Every shift started with a passdown where the departing shift would go section by section to brief the incoming shift on key events and ongoing operations.
You'd get your workstation up and quickly coordinate with your departing shift counterpart, then take control of the mission.
Your actual work for the day depended heavily on what shift you were assigned because here it could be day and there it could be night, etc.
Sometimes, you'd need to knock out required training related to intelligence analysis, foreign intelligence collection, and general professional office related things.
You'd usually eat lunch at your desk unless it was a slow day and then you'd have time to eat in the cafeteria.
Eventually you'd reach the end of your shift and do the passdown as the departing shift.
Caveats, this was a contractor, but when I worked for the NSA as a soldier in the army, my day included normal military things like formations and physical training.
Another caveat, they didn't much like me poking around in VMs or writing arbitrary python scripts to improve my workflow as those weren't authorized under my contract. Our entire company got an email that luckily didn't name names.
Note that the downtime was spent improving work skills and increasing cultural knowledge related to our Area of Responsibility.
The same dull stuff as most other jobs, it's just that you keep feeling you should be showering more.
(Of course, if the Constitution were still a thing, it'd be a good and noble job.)
Every shift started with a passdown where the departing shift would go section by section to brief the incoming shift on key events and ongoing operations.
You'd get your workstation up and quickly coordinate with your departing shift counterpart, then take control of the mission.
Your actual work for the day depended heavily on what shift you were assigned because here it could be day and there it could be night, etc.
Sometimes, you'd need to knock out required training related to intelligence analysis, foreign intelligence collection, and general professional office related things.
You'd usually eat lunch at your desk unless it was a slow day and then you'd have time to eat in the cafeteria.
Eventually you'd reach the end of your shift and do the passdown as the departing shift.
Caveats, this was a contractor, but when I worked for the NSA as a soldier in the army, my day included normal military things like formations and physical training.
Another caveat, they didn't much like me poking around in VMs or writing arbitrary python scripts to improve my workflow as those weren't authorized under my contract. Our entire company got an email that luckily didn't name names.
Note that the downtime was spent improving work skills and increasing cultural knowledge related to our Area of Responsibility.