Who doesn’t like getting paid while doing whatever you like? I’m going to allow for a loose definition of occupation. For example, residents of Alaska get about $1000 per year for residing, which is all downtime.
Hosting a talk show probably counts. Kelly Ripa brags about working just an hour a day.
Does a lighthouse operator get to do anything they like for most of the day?
Fireman
It’s my understanding from things I’ve seen programmers post (and IANAP, so I could be very wrong) that there’s a fair bit of downtime in that occupation, usually while a program is compiling. Actually, I don’t even know if programs still need to compile. I’m just going on past reading…
Most city ff’s have a pretty full workday, there is tons of little maintenance and cleaning items to be done on equipment. Many cities also have engine companies running low risk occupancy inspections. Hydrant testing, training drills, all add up.
I probably play more games in a day than I ever work. I own a computer shop. Granted I would probably be better off financially if I did put nose to grindstone a little more often
Military?
More specifically, those guys sitting in ICBM silos waiting for the Russians (or the President) to do something stupid.
Maytag repair man.
Obligatory Robot Chicken Reference. 
Night auditor in a small hotel. Total number of rooms 50. Tonight is very slow. I have 0 rooms occupied.
Programs still need to be compiled.
I design industrial controllers for a living, and do a fair amount of programming related to that. The main controller I work on has its own proprietary operating system. Fifteen years ago, it took 9 hours to compile the entire thing. So you didn’t do that unless you absolutely had to, and that was generally the last thing you’d do at the end of the day (and you’d come in the next day and hope it didn’t bomb out somewhere in the middle overnight). That operating system has gotten significantly more complex over the past fifteen years, and now on a modern compiler it takes all of about 3 minutes to compile.
Back in the old days you wouldn’t compile the entire project during the day because it took too long. So it was broken up into chunks that you could compile in about 5 to 10 minutes in most cases. Making a library change that affected numerous modules could require hours of compiling though, so you had to schedule your time carefully and there was often a bit of down time waiting for stuff to finish.
These days, everything compiles so quickly that there is very little down time.
I work from home as a corporate travel agent, and it’s inbound customer service. Corporate travel slows WAAAY down over the holidays. Furthermore, I work overnight. So it’s always slow, even though the calls I do get are usually from overseas, which are more involved and take longer. Luckily, I get paid for my time spent logged in and waiting for a call- some places don’t pay for that, or only pay around 70-80%.
From about the 23rd-30th of December, I had zero calls.
[a bit off topic, but I just gotta know:]
Why is your profession always called “night auditor”?
Do you have different tasks than what the desk receptionists on the day shift do?
And I assume they will have plenty of down time today too,since your hotel is at 0 rooms occupied.
I’ll answer - the night auditor usually does the same work as the other desk clerks, but also runs the end of day paperwork for the hotel - balancing the cash, finding the accounting mistakes, etc. In most modern set-ups, the property management system computer program does all of the real work, and there are very few mistakes to reconcile, but you still have to make a few clicks and fix a few mistakes and print up some nice reports. When I was auditing last - 105 room hotel - I could typically run the audit in 5 minutes, but it might take up to 30 minutes if someone had made a major mistake.
Typically, most nights I’d get paid 8 hours to do one hour’s worth of work, and that included setting up breakfast.
As a stagehand, a good portion of my working time I’m really on-site and on-call, but not actually busy. I’m on headset, ready to do whatever needs doing, but I get a lot of reading done, too.
A bit too vague, I’d say. I work over 110 hours a week and none of that is dead time.
Thank you for fighting my ignorance! I was ready to agree with Rick.
Security guards.
Heating boiler watch. (nonproduction). You are there incase something goes wrong. And that happens once or twice a year.
Well yes but then that’s probably why they hardly exist any more. Idle microprocessors are cheaper than idle lighthousekeepers.