Ever been paid to do nothing?

Sure, its called an inheritance.

Nope, but tell me where I sign up and I will be all over it.

I spent about six months “working” from home for an educational services company. I got into some bad habits and ended up quitting from boredom before they realized that I wasn’t expected to actually do anything.

I have actually had more than my share of jobs where I have been paid to do next to nothing. For a while I worked in a hotel gift shop. During any given eight hour shift I would help about four customers, the rest of the time was up to me to fill. I had another job as a loan processor when no one was getting loans. We did crosswords puzzles and played a lot of Trivial Pursuit. One day my sister and I actually sat and watched the entire mini-series It. I also had a job where I was in one office and my boss was in another. About once a month for a week or so I was slammed with work, the rest of my time was spent goofing off. All things considered I would rather be incredibly busy then have nothing to do, it makes the day go faster and gives a sense of satisfaction.

I have a basically work at home job that I’m really thankful for. Working in your pajamas ftw.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities you did have to be born for that one, though ;D

My staff is well trained.
I have them to the point that if my office door is closed.

Do not wake me.

yeah, its why I’m on Fluther all day

I was a Master Control Assistant at the local Community College. I spent 15 minutes on Monday morning swapping out tapes. The other 39 hours and 45 minutes every week were spent eating, playing on the Internet, and sleeping in the field behind the school. And I was paid really well for doing nothing.

I kinda have that here. Check in books & movies…check out books & movies. Cover & process the new ones…delete the old ones from the computer. The rest of the time it’s IMing, fluther & Facebook. Can’t beat it. :D

@SuperMouse I had a job like that, and it was awesome. We had satellite radio so there was always great stuff to listen and dance to. One of my favorite memories was when my coworker was dancing, and suddenly she started doing this swimming-like dance in the middle of the store. So I made chomping shark jaws with my arms and chased her. A lot of the time, I brought in my laptop and watched movies. Because there was so much time to kill, we became friends with the other store and restaurant employees around us. We basically spent the whole time shooting the shit and eating stuff, and helping one or two customers. The only time I really did work was maybe half an hour spent on closing.

TO WHAT MATTER!?!?!?!?! i wish!

When I was in college 20+ years ago, I worked in a Photomat kiosk in a supermarket parking lot. I was rarely busy, so I listened to cassettes and studied.

I had a job like that once. I just had to sit in a house, and make sure nobody got in. House sitting. What a life. I would love to do that again. I didn’t have to water the plants, and I didn’t have to clean. The people had a maid, and a gardener.

Lifeguarding.
I got paid to play in a pool with kids. Easy! Besides, barely anyone came.

Almost every desk job on campus amounts to sitting in front of a computer and refreshing Facebook (or Fluther), but we get paid $10 an hour.

Of course, the school can afford that when tuition is $4632492374982.97 every year.

The closest I have come is when there is a power outage in the area. I have to drive a generator to the location, hook it up, turn it on, and wait till power is restored to the area.
It’s basically baby-sitting the generator, so that no one steals it.
Doing this earlier this year, I had 3 14 hour shifts sitting around, doing nothing.
Usually, I would rather be busy.

No, most of my jobs that had very little actual work still involved my time, and that is not “nothing” as far as I’m concerned. I was a receptionist for a company that rarely had any visitors, so I was paid to sit at a desk for hours, with no incoming phone calls or visitors. I still had to be away from the things I really wanted to do for the full day.

This question reminds me of the people that say Truck drivers have it easy, you just sit and drive all day, what’s so hard about that?

I am an event staffer at my university which basically means I am an usher at athletic events (soccer, football, and volleyball). Except for the first and last 20 minutes or so of my 5-hour shift when we set up and break down the stadium, I do next to nothing.

@YARNLADY good point.

Right after I graduated college, I took a job as a picture framer for this one man shop in a quiet little town. After the ownerspent a week training me, he went back to the other shop he owned (thirty miles away).

With the exception of two phone calls a week, I never heard from him again – and the place was dead! I had maybe two-three customers a week (and more than four days a week free).

This went on for about a year.

I completed my design portfolio, read a lot, built a few models.

I worked at a small tanning salon for a few months that literally got about 2 customers a day. I would sit and chat on my phone all day or do homework. Needless to say, the business closed down but it was nice while it lasted.

I worked for a government agency for about 6 months. That was such a page from the Peter Principle. The boss had the budget and I think the more people he had working for him (whether he needed them or not) the more important he felt he looked.

I am sure the government is run more efficiently these days and that isn’t happening any more.

I took care of a quadriplegic man for a couple years. He slept days. I would go to work at 11pm. On weekends during the spring/summer months he and his family would often go to rodeos. I would sit there and watch a big screen TV for hours all alone or sleep until he came home, racking up my pay all the time. On nights he was home we would talk and watch TV while he did graphic design on his computer. He was only a couple years older than me, so we got along really well and always had something to talk about. Then at 5 am I would feed him a snack and wake up his dad to help me transfer him to the bed. I’d get him all changed and set up, clean his ventilator etc and then go home. I enjoyed that job a lot, but I got engaged and moved to another town and had to quit. I always wished I could have had that job back when we moved back to town, but I didn’t want to work nights any more.

Nothing is free especially when it comes to politics.
These people are paid for something that just isn’t public knowledge.

I was a Mental Health Assistant in a psych hospital. All I did was observe behavior and chart. I sometimes talked to people, but not as a part of therapy. It was the worst job EVER!!! I never really got to be a part of seeing people get better. We just sent them home when their insurance ran out.
This was over 20 years ago, before they even had Prozac.

1st week on the job while I was being trained-in by the person I was replacing, we went to a customers house for a service call. The guy knew my partner looked at me and said “Here you can play with the dog” So instad of working on the call I played with his dog for 2 hours.

When I was in high school I worked as an usher at a movie theater. When I worked the closing shift there was nothing to do but eat popcorn, play video games, and sit in one of the movie houses and watch the movie. It would be me and the manager (who would be locked in their office).

geez… nvm wat i said just wow…i so wish i could have some of these jobs when im old

I had a job like that for a few months back in the ‘80’s. I was a security guard at a time share campground in rural Texas. If someone came in with the right sticker on their vehicle, I waved them by. If they had no vehicle sticker, I sent them to the sales office. There were on average about 2 cars per shift. I watched reruns of “Dallas” and wrote songs.

Become an IT in the navy. Now theirs a job that you don’t work at all.

I essentially got paid to do nothing one summer interning for the Navy. We literally sat around watching the minute hand of the clock make revolutions. The cool helicopter trips sort of made up for it, but no way was I going to sign up to work for them after that.

I’ve had jobs where there was too much to do, and I’ve had jobs where there wasn’t enough to do, and I would far rather have a job where there was too much to do. The old folks use to say that, “The devil makes work for idle hands,” and there’s a great deal of truth to that.