The other day I was walking downtown and saw a hammock salesman and figured it was the easiest job in the world. Lie in a hammock for most of the day, every so often get out of the hammock to take someone’s $60.
It was Camus’ “The Stranger”, if I remember right.
Sure- if you’re working in a small theatre where the light board operator actually does that. In large theatres, often someone skilled and better-paid does the programming and the hang-cable-focus process, then moves on and does the same thing at another theatre.
And yes, I exaggerated. But what a light board op does during the run of a show is a pretty easy job.
Male models at the new Hollister store in NYC. They have two young guys, wearing only shorts & sandals (jeans & an open flannel shirt if it’s cooler) standing outside the entrance. That’s all they do, just stand there and look pretty. They’re not bag checkers or security or anything. They’re outside the doors, just standing there.
My dad just told me about one job at a fruit cannery he used to work at up till a few years ago - off-season QA engineer. This job was only in the off-season when the cannery wasn’t running full-steam, but it was super-simple.
Basically, when a new/overhauled canning machine was brought on line, or the recipe changed at all, the QA engineer would run a full batch through the cooker. When the bell rang to indicate the batch was done, s/he would ladle some of the fruit into a can, manually seam it, and write down a bunch of numbers that appeared on a printout corresponding to the batch sequence.
You put it in a box, push a button that clears the cooker and starts the process over again. Wash, rinse, repeat, 20 times in a 12-hour shift. When your shift is over, you walk the box of cans to the plant manager’s office, and clock out for the day.
No stress, no risk of damage or injury due to losing focus. You literally wait for the bell to tell you to do something, do it, and then push a button. And draw union wages + overtime. The worst thing that happens is you spill a ladlefull of fruit. But there’s 200 more gallons where that came from.
And remember, security jobs are only mindless when everything is secure. The trick is to keep your mind sharp for that one time you need to have full situational awareness (if ever). If your employer experiences an incident on your watch, you aren’t necessarily expected to intervene, but you’re damn sure expected to have useful information for the following investigation - or at least to have kept fresh tapes in the recorders.
The summer is the off-season at my old job on the oil patch, which meant that there was nothing to do for four months.
The company didn’t want to lay us off over the summer lest we get snapped up by their competitors so they kept us on all summer while paying us our base salaries.
So this meant:
Monday to Friday - drink coffee and play floor hockey till 11am. Boss gets bored and sends everyone home for the day.
Sat/ Sun - Off
After two weeks of this, six days off.
Rinse, repeat.
So for four months, $4500 per month to do nothing.
My good buddy Jimbo, a Tech Sgt. in the US Air Force did this. If the something did happen - multiple sources (satellite, human intelligence, seismic, etc…), the alarms were really loud.
There’s a shuttle bus here that goes from hospital to satellite parking lots nearby and back and forth and back and forth and back…eight hours of this a day. I just can’t imagine.
I don’t know a lot about it, but I see bus and shuttle drivers switching drivers a lot, and taking more breaks than what I might consider normal. probably so they don’t go crazy and decide to keep driving that bus off a cliff, or something.
A former friend of mine was a taxi driver for several months. He was robbed at least once, punched at least once, threatened with physical violence pretty much nightly, and on several occassions had to call the cops when people refused to pay him (or punched him). He once had to stop the cab and threaten to call the police if passenger A did not immediately stop making threatening, racist remarks to passenger B.
Granted, his shift was usually the “bars are all closing and the drunks need to get home” shift.
I drove a taxi in L.A. for a while, and it definitely was stressful. Not just because of the traffic. At that time you had to be constantly hustling to get business to make enough money, and that meant constantly listening to the radio and knowing which intersections were close (in a huge area). It was extremely mentally draining, keeping all those streets in your head.
And because your livelihood was tied to your radio (it’s different now), you couldn’t leave the car. Sitting all the time was NOT a benefit, but something that caused me backaches.
Actually, the people were generally pretty nice. Not too many children end up in taxis in L.A. One guy did stiff me once, but that was in almost two years of driving.
I agree with the poster who mentioned care-taking jobs, above. The work itself is easy, unless something goes wrong. But they’re often considered “jobs” simply because you have to be in one place nearly 24 hours a day.
That’s just about the saddest thing I’ve ever read.
Television news reader.
You don’t have to be an actual journalist or write the stuff or research anything. That’s all done for you if you want.
You work a couple of hours a day at most.
You read stuff v-e-e-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y off an autocue. Smile if happy story, scowl if sad.
You get to be a “personality” and get invited to all the parties with the hot models, etc, to which you have to go for promo work.
You get paid obscene amounts of money for the above skills/duties.
What’s not to like?
Of course these gigs are not easy to get - you have to have the Official Newsreader Head of Hair, sonorous voice and dripping sincerity. But if you’ve got all that, it’s a doddle.
Here in the UK we have an inordinately famous DJ called Terry Wogan, who recently said
Cite
A journalist had a go at doing it (for real), and said that he found it very difficult, because, amongst other things, he had the director talking in his ear piece while he was reading the news. If a ‘breaking’ story came in, that added to the pressure. Perhaps not the world’s hardest job, but not the easiest either.
But do they tip me off as to which kind of story it is? I’d hate to get that wrong.
It all depends on what you mean by easy. I am physically lazy and found the job of research mathematician extremely easy. Work at my own pace, while taking a walk or at a concert, lying in bed with insomnia (beats the hell out of counting sheep). Of course, sometimes it is nearly 24/7, but then it is so enjoyable.
The son of a friend of mine got a job with Microsoft testing their game machine. Getting paid for what he would gladly pay to do. Not my bag, but that’s why they make vanilla and chocolate.
Sperm donor. 
Sorry but there’s a 2 liter quota.
Drawbridge operator has got to be up there especially on the slow boating routes.