Biscuits
I'd been failing to get an academic job for a while, and was running out of money; I reached the point where I'd decided to consider another career-path.

A post was advertised with the local council. It paid well, and was so undemanding that, when I was offered it, my biggest stress of the day had to do with looking busy once the real work was over - that is, between mid-morning and 5pm. I would frequently go out to "visit sites" simply to give me something to do - my job had a vague project management aspect to it, and so my alibi was sort-of legit.

The council was divided into five or six big departments; the head of each department was answerable only to the Chief Executive. Hence the Heads of Department were really rather powerful. I got a call one day from the HoD of another department, asking me to come to his office. I was pretty sure I wasn't in for a bollocking - that would have been from my own HoD, surely? - so was curious to know what he wanted. Maybe he'd noticed my talents, and was going to offer me a promotion and a move into his (slightly more interesting) department.

Nope.

He'd discovered that I had a philosophy background. He was an autodidact - he'd left school at 15, and, since then, steadily collected degrees in his spare time. He'd just finished a PhD in philosophy. He, too, was massively under-employed.

And so, from that point on, we had used to meet for several hours a week simply to talk philosophy at the council's expense.

It would appear that senior management had a fairly generous biscuit budget, too.

Bad management? Naaaah. It was, from my point of view, ace.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 11 Jun 2010, 15:11, 2 replies)

I pay your fucking wages
Workshy cunt. ;)
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Fri 11 Jun 2010, 15:50, closed)

Hey: I did the work!
What was ridiculous was that I was on a salary, but still had to clock in and out. That's why I stuck around doing nowt. It was a waste of my time and theirs, though.

I lasted a month in the job, btw, before I got offered more work and a HUGE pay cut from a university, and took that.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 11 Jun 2010, 16:16, closed)