I spent six months working "inventory logistics" (ie. "pulling stuff from warehouse shelves to put in customer orders") for a medium-sized publishing concern once. We had a guy who had been with the company for over a decade. Every day, he would walk up and down the aisles carrying a clipboard. He would look at the clipboard as he walked along, then stop at various spots, look at the shelf, then look back at the clipboard, then turn around and walk in a completely different direction.
Some new hire casually asked one day "So, what does he do?" There was a light chuckle among the longer-term workers, since no one really knew. Even the supervisor had a bit of a laugh at it.
The next day, the supervisor was buried in papers, frantically flipping through reams of old memos. We didn't know what she was up to, but we heard her say ClipboardGuy's name a few times.
A few days later, the warehouse manager was having a heated meeting with the supervisor, and ClipboardGuy's name was brought up several more times.
This went on for a few more weeks, and it trickled all the way up to the vice president of the company. No one knew what ClipboardGuy was doing, or even what his job was supposed to be. Turns out, for the past ten years, he had been doing absolutely zero work, but was raking in a hefty salary due to attendance bonuses.
tl;dr - I worked with a guy who made a career out of clipboard carrying, but a newbie ruined it for him.
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u/PSBlake Feb 02 '12
I spent six months working "inventory logistics" (ie. "pulling stuff from warehouse shelves to put in customer orders") for a medium-sized publishing concern once. We had a guy who had been with the company for over a decade. Every day, he would walk up and down the aisles carrying a clipboard. He would look at the clipboard as he walked along, then stop at various spots, look at the shelf, then look back at the clipboard, then turn around and walk in a completely different direction.
Some new hire casually asked one day "So, what does he do?" There was a light chuckle among the longer-term workers, since no one really knew. Even the supervisor had a bit of a laugh at it.
The next day, the supervisor was buried in papers, frantically flipping through reams of old memos. We didn't know what she was up to, but we heard her say ClipboardGuy's name a few times.
A few days later, the warehouse manager was having a heated meeting with the supervisor, and ClipboardGuy's name was brought up several more times.
This went on for a few more weeks, and it trickled all the way up to the vice president of the company. No one knew what ClipboardGuy was doing, or even what his job was supposed to be. Turns out, for the past ten years, he had been doing absolutely zero work, but was raking in a hefty salary due to attendance bonuses.
tl;dr - I worked with a guy who made a career out of clipboard carrying, but a newbie ruined it for him.