I feel sorry for folks in that situation, either in reality or due to their own mindset.
Never had the feeling that there was nothing to do. Quite the opposite: there was always more doable than time to do it. Had the good fortune to work with and for very good people for the vast majority of my career.
Getting to FI did coincide with running into a few bad apples that were spoiling things at work and made it that much easier to go from FI to FIRE.
I think some of this may have to do with how people perform their jobs.
Some people are very focused and efficient. They grab a task and bear down on it, killing it quickly. They tend to need far less than the "normal" amount of time to perform a task, and hence often find themselves with a lot free time on the job. Since most employers in a traditional setting expect their employees to be sitting in the office for "x" hours per day, these folks need to find fillers (surfing the net, BSing, etc).
Others, doing the same job, looked frazzled for 12-hours per day. Always busy, busy, busy. Never a free moment to relax, it's just go go go. They work long hours. Get in early, leave late. Yet they often get no more done than Mr. "Net Surf." I think it's because these folks are typically NOT well focused- they are easily distracted by other "work" related items (emails, phone calls, meetings, cake parties, whatever). They might be the type to over analyze everything and take forever to make a decision. That can be something as simple as taking an hour to send out a simple 2-paragraph email. They have to use just the right words- they write the email, erase it, think about it, rewrite it, edit it, then finally send it out. In the end, that email is no better than if they had just banged it out in 5 minutes like Mr. "Net Surf." You can imagine how inefficient these kind of folks can be preparing reports or conducing any other long term project.
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.
Two different folks given the same task, with similar final results, but one is done in an instant, and the other turns the simple task into a major production.
It has nothing to do with education or intelligence. My wife is very well educated, high experienced, and very intelligent, but she's one of those "busy busy busy" types- she just makes a mountain out of every molehill. Frets over every minor detail. Can't understand how "net surf" folks like myself can get so much work done and never have to work late.
So which employee is the "good" employee and which is the "bad?" I figure if both are getting the job done for roughly the same salary, there is no "good" or "bad," just different.