The art of not working at work

[bigstack]

Guys, another good article just on this topic, enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/jobs/bored-to-tears-by-a-do-nothing-dream-job.html

I totally feel this guy, I just had 6 months of absolutely nothing to do and now being back to having a ton to do....

if i had to be in an office with nothing to do and expected to sit there for 8 hours that was strictly enforced... that would be torture... glad i work from home... thus there is no boredom as i can always go do something fun or productive for my personal life.

[kpd905]

Today...I dunno. Counter-productive as it is, I sent a letter to his boss because...you have to pay me more or annoy me less. Period. He'll be spitting mad when he finds out and be even more abusive...and I am SO done putting up with it. Beyond a hostile work environment.

So what happened with that letter?

[windawake]

I just posted this in another thread but I really liked this article: http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

[Schaefer Light]

I nominate the person referenced in the story below for "The Art of Not Working at Work" award.


"A Spanish civil servant who failed to turn up for work for six years was only discovered when he was considered for an award for loyal service.

Former public employee Joaquín García, who was still collecting his annual €37,000 (€31,000) salary, was on Friday ordered by Cádiz city hall to pay €27,000 in compensation.

He had been sent by the city council to oversee the building of a waste-water treatment plant in the southwestern city but records show that Mr García had not turned up for work since 2004."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/12154393/Spanish-council-failed-to-notice-civil-servants-six-year-absence-from-work.html

[pbkmaine]

I used to bring my iPad to work and on light days would have email open on my desktop and a book open on my Kindle app.

[Vertical Mode]

I nominate the person referenced in the story below for "The Art of Not Working at Work" award.


"A Spanish civil servant who failed to turn up for work for six years was only discovered when he was considered for an award for loyal service.

Former public employee Joaquín García, who was still collecting his annual €37,000 (€31,000) salary, was on Friday ordered by Cádiz city hall to pay €27,000 in compensation.

He had been sent by the city council to oversee the building of a waste-water treatment plant in the southwestern city but records show that Mr García had not turned up for work since 2004."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/12154393/Spanish-council-failed-to-notice-civil-servants-six-year-absence-from-work.html

"we fixed the glitch..."

[Scubanewbie]

The "busy busy busy" person could spend hours executing the master plan to acquire just the right donuts for the weekly staff meeting.  She'd check with everyone personally and find out what kind of donut they want and what brand they prefer.  She'd make a list and check it thrice.  It would take her 2-hours, and she'd look busy, busy, busy the entire time.  Mr. Net surf, given the same task, would call Dunkin Donuts and ask for 24-assorted donuts.  Total time: 2-minutes- leaving him plenty of time to surf the net or play.

I joke you not I went to a PTA meeting this week where someone gave a report out on the committee she was leading.  She was in charge of doing a pop-top (from aluminum cans) competition and collecting them from each class, taking them to the scrap yard and planning a doughnut party for the class that collected the most (by grade level).  I am not kidding she took 20 minutes to discuss the doughnut logistics, to the point where I just wanted to shake her and say pick some F'ing doughnuts already!  They're kids, they'll eat anything.  Granted we try to get them cheap/free donations but come on already!  Make the decision as chairperson and report back to the group that it's done!

Anyways, I giggled at your illustration because it is exactly my situation this week.  Back to net surfing while being considered one of the more productive folks on my team :)

[FrugalShrew]

When I was working a cubicle job with nothing to do, I bought some used German textbooks so I could brush up. They were quite ratty, so I ripped the covers off, punched holes in the pages and put them in binders. Anyone looking in my cube saw me hunched over a giant binder.

I LOVE this idea! That's brilliant!

[Mr Dumpster Stache]

I nominate the person referenced in the story below for "The Art of Not Working at Work" award.


"A Spanish civil servant who failed to turn up for work for six years was only discovered when he was considered for an award for loyal service.

Former public employee Joaquín García, who was still collecting his annual €37,000 (€31,000) salary, was on Friday ordered by Cádiz city hall to pay €27,000 in compensation.

He had been sent by the city council to oversee the building of a waste-water treatment plant in the southwestern city but records show that Mr García had not turned up for work since 2004."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/12154393/Spanish-council-failed-to-notice-civil-servants-six-year-absence-from-work.html

Heard this on the radio the other day, I also thought of this thread. :D

Makes you wonder how many "civil servants" could disappear and nobody would notice?  Maybe I should make that my platform and run for president...

[Nickyd£g]

Slightly off topic, but there was a story a few years back of  a car park attendant at a zoo in England, was there for 20 years every day, taking cash and giving people a ticket for their car, who one day never turned up.  After a few days, the zoo called the council and asked them to send them a new attendant.  The council checked their records and discovered they had no employees at the zoo.  Basically, this guy spent 20 years taking in about £2,000 a day for 20 years before disappearing!

[dsmexpat]

Slightly off topic, but there was a story a few years back of  a car park attendant at a zoo in England, was there for 20 years every day, taking cash and giving people a ticket for their car, who one day never turned up.  After a few days, the zoo called the council and asked them to send them a new attendant.  The council checked their records and discovered they had no employees at the zoo.  Basically, this guy spent 20 years taking in about £2,000 a day for 20 years before disappearing!

I wanted it to be true.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/clever/carpark.asp

[gliderpilot567]

I get 90% of my stuff for the week done on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Then the middle part of the week is pretty flexible, which is good because I have tons of family/kid school stuff going on.

I do have a telework agreement, which is awesome. I travel often and bring my work laptop with me... and my work gets done while I am away, so no reason I can't be just as productive working from home. I don't abuse this, but I do find that the occasional day that I stay home with a sick kid, or something like that, I'm far more productive than at work.

[BFGirl]

Activity in my job is sporadic.  At times, I have to hustle pretty hard -- though in truth, oftentimes this is due to my propensity to procrastinate and thereby create the kind of pressure that forces me to act and get unpleasant tasks (which is to say, pretty much everything I do at work) done.  At other times, I can't find enough shit to read on the internet to distract my mind from going crazy out of boredom or anxiety, especially those times when I'd otherwise be staring out the window at a glorious, sunny day, and thinking of the 1,000 other things I'd rather be doing.  But fuck, I get paid an insane amount of money to do my job, all things considered, so I try, try, try to be a good employee.  But holy shit is it a stretch sometimes.

What do you do?

government attorney

Oh God...me too.  (Just reading this thread for the first time)  I can leave stuff sitting for days, literally days, and then do one big push and get all the work for a couple of weeks done in a couple of days. I let it pile up in my in basket so that I look busy.  Otherwise I get comments about how there is nothing on my desk. Other than that I deal with shit as it comes up and has to be handled immediately and listen to coworkers bitch about stupid stuff.  I look at the internet, work on my side business, nap and I got a higher than usual raise this year (basically for putting up with stupid shit that went on last year).  If I could just do my job and leave it would be fine, but there has to be a certain amount of "face time".  One of my coworkers is determined to get another position added in the next couple of years to take part of the workload off me...sheesh.

[RobFIRE]

OK, read through this post over the last few days, some very interesting thoughts. Firstly wanted to post to again say, me too, you're not alone!

In summary I see it as "business inefficiency" cost.

I work for a smallish software company in consultancy. I consider myself amongst the most efficient within my team. There are peaks and troughs between project work, but there are peaks and troughs within projects while you wait for the client to decide something, wait for a colleague to do something etc.

So my overall conclusion is that periods of not having enough work is a consequence of the system of an organization:

* multiple components (teams/colleagues/clients) means multiple dependencies, so there are going to be wait periods.
* bureaucracy/roles/permissions means that the organization has a narrow range of approved tasks available to worker, a worker cannot themselves decide to work on something else.
* risk/cost/hierarchy mean bottom-up initiatives are either forbidden, not sought, or in theory permitted for proposal but in practicality just ignored.
* standard working model assumes people are machines who work solidly for 4 hours, lunch break, solid 4 hours, no distractions, no breaks. No allowance for workers being human.
* people's productivity varies enormously, can be 2x or 3x for two people of same experience on same task with same result
* business value is either not understood, not measured, or measured by proxy instead (a day recorded as 8 hours not 7 is "better" by hours worked metric but the business value is the work done not the hours taken (scenario of non-billable hours))
* wrong metrics mean wrong incentives mean wrong behaviour (long hours in office "better" than short hours with more actual work done)
* lack of detailed organizational planning mean that there is not a (sufficient) pool of new valuable work available when worker is free

So in practicality
* always going to be time waiting for others
* not allowed to pick up something else
* not allowed to create new tasks
* standard working day in an office is a farcical concept
* no allowance in system for efficient workers
* businesses often measure the wrong things to understand value/productivity
* lots of incorrect behaviour, political games, perverse incentives.
* lack of planning means day to day inefficiency and chaos

Of course most places aren't at this very extreme, but it's generally towards that.

So my approach is to:
* do work assigned, be honest about doing it to a decent standard. Only send it back if really not in position to do it (has happened twice in 10 years).
* support colleagues when asked, of course defer if have important task in that moment, but only say no if really not feasible (can't recall when that last happened)
* be proactive and create/progress small tasks within scope of what tasks are permitted (though of course if you have too much spare time these dry up)
* try to recognize what is valuable to the organization and focus on that, within what's realistic.
* as much as possible ignore bad behaviour and bad incentives
* accept that peaks will come and will not be fully (or at all) compensated
* request assignment of background tasks (lower priority but valuable or potentially valuable tasks with some clear scope/objective) to pick up as filler work (have requested multiple times and management didn't really get/want to know about the concept, so I gave up)
* offer flexibility, but take it in return (on basis of apologize later rather than ask permission)
* don't chase assignment of low-value tasks, there is no value to find.

After doing that I still have periods of troughs where hours required is less than half the week. Fortunately, I normally either work in client office or from home. At home have no problem filling any spare work time with the standard items: exercise, reading, research, personal admin etc. In office am of course a bit more limited, in the past I have emailed myself a spreadsheet to work on (data to assess in relation to Wikipedia contributions I make). Hasn't really been questioned, if it were I would just say, yes, taking 2 minutes to look at this while I wait for xx process to finish/xx to reply etc. did you want me to pick up something else?

Overall I look at the troughs in work time as a "business inefficiency" cost to the organization: there are efficient workers who could do more, would willingly do more if the right tasks were available, but cannot due to your system. It's your system, I've told you, so I conclude you are happy with it as is.

Post written in work time of course...

[Schaefer Light]

* wrong metrics mean wrong incentives mean wrong behaviour (long hours in office "better" than short hours with more actual work done)

So in practicality
* businesses often measure the wrong things to understand value/productivity

Good post.  I think you hit the nail on the head with the two bullets above.

[markbike528CBX]

A search failed to find a reference in this thread to Robert Heinlein in his “Time Enough for Love”, "The Tale of the man who was too lazy to fail".  yes it is fiction, but contains some of the same thoughts of the thread.

better than a screensaver spreadsheet is an actual FIRE calculation spreadsheet.  You are almost guaranteed to be looking thoughtful and engaged when it is up, as opposed to actual work.

[Vertical Mode]

OK, read through this post over the last few days, some very interesting thoughts. Firstly wanted to post to again say, me too, you're not alone!

In summary I see it as "business inefficiency" cost.

I work for a smallish software company in consultancy. I consider myself amongst the most efficient within my team. There are peaks and troughs between project work, but there are peaks and troughs within projects while you wait for the client to decide something, wait for a colleague to do something etc.

So my overall conclusion is that periods of not having enough work is a consequence of the system of an organization:

* multiple components (teams/colleagues/clients) means multiple dependencies, so there are going to be wait periods.
* bureaucracy/roles/permissions means that the organization has a narrow range of approved tasks available to worker, a worker cannot themselves decide to work on something else.
* risk/cost/hierarchy mean bottom-up initiatives are either forbidden, not sought, or in theory permitted for proposal but in practicality just ignored.
* standard working model assumes people are machines who work solidly for 4 hours, lunch break, solid 4 hours, no distractions, no breaks. No allowance for workers being human.
* people's productivity varies enormously, can be 2x or 3x for two people of same experience on same task with same result
* business value is either not understood, not measured, or measured by proxy instead (a day recorded as 8 hours not 7 is "better" by hours worked metric but the business value is the work done not the hours taken (scenario of non-billable hours))
* wrong metrics mean wrong incentives mean wrong behaviour (long hours in office "better" than short hours with more actual work done)
* lack of detailed organizational planning mean that there is not a (sufficient) pool of new valuable work available when worker is free

So in practicality
* always going to be time waiting for others
* not allowed to pick up something else
* not allowed to create new tasks
* standard working day in an office is a farcical concept
* no allowance in system for efficient workers
* businesses often measure the wrong things to understand value/productivity
* lots of incorrect behaviour, political games, perverse incentives.
* lack of planning means day to day inefficiency and chaos

Of course most places aren't at this very extreme, but it's generally towards that.

So my approach is to:
* do work assigned, be honest about doing it to a decent standard. Only send it back if really not in position to do it (has happened twice in 10 years).
* support colleagues when asked, of course defer if have important task in that moment, but only say no if really not feasible (can't recall when that last happened)
* be proactive and create/progress small tasks within scope of what tasks are permitted (though of course if you have too much spare time these dry up)
* try to recognize what is valuable to the organization and focus on that, within what's realistic.
* as much as possible ignore bad behaviour and bad incentives
* accept that peaks will come and will not be fully (or at all) compensated
* request assignment of background tasks (lower priority but valuable or potentially valuable tasks with some clear scope/objective) to pick up as filler work (have requested multiple times and management didn't really get/want to know about the concept, so I gave up)
* offer flexibility, but take it in return (on basis of apologize later rather than ask permission)
* don't chase assignment of low-value tasks, there is no value to find.

After doing that I still have periods of troughs where hours required is less than half the week. Fortunately, I normally either work in client office or from home. At home have no problem filling any spare work time with the standard items: exercise, reading, research, personal admin etc. In office am of course a bit more limited, in the past I have emailed myself a spreadsheet to work on (data to assess in relation to Wikipedia contributions I make). Hasn't really been questioned, if it were I would just say, yes, taking 2 minutes to look at this while I wait for xx process to finish/xx to reply etc. did you want me to pick up something else?

Overall I look at the troughs in work time as a "business inefficiency" cost to the organization: there are efficient workers who could do more, would willingly do more if the right tasks were available, but cannot due to your system. It's your system, I've told you, so I conclude you are happy with it as is.

Post written in work time of course...

Great post. +1.

We have some of that "business inefficiency" going on right now, hence my lurking here ;-)

[golden1]

RobFIRE, fantastic post.  So much of my empty time is just waiting for stuff, emails, coworkers, equipments etc...I try to fill it with just general research, learning etc...

I have a tough time with being proactive sometimes because you have to find a way to do it that doesn't intrude on other people's jobs and egos. Sometimes when I try, people tend to get annoyed that I am seeing their existing system that they created as "flawed" in some way and will push back. 

[mathlete]

I just posted this in another thread but I really liked this article: http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

A professor of anthropology wrote a piece about bullshit jobs.

[Papa Mustache]

For those of you worrying about leaving "tracks"in your employer issued computer may I suggest PortableApps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PortableApps.com

You simply need one of the following: a memory stick/thumb drive, memory card and reader, external hard drive, Dropbox account, or just a folder on your computer.

If you go with a folder you can put all the files in that one folder and then "nuke" it in case anyone comes around snooping. Gone will be all your files. They would still be recoverable if someone was that interested so don't store "secrets" in those folders.

At previous jobs where I worried about someone looking over my shoulder so to speak - looking to see what I had bookmarked or the browser history files - using portable browsers (Opera, Firefox, etc) was the ticket. Also on that memory stick was my chat program of choice back then, email program, media player, podcast manager, etc.

I also added a number of utility programs that I relied on to automate my tasks at a previous job. When I went home the memory stick went with me and so did my methods. If I was fired or laid off, the techniques I had developed to make myself more efficient would go with me.

In fact the computer automation did go with me b/c that employer was a bit patronizing to me again when I gave my notice. They made a number of empty promises (again) in order to get me to stay but I left anyhow. Green pastures for certain at the next job.

Add some extensions to your portable browsers like EFF's Badger and HTTPS Everywhere plus AdBlockPlus. TOR might work but it might also attract alot of attention by the IT department. It would hide what websites you were visiting anyhow.

PortableApps creates a pseudo laptop on a memory stick (thumb drive) that carries all your files and software with you. It sets up folders on the memory stick for everything (docs, pictures, music, videos plus you can add any of your own).

With the giant capacity memory sticks available these days you can carry all your favorite PDFs, podcasts, music collection, etc to minimize what you are connecting to or downloading via your office computer.

I once got dinged at a previous job b/c my downloads were noticeably higher than my coworker's. I was an engineer, not IT but I was teaching myself Linux and downloading a different ISO file of ~700MB every few days as I tip-toed through the various distros. MUCH faster to do that at work than at home where I had still had dialup. ;)

I blamed the data consumption on podcasts, streaming music (Radio Paradise), PDF catalog downloads directly related to my job, etc.

I had automated much of my job and needed to stay awake/interested and I did it in the same ways everyone else has described. Learning new skills, reading websites, etc. Linux helped me get my next job which included a smattering of IT support and coaching of coworkers on IT matters.

I think we (MMM) ought to all combine forces and create one company. I think a company built with MMM participants would be unstoppable. ;)

[AZDude]

Guys, another good article just on this topic, enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/jobs/bored-to-tears-by-a-do-nothing-dream-job.html

I totally feel this guy, I just had 6 months of absolutely nothing to do and now being back to having a ton to do....

Sounds my life about six months ago before I couldn't take it any longer and jumped ship. I actually was so bored I DLed an NES emulator was playing old video games during the day. I also walked around the complex, read books, etc...

It was horrible, but everyone would always look wistfully when I talked about how I had nothing to do at work.

[AZDude]

* offer flexibility, but take it in return (on basis of apologize later rather than ask permission)

And seriously, this. The whole post was great, but this stands out to me. If you want work flexibility, the best thing to do is make it or yourself. If you are known as a guy who works on stuff at night sometimes, no one is going to question when you leave early. Well, unless you work for a sociopath or the local government.

[steveo]

I'll state what I do at work. I do my work and I do a decent job but I don't turn up to meetings that annoy me. This week I worked 2 days of the week at work and finished early both days and then 3 days just answering the phone when required or responding to emails at home.

One of my managers (seriously there are 3) gave me feedback that I need to be more visible at work and attend the stupid meetings. He said the project is going good but you need to be seen. The big bosses are at these meetings.

The problem is that I don't give a shit. I do want to get a bonus which is typically worth about $10k per year but I'm seriously thinking is it worth it. I wonder if they would sack me if I continued just turning up 2 days a week. If they did I think they would have to pay me out.

I should add that the amount of stupid shit that we do each week is amazing. It's not like I'm completely avoiding all the crap.

[Basenji]

This thread is great. Just read the whole thing.

When I started my job I was fairly busy, but, as I have always done at work, I started tweaking processes: the email template for the common tasks, the checklists, the binder of master info, the browser bookmarks of efficiency. I got faster with no loss of quality. I noticed insanely wasteful work practices by my co-workers doing the same job. For a while, I tried to offer my ideas to co-workers, but they were not appreciated. In some cases I got hostile responses, even from my boss, who wanted me to give him only my ideas and not to share them directly with the team. So, of course I stopped offering ideas. He never seemed to notice I stopped.

I established myself over several years with clients and internal folks as really good at my job, got great reviews. I was very proactive for a few years, but no one ever asked me HOW I worked or was interested in my efficiencies. The slowest, stupidest, screw-up guy was still there in the same job as I was.

Now years in, I'm cruising. One huge thing is having done the job long enough I know everything, have seen everything. In fact, when something is truly new, it's exciting (for a moment). I do have actual busy days, but often not. When I had downtime in the first few years, I would tell my boss and offer to help out others. He said over and over, no just stick with your program's tasks. So, now I no longer offer. For much of a recent month, I mainly watched "Law and Order" reruns, looked at dog videos, and read library books and the forum. This work situation does not cause me any distress now. It used to and then I found MMM, and realized I could stop working in a few years. Less than 3 to go. Amen.

[markbike528CBX]

. ...., looked at dog videos, .........

at least they were not cat videos ( a Cat person saying that)... :-)

[Basenji]

. ...., looked at dog videos, .........

at least they were not cat videos ( a Cat person saying that)... :-)

It's possible a cat or two snuck in...

[couponvan]

This thread is great. Just read the whole thing.

When I started my job I was fairly busy, but, as I have always done at work, I started tweaking processes: the email template for the common tasks, the checklists, the binder of master info, the browser bookmarks of efficiency. I got faster with no loss of quality. I noticed insanely wasteful work practices by my co-workers doing the same job. For a while, I tried to offer my ideas to co-workers, but they were not appreciated. In some cases I got hostile responses, even from my boss, who wanted me to give him only my ideas and not to share them directly with the team. So, of course I stopped offering ideas. He never seemed to notice I stopped.

I established myself over several years with clients and internal folks as really good at my job, got great reviews. I was very proactive for a few years, but no one ever asked me HOW I worked or was interested in my efficiencies. The slowest, stupidest, screw-up guy was still there in the same job as I was.

Now years in, I'm cruising. One huge thing is having done the job long enough I know everything, have seen everything. In fact, when something is truly new, it's exciting (for a moment). I do have actual busy days, but often not. When I had downtime in the first few years, I would tell my boss and offer to help out others. He said over and over, no just stick with your program's tasks. So, now I no longer offer. For much of a recent month, I mainly watched "Law and Order" reruns, looked at dog videos, and read library books and the forum. This work situation does not cause me any distress now. It used to and then I found MMM, and realized I could stop working in a few years. Less than 3 to go. Amen.

I totally agree with that comment.  I realized that all I received for my efficiency was more work.  At first, I thought they would see the inefficiency of the other people, but the powers that be don't.  Therefore, I now benchmark product versus the others at my level versus actual hours.  This thread has been very helpful with good ideas.

[babysnowbyrd]

Came across this video on youtube, and seemed appropriate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1M0R2KPG2A

[grizz]

[/quote]

A professor of anthropology wrote a piece about bullshit jobs.
[/quote]

Haaa. Still, check out Graeber's books on debt and bureacracy--great stuff.

[dsmexpat]

My department is having a shakeup because the faculty member who runs the place has been headhunted by another university. The other two are the chair who thinks he's already retired and doesn't like to come in and another guy who is on a sabbatical. I wanted to call in sick Monday morning but as I sat in bed deciding what I'd say I realized that there is actually nobody for me to call in sick to. I'm now completely unaccountable.

I came in late, kept the lights off in my office, closed and locked the door and watched Netflix all day.
Tuesday, pretty much the same.
Yesterday I came in a little after 12. Nobody said anything.

The struggle is real.

[couponvan]

I have been assigned the "arduous" task of reviewing the work completed against the work we still need to complete on a project I roll off of at the end of this week. The project is slated to go through the end of May. 

Apparently while I felt like I wasn't working very much at all (because system developers have not finished their tasks for me) I've managed to complete 80% of the work product to date.  This means the other team members have done way less than even myself.  Note - I am part time, and they are full time.  So glad I'm not going to be the one at the end of the project holding the bag!!

[Northwestie]

Wow - this thread is pretty amazing.  Certainly no slackers where I work - we don't want folks killing themselves, but we want efficiency.  I think the thing is that everyone likes the cool work we do so it's kinda fun to get paid for this stuff.

When I worked for the feds the best way to avoid work was to do lousy work - then folks would send you less and less work until you were like that guy Wally in the Dilbert comic - just walking around all day talking and drinking coffee.

 I know a guy who works at University of Washington - been there for 25 years doing tech support.  I guess it's not overly demanding so he will occasionally find an empty office, turn out the lights, put on eye shades and take a 1.5 hr nap!! Holy cow!

[littleqt]

Wow, this hits home. Most of my work takes place at the beginning of the month with the first day averaging a straight 13 hours of work with no breaks. Later in the month it's not unusual I do less than an hour of work in an entire day, and I try to work.

My solution has been to work on an online web development course during the slow hours, but I'm afraid that my coworkers or boss will see. I do work for a tech company, but am not in a programming profession, so it could come off like I'm trying to switch careers. Because of this fear, I don't spend all the hours at work in the most productive way. Most of my coworkers watch videos or read reddit. I would like to switch into a development role where I do more.

[ender]

Let me just say, I am jealous of all those who are involved with high-5 figure or low-6 figure jobs with excellent job security, with many hours of free time per day (some with state pensions!). Congrats, guys and gals, you've made it! Now, where can I find one of these jobs? :P

I think that people sort of idealize this (doing nothing at work) and if given the opportunity to trade a job like that for a similarly compensated job with engaging/interesting work, most who have sat in a job like that would quickly jump.

The trick is to find an engaging job that doesn't overwork/overstress you out. That is... nontrivial.

[steveo]

The trick is to find an engaging job that doesn't overwork/overstress you out. That is... nontrivial.

Yep. This is my issue. The job itself is okay but it easily tips into the overwork/overstress category. I can spend time doing nothing now but all of a sudden it's chaos. I've learnt to be very careful in pushing back on too much work.

[mak1277]

Let me just say, I am jealous of all those who are involved with high-5 figure or low-6 figure jobs with excellent job security, with many hours of free time per day (some with state pensions!). Congrats, guys and gals, you've made it! Now, where can I find one of these jobs? :P

I think that people sort of idealize this (doing nothing at work) and if given the opportunity to trade a job like that for a similarly compensated job with engaging/interesting work, most who have sat in a job like that would quickly jump.

The trick is to find an engaging job that doesn't overwork/overstress you out. That is... nontrivial.

I'll take boredom (and free time/flexibility) over stress and long hours any day.  I don't know anyone in my field that has an engaging job that doesn't involve stress/overtime.

[notquitefrugal]

Relevant Hidden Brain podcast on boredom:
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/14/470416797/even-astronauts-get-the-blues-or-why-boredom-drives-us-nuts

[Digital Dogma]

Everyone at work was notified that their expected minor 2-4% raises have been suspended indefinitely until  financial performance improves. I suspect there are a lot of people practicing the art of not working at work today, and possibly a few calling out with a sudden bout of "fuck this".

[Kitsune]

Everyone at work was notified that their expected minor 2-4% raises have been suspended indefinitely until  financial performance improves. I suspect there are a lot of people practicing the art of not working at work today, and possibly a few calling out with a sudden bout of "fuck this".

At the last company I worked at, where I was a team manager, the highest possible raise someone could get (and they had to be 100% superstars EVERYWHERE and you'd have a meeting with the VP before being able to give it to them, so you could justify such an expense) - the HIGHEST rate, right - was 4%.

I have no idea how more people weren't in The FuckIts.

[Digital Dogma]

I have decided to use 4% of my time to update my resume and tweak the formatting till it looks just right, if they wont give me a raise for good performance at least I can give myself a shot at increasing my income in the future at another company.

[Mr. Green]

Everyone at work was notified that their expected minor 2-4% raises have been suspended indefinitely until  financial performance improves. I suspect there are a lot of people practicing the art of not working at work today, and possibly a few calling out with a sudden bout of "fuck this".

My favorite is "rectal glaucoma." Can't see my ass coming to work today.

[thek1d]

I used to work in public accounting and put in a lot of long nights. About 1.5 years ago I jumped ship to industry and most of my day is very boring, albeit I do taxes. This time of year we are pretty busy, but most of the year I can get away with doing very little. In fact, this week I was supposed to prepare an estimate and be done by today. This morning I start working on it and 15 minutes later, boss comes in saying nevermind they don't need it anymore. Classic!

My department is having a shakeup because the faculty member who runs the place has been headhunted by another university. The other two are the chair who thinks he's already retired and doesn't like to come in and another guy who is on a sabbatical. I wanted to call in sick Monday morning but as I sat in bed deciding what I'd say I realized that there is actually nobody for me to call in sick to. I'm now completely unaccountable.

I came in late, kept the lights off in my office, closed and locked the door and watched Netflix all day.
Tuesday, pretty much the same.
Yesterday I came in a little after 12. Nobody said anything.

The struggle is real.

You are my hero.

[Vertical Mode]

Everyone at work was notified that their expected minor 2-4% raises have been suspended indefinitely until  financial performance improves. I suspect there are a lot of people practicing the art of not working at work today, and possibly a few calling out with a sudden bout of "fuck this".

My favorite is "rectal glaucoma." Can't see my ass coming to work today.

LOL. You just made my day!

[AZDude]

My department is having a shakeup because the faculty member who runs the place has been headhunted by another university. The other two are the chair who thinks he's already retired and doesn't like to come in and another guy who is on a sabbatical. I wanted to call in sick Monday morning but as I sat in bed deciding what I'd say I realized that there is actually nobody for me to call in sick to. I'm now completely unaccountable.

I came in late, kept the lights off in my office, closed and locked the door and watched Netflix all day.
Tuesday, pretty much the same.
Yesterday I came in a little after 12. Nobody said anything.

The struggle is real.

Congrats.

I worked for a place where there were a bunch of layoffs. I survived somehow, despite my job not being meaningful in any way, and suddenly realized one day that my former boss had been let go and no one had replaced him. Eventually found out that because we were such a small, niche group, we had been assigned to some high level manager we never saw. He had no interest in supervising us, and we had no interest in telling him what was going on.

[Yaeger]

I worked for a place where there were a bunch of layoffs. I survived somehow, despite my job not being meaningful in any way, and suddenly realized one day that my former boss had been let go and no one had replaced him. Eventually found out that because we were such a small, niche group, we had been assigned to some high level manager we never saw. He had no interest in supervising us, and we had no interest in telling him what was going on.

I don't know about anyone else, but to me that sounds like the perfect job.

[Warlord1986]

My department is having a shakeup because the faculty member who runs the place has been headhunted by another university. The other two are the chair who thinks he's already retired and doesn't like to come in and another guy who is on a sabbatical. I wanted to call in sick Monday morning but as I sat in bed deciding what I'd say I realized that there is actually nobody for me to call in sick to. I'm now completely unaccountable.

I came in late, kept the lights off in my office, closed and locked the door and watched Netflix all day.
Tuesday, pretty much the same.
Yesterday I came in a little after 12. Nobody said anything.

The struggle is real.

Teach me your ways, O Master.

I work in county government. It is the most boring job imaginable. I am forced to sit at a desk all day. I got a $400,000 grant, and was lined up to get another one (seriously, I had SCDOT on the phone telling me they'd like to fund the project, and I had a university pledging $5,000 in cash, and $10,000 in student labor) and that project got canned by my boss, so I can't even work on interesting stuff. So now I sit in an office and listen to death metal and Turkish language lessons on my phone. Sometimes I apply for other jobs.

[albireo13]

I work for a large company (makes electric toothbrushes and high tech stuff) as an engineer and have witnessed the gradual proliferation of useless work.
I m always busy at work so, shear boredom doesn't strike.  However, 90% of what I do is busy work, whose main goal is CYA documentation.  Very little work
has any bearing on product quality, product improvement, or customer satisfaction.
I am close to pulling my hair out at work over the tidal wave of useless meetings and corporate process deadwood.
Every minor decision takes weeks and involves consensus among all sorts of people who don't even know what the issue even is.

It's a brave new world.  Censensus-driven decision making is a way of avoiding accountability. 

I crave actual work that makes a difference.

The frustrating part is that it pays well and I just got a raise and bonus.  The "golden handcuffs" feel tighter and tighter each year.

Rob

[solon]

I work for a large company (makes electric toothbrushes and high tech stuff) as an engineer and have witnessed the gradual proliferation of useless work.
I m always busy at work so, shear boredom doesn't strike.  However, 90% of what I do is busy work, whose main goal is CYA documentation.  Very little work
has any bearing on product quality, product improvement, or customer satisfaction.
I am close to pulling my hair out at work over the tidal wave of useless meetings and corporate process deadwood.
Every minor decision takes weeks and involves consensus among all sorts of people who don't even know what the issue even is.

It's a brave new world.  Censensus-driven decision making is a way of avoiding accountability. 

I crave actual work that makes a difference.

The frustrating part is that it pays well and I just got a raise and bonus.  The "golden handcuffs" feel tighter and tighter each year.

Rob

The real risk here is not that you might be stuck in a high-paying job for a long time, it's that you might not.

When a project or division gets so bloated that they are putting out very little real work, the higher-ups will eventually notice. "Now, what's this group doing again? We sure are paying them a lot of money..."

[rantk81]

I feel like I am in a "golden handcuffs" situation of a do-nothing team at work too.
I recently received an annual bonus (!) and a decent annual raise, despite not feeling like I produce much of value at all.
However, I'm paid in an extremely high percentile of workers with a similar background.  I imagine finding another job with such a low level of stress and a similar amount of pay, would be darn near impossible.  I just hope I'm not letting my skills get rusty, in case the layoffs come before I finally reach my FIRE goals.

[AZDude]

I feel like I am in a "golden handcuffs" situation of a do-nothing team at work too.
I recently received an annual bonus (!) and a decent annual raise, despite not feeling like I produce much of value at all.
However, I'm paid in an extremely high percentile of workers with a similar background.  I imagine finding another job with such a low level of stress and a similar amount of pay, would be darn near impossible.  I just hope I'm not letting my skills get rusty, in case the layoffs come before I finally reach my FIRE goals.

Maybe look at getting some side income while at work. I used to do freelance writing at my old jobs. I always thought about doing some freelance programming while at work, but never had the guts to actually do it(since... you know, that would be an instant fireable offense and maybe cause legal trouble for any clients).