In aerospace, staring at the walls bored out of your mind preceded unemployment. But in the teaching profession, it’s a part of the job…
From the AP:
Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that’s what they want to do.
OK, fess up. How many people who have gotten sick with their jobs (for whatever reason) look at this “rubber room” concept as some sort of glorious new opportunity? Imagine getting paid $70K/year to sit in a room and do nothing. Well, that’s basically what ATK did to me… but they got *mad* when the crushing boredom of it all caused me to do other things. Hell, there are a vast number of people across the land living an “Office Space” existence where they’re getting paid to do nothing…. but they have to look like they’re doing something, and this is damned stressful. Most people, myself included, would rather get paid to do something. But getting paid specifically to do nothing? That could be pretty damned awesome too!
If someone would pay me $70K just to show up and sit in a room for 8 hours a day, I think I’d bring my laptop and bang out a new issue of APR every other week.
