Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It wasn't like he could only come in for 4 hours a week and the rest he could go fishing. He had to show up to the office and hang out there.
The real stress isn't from working, it is from not accomplishing what you wish to do. You can have a lot of work to do, and it can be enjoyable because you are able to accomplish things. It is stressful when you can't accomplish anything. This is why people who are unemployed have stress, even if they are able to pay their bills. I have a friend who took early retirement and was going crazy with having nothing to do he told me. It was more stressful than the job he had.
Remember, in some places they punish employees by taking work and responsibility away from. No one wants to be put off in a corner with nothing to do. This guy's job wasn't intended as a punishment, but it might as well have been.
For the OP's friend's situation is easy to solve. He can ask his boss for more work to do or use those free times to study something to improve and upgrade himself. And after a couple of years working there he can either to move up in the company if there's an opportunity, or move on to somewhere else with more work and more pay.
"In some places they punish employees by taking work and responsibility away from" - yes, that is stressful too because that can be a sign of they are going to fire those employees because they dislike those employees for some reason, and they decrease the workload, and they turn around saying those employees cannot do their job productively or there's not enough work around there. Some people in the management are very tricky; they can say anything they want to. But they don't always win though.
And I can tell you what real stress is like: when you have already had quite some workloads on your shoulders, and your manager/leader takes some work off from her favourite employee (even that employee has so much time to go around and gossip) and adds it on you. And when you dare to speak up, that manager/leader says you are insubordinate, and that manager/leader threatens you, micromanages you, keeps going after your back and picks on you constantly. I'm just saying about the situation that really cause you real stress. Anyone in that situation really needs to be brave and speak up, don't bend backward, don't keep your mouth shut because that kind of manager/leader is a bully, and if you don't stand up for yourself, you will have to suffer silently and become depressed. You need to find someone who can help you. You need to stand up for yourself and encourage others to stand up against bullies. Bullies are actually very coward; they just bully the ones who are timid, they don't dare to bully the brave ones.
I would call a 'cushy' job one where you have around six hours or so of work to do every day, and the work is always manageable and doesn't stress you out. Then you can take an hour lunch break, and if you have an hour-long meeting to sit through, you're not stressing about the work piling up. A high degree of job security is also a big part of 'cushiness,' since some people with easy jobs are always worrying about getting laid off.
I agree that extreme boredom in the workplace is really unpleasant. Reminds me of some days in the Army when we had more soldiers in the office than were needed.
I also knew a guy who worked in IT for an insurance company- he was told "Don't worry about finishing your project quickly," i.e., don't make the rest of us look bad.
This is really more an issue of the OP's friend's personality, adaptibility and confidence than anyting else.
For years I had a boss who spent 90% of his time browsing the internet. When he left I cleaned out the cache on his computer and it took a whole day to erase all his cached web pages. He was perfectly content earning a good salary and doing almost nothing.
I once worked with a guy whose whole purpose in life was to avoid working. He would take pride in how much time he could disappear and goof off. His best day was just doing about 10 minutes of actual work. That is what his motivation on the job was, to not work.
I had an IT job for decades that I was able to automate so that I only spent a few hours a day doing actual work. But it was critical work and as long as things ran smoothly the bosses were happy. None of them had a clue about what work was actually required. I had a friend in a similar autonomous situation and we would take long walks during lunch every day and once or twice a week would leave during the day to have scones and coffee at a bakery we liked. I enjoyed the job tremendously and I was on flex time and could avoid the rush hour commute, working from about 10AM to 6:30PM. Also there was no dress code. The only IT people I ever saw wearing a suit and tie were management.
I also had an IT job where I was busy every minute of the shift. I never took lunch breaks, just coffee and bathroom breaks and ate at my desk. It was a 7PM to 7AM overnight shift and I came in 20 minutes early and left 20 minutes late on my own time to get briefed by the outgoing guy and brief the incoming guy. It was highly technical and every day was like riding a rocket ship. I enjoyed that tremendously as well.
Now I've been retired with nothing pressing to do for about 10 years. Virtually all my time is my own. Enjoy that as well too.
I work in accounting. I am mainly busy during the first week of the month doing period end types of work. Those who work in accounting knows what I mean...
The rest of the time, I am busy for like 2 hours day. Fortunately, I am not one of those people who feels the need to be all about work.
I'm not trying to disagree with you, but that really isn't the same. 4 hours a week, finished before lunch on Monday and then nothing to do the rest of the week. But this was week after week. He didn't even have a busy full day or week, which you have. You are not taking into account the variety you have too.
He worked in a very large IT department for a major insurance company.....Getting up early in the morning, putting on a suit to go hang out in the office with no real work to do for most of the time there. Not even meetings.
Sounds like a tall tale. IT department ...and suit? Bwahahahaha.
Sounds like a tall tale. IT department ...and suit? Bwahahahaha.
Not a tall tale. It was an insurance company where it was located in a downtown area and people wore suits. This is an old story from his career. He is in his early 60s I'd estimate. If I mentioned the company, I'm sure everyone here has heard of it.
The point of the story is that people who wish for a cushy job don't really know what they are asking for. It isn't always a dream.
A dream job is where you are actually doing what you want and getting results.
Sounds like a terrible situation. I've been there, though not nearly as bad as what the OP is describing. I tried to ask for more work, asked if there was anything else I could learn, but usually my supervisor or anyone else I asked just said they didn't have anything. It's hard for someone who's never been there to really understand how stressful not having anything to do at work really is. Now if you could do your work and take the rest of your time off that would be great, but if you have to be at your desk it's horrible. Time passes so slow day after day. It can drive you crazy. At least the OP's coworker could walk around to try to pass the time. I can't imagine only having 4 hours of work during a 40 hour work week.
Anyone who has ever had an office job where you have so much free time on your hands with nothing to do all day already knows that time stands still in these positions. Waking up every morning and knowing that this day is going to be a repeat of the prior day, and so on, can lead to anxiety and depression. It is always better for someone to stay busy and not sit idly waiting for each day to finally be over. I totally can relate to what your co worker went thru, but not many people can, as most people are overworked and can barely get their jobs done in 8 hours.
Sounds like a tall tale. IT department ...and suit? Bwahahahaha.
IT departments and suits did go together some years back. I was in IT as a software developer and wore suits. Had a whole collection. Many of them three piece suits with a vest. That was in the 1980s and 1990s. Some time around 2000, the powers that be decreed that wearing casual clothes makes people more productive. So if you worked for companies like IBM, or EDS in that era, you wore suits. So what seems funny today was deadly serious yesterday.
I have worked in cushy jobs the past 20 years and will continue to do so since I have no interest in working outside
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
