There are lots of jobs out there where it is really busy sometimes and really slow other times, but you’re expected to keep yourself busy all the time.

What would you do if you were at a job where there was literally nothing to do, and it lasted for over a year?

That is what happened to the government workers in this story, so they found ways to spend their time, including sleeping at work.

Check it out.

How my friend got paid to find creative ways to sleep for 19 months.

I have a very good friend who maliciously complied her way into getting paid for essentially doing absolutely nothing for 19 months.

It was a government job, no surprise there.

She and her colleague worked in a state office that kept track of plague cases among prairie dog towns.

They were super busy trapping and testing all summer but once winter comes, prairie dogs hibernate so they ran out of work.

Hopefully they have something to do soon.

They told their boss via email there was no more to do for the season that first autumn and their boss responded by telling them to stand by for reassignment.

So… they did.

For months.

They didn’t want to be accused of theft by just clocking in and out and leaving so in the very beginning, they organized some storage spaces (very slowly), cleaned their office several times, organized paperwork and that sort of thing.

When they ran out of stuff to do, they started sleeping, doing school work, sudoku, what have you.

Initially, they slept in turns so someone was always available if anyone came to check in on them but when it became obvious no one was coming, they stopped bothering.

Well, it was good while it lasted.

By summer the following year when the prairie dogs came out of hibernation and she thought her work might resume, the whole office (all the employees, in every department) received an email from someone high up informing everyone that particular department had been cut.

Don’t know if it was unfunded, or they got all the data necessary the previous summer, or that particular pet project of some politician was forgotten about.

But somewhere along the line, the state fish and game axed the project for whatever reason.

Nothing was mentioned in the email about her job status so her and her coworker continued to go in and do nothing.

She’d tell me about making a giant binder rubber band chain and roping two office chairs together facing each other to sleep in the seats (she’s only 5ft tall so she fit relatively well), making a “nest” under her desk, and moving the large-ish copy machine out of its cabinet and sleeping inside.

They made sure the security people saw them periodically throughout the day and they were on camera.

Anyone above them paying attention would have noticed but no one ever took the time.

They dodged folks in the other departments for fear they’d get told on and just minded their own business (they rarely had much interaction with other employees anyway).

The jig is up.

Eventually, she ran into her “boss” at a show and she asked my friend where she had found new work.

My friend didn’t lie and said she still worked there.

Where?

Where you left them.

She said you should have seen her face when the lady put the pieces together and realized what was going on.

The jig was up and she and her colleague were let go that following morning via email before they went in.

Because they had technically worked there for so long (I think two years was the threshold), they both got a little severance package.

I suppose they deserve it.

In case you’re wondering, they got to keep their pay since:

1. they had proof they informed their boss they had no work and she clearly saw the email and responded

2. they still showed up

3. they did exactly what they were told,

4. it wasn’t their job to make sure they actually had work to do.

They both qualified for unemployment to boot.

Neither of them used the unemployment since they had both been feeling like the gravy train was sure to derail any day so they had new jobs lined up.

They were really able to milk this system for a long time.

Read on to see what the people in the comments say about this.

Government waste is expected.

This person got lost after a merger.

That would have been stressful.

Here is a similar story.

This person says it happens a lot.

I can’t believe how long they got away with it.

I bet it was hard wondering how long it would last, though.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.