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I'm surprised none of the comments (so far) are critical of the author. What's the point of mooching if you're not going to use that time productively? Eventual

I'm surprised none of the comments (so far) are critical of the author. What's the point of mooching if you're not going to use that time productively? Eventually he'll have to find a new job, and not very many places want candidates with 5 years experience in pretending to work. I can understand a few weeks of slacking, but any longer than that and I would go stir-crazy. Instead of playing games or browsing the web, he could have used his idle time to find an interesting job or hobby. He could have read books or learned a new language (computer or human). He had an opportunity to make money while improving himself, and he squandered it. Edit: I think it's likely the story is exaggerated, but I've been in a similar situation. I used my free time to interview for other jobs and study/practice/learn. It's so easy to fall into the trap of wasting time in exactly the same way every day.

Tichy 16y ago
I wouldn't be able to stomach that situation, but I wonder if the hypothetical author is just much more mentally sane than I am. Maybe the story is really about sanity.
- AngryParsley 16y ago
  Shii isn't very sane. He was perma-banned from the Awful Forums in 2005 for umm... bad things. Google for shii somethingawful if you want to find the thread. It's definitely not safe for work.
  - Tichy 16y ago
    Thanks for the info - I'll skip the Googling... :-) Or maybe there is a lesson in that? Ie you can stomach the most awful situations by letting off steam on another forum?
  - metamemetics 16y ago
    shii did not write it
    - AngryParsley 16y ago
      D'oh. My bad. Thanks for correcting me.
dagw 16y ago
>not very many places want candidates with 5 years experience in pretending to work. Except as far as any one else was concerned he had 5 years of experience "running the company" and he had the Vice President as a reference to back him up on that. I don't think it would be any harder for him to get a job than if he'd spent those 5 years actually doing his job
- AngryParsley 16y ago
  How does the saying go? I think it's, "The half-life of a CS degree is 7 years." (Yes I know he got his masters in physics in the story.) Being out of practice, he'd probably have trouble answering interview questions and writing code.
  - dagw 16y ago
    He's a manager, he doesn't have to write code. He just has to show up at meetings and tell people to tell people to write code.
    - gaius 16y ago
      Dagw if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times: write some code. And where's that TPS report?
seanc 16y ago
I've also been in a somewhat similar situation a few times at startups that were circling the drain, waiting to die. Some people goofed off. Some drove themselves crazy with stress about the future. Others went off and learned new things. After the doors closed, guess who found new work most easily?

Tichy 16y ago

I wouldn't be able to stomach that situation, but I wonder if the hypothetical author is just much more mentally sane than I am. Maybe the story is really about sanity.

AngryParsley 16y ago
Shii isn't very sane. He was perma-banned from the Awful Forums in 2005 for umm... bad things. Google for shii somethingawful if you want to find the thread. It's definitely not safe for work.
- Tichy 16y ago
  Thanks for the info - I'll skip the Googling... :-) Or maybe there is a lesson in that? Ie you can stomach the most awful situations by letting off steam on another forum?
- metamemetics 16y ago
  shii did not write it
  - AngryParsley 16y ago
    D'oh. My bad. Thanks for correcting me.

dagw 16y ago

>not very many places want candidates with 5 years experience in pretending to work. Except as far as any one else was concerned he had 5 years of experience "running the company" and he had the Vice President as a reference to back him up on that. I don't think it would be any harder for him to get a job than if he'd spent those 5 years actually doing his job

AngryParsley 16y ago
How does the saying go? I think it's, "The half-life of a CS degree is 7 years." (Yes I know he got his masters in physics in the story.) Being out of practice, he'd probably have trouble answering interview questions and writing code.
- dagw 16y ago
  He's a manager, he doesn't have to write code. He just has to show up at meetings and tell people to tell people to write code.
  - gaius 16y ago
    Dagw if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times: write some code. And where's that TPS report?

seanc 16y ago

I've also been in a somewhat similar situation a few times at startups that were circling the drain, waiting to die. Some people goofed off. Some drove themselves crazy with stress about the future. Others went off and learned new things. After the doors closed, guess who found new work most easily?