If OP answers the phone and puts out one major fire a year that saves the contract, they are worth paying to sit around all year. The contract with the client

If OP answers the phone and puts out one major fire a year that saves the contract, they are worth paying to sit around all year. The contract with the client is likely 50x their salary, so paying an employee 1/50th to be ready if something goes wrong is very much worth it. My job is similar. I am paid x and I exist to ensure a contract worth 140x goes well. And it goes well 99% of the time, so I fix the 1%. There is no work at the company that I could complete, but also completely ignore immediately it if I need to work on the main contract.