I just read an interesting article about the Working Dead – people who get paid to do nothing. (Or who are getting paid and do nothing, mostly by choice.) I think the working dead are caused by two things:
- People haven’t found their passion. (If you are willing to take a nap for two hours during the work day, either you really don’t get enough sleep or you aren’t too excited about what you are doing.)
- Corporations aren’t managing them effectively. (I know somebody who doesn’t always have stuff do do and yet he’s not allowed to do anything but sit there when he doesn’t have work.)
For a while in college I had a job where I would occasionally spend a couple of hours babysitting the copy machine. (I got so good that I could tell where it was jammed just by the sound it made.) I got a lot of homework and reading done and I’ve often wondered if I would enjoy a job where I could work on something else (programming, reading, etc) while I occupied space at work. I don’t think I’d turn it down if it paid enough but I don’t think it would be very satisfying.