- Yet another pause, then... "Are you really a workplace safety employee?"
I recognized something in his voice, and decided to take a shot. I knew I was putting everything on the line - but it felt as though I was at that point regardless of whether or not I admitted my status to this stranger on the phone. I took a deep breath, and answered a very confident...
"No..."
"Are you with HR?" was the stern reply.
"No..."
"Then what do you do?"
"Nothing..."
There was yet another pause, and a flash of heat cascaded over my skin. There was a barely intelligible snort, almost laughter, then he replied...
"Me neither..."
One of most compelling reads in a while. I couldn't stop reading. Amazing
Amazing read. I've had an office job temporarily, and even though it was only for two months, I was already spending half my time not really working hard by the end of it. Redditing the time away, as I was too efficient to fill my time. This only seems an extreme of the same situation, it's quite strange how businesses can misfunction like that.
As someone that currently works for a Fortune 50 organization and has worked for other Fortune 100 companies. I can say that it definitely happens. What is more likely to occur though is that someone will have a job that everyone is aware of but has very little to do. Many positions have tasks that come in fits and starts, meaning that the employee will be doing next to nothing until quarter end financials are due etc. these types of jobs are in abundance. A huge irony is that organizations will have positions that are created to help increase efficiency and study job behaviors/effectiveness within different departments. The irony is that these positions are often the ones with employees doing the least amount of actual work. The reality is that most people will do as little as they need to do in order to keep or sustain their job. It's very rare to find an employee that will go above and beyond what is expected of them. Most people will gladly hide in a corner and receive their 40 K a year plus benefits.
The post on YCombinator had more than 1 similar story, and hey, it's happens often enough that there are services to audit a company and find ghost employees.
This is my new favorite saying!In the end, I realized I was rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic
Day one on a corporate job my new boss came to me and said, "Look, I'm really busy, so I don't really have time for you. So, if the plant manager comes around, do me a favor and look like you're doing something." Then he gave me a really great performance evaluation a few months later!