two McDonalds locations, Pizza Hut
                The Bank
                The Vet (and now have to add the Animal Hospital too)
                My Primary Care Doctor
                My Psychologist and separately to the Psychiatrist
                My Optometrist
                My Dentist
                My Barber
                My Dry Cleaners
                The brokers (one man, one woman) who manage my two mutual funds
                The local insurance agency manager covering my rental and auto
                The local H&R Block office
                Local 7-11
                The 24-hour laundromat (though I basically use it in an emergency)
                The organic market where I dump my depleted batteries and depleted flourescent bulbs

Other

                Membership in a Greenbelt, MD consumer cooperative (though I am inactive since I left Greenbelt), also an opportunity to tell them I moved

Here's a list of boring jobs that I have done in the past which would probably drive NTs nuts:

1.  Data Entry.  I mean doing absolutely nothing but data entry all day long.  That was a part-time job I had while I was at college.

2.  Mail Sorter. Sorting the mail at the post office into boxes dependent on the postal code/village name.  (That was a Saturday job I had while I was at university).

3.  Data Mapping.  This meant checking that data has transferred correctly from one IT system to another.  It involved checking a random sample of customer records on both systems (the old and new system) to ensure they match.  It was a very boring job, especially if you were working on it all day long, and I remember some of my co-workers saying they didn't understand how I could handle it without going crazy!  I could bear it because I knew that if I did well, I would eventually be allowed to do more complex work in the future.

4. Manual Data Extraction.  I once had a job which involved doing nothing but copying and pasting data all day long!  I had to access each individual customer record on the system, one by one, copy certain pieces of data, and then paste them onto a spreadsheet. It was only marginally more exciting than Data Mapping!

Fortunately, no-one in our company has to do Data Mapping or Manual Data Extraction any more, as those jobs have now been automated!  The work I do now is much more interesting, thankfully.

As part of my job I'm the NVQ Assessor for the Night Teams.

I enjoy cross-referencing my candidates' evidence, but I think it would probably drive lots of poeeps absolutely bonkers!

B

I would prefer to sit at a bench in a small
back room fixing broken electronics, not
"going out in the field" meeting customers
and then having a reaction/tantrum/meltdown
because they triggered something with me,
ie, being mean, or talking mean causes me to
scream at them or throw or kick things, I don't
have a problem with this, its just how I react,
it is the Bob and Carole NOrmals (NTs) that
look like they have the problems with it.

I always had a problem dealing with customers. The small talk, the hidden meanings, inneuendo etc that comes with being a proper, full blown social NT.

I prefer doing my own thing, away from others and to be recognized that I can make a valuable addition anywhere I go. Thats why I'm trying to get into chemistry research which I'm waiting for official comfirmation that will be the case.

Apart from that we do have a business where my wife, the NT does the social things and I do the checking etc (antfraud, where an eye for detail is crucial) when required. This seems to work quite well.

Should be multimillionaire soon from nothing yet again. Second time around.

Good luck with that, Micgrace.

When faced with small talk, I always pick the subjects that seem least interesting.  They please people, I think.  I ask about the weather, and then say I shouldn't complain, because I'm originally from Buffalo.  This goes over quite well.  I can't believe people actually want me to say that ***, but it has saved my butt on many occasions.

I do ok with people that are searching me out to obtain knowledge, or that I have been instructed to train.  Training people is easy for me; entertaining them without a training topic makes me very, very anxious.  I need a process or a strong shared interest to get along with strangers.  I have no idea how I ended up a secretary, but I am very glad that I am almost done. (9 more months 'til grad school!!!)

On the things I like to do note,

I like:
sticking stickers on things like file folder tabs
alphabetizing.  forever and ever.
Sorting magazines from 1982-2001.  Hundreds of volumes.  In roman numerals. I LOVED it.
Explaining how to do something.  Again. And again. And again. And...well, you get the idea
Research of any kind.  Please, make me look things up!
Books.  Anything related to books is good.  I will shelf them, I will search them for information, I will talk about them, I will read them aloud, I will copy them word-for-word.  Whatever you want.  I love books! (I have considered being a librarian but I'm too noisy when excited, and books excite me).
Shredding stuff (I agree with the poster who liked to watch it eat paper.  I even like the feeling when it sucks it from my hands!)

I do not, however, like data entry.  It takes your whole brain.  These activities leave room for song lyrics and poetry and writing ideas.  I like activities that leave me room for only one idea or feeling, so that I can focus and not worry.  Some of my best stories come while I am shredding and sticking stickers.