[luckyjimm]

My current job is working 2.30pm to 10pm in the word processing department of a law firm. So, I type up handwritten revisions the lawyers have made to documents, as well as transcribing tapes, and scanning in outside documents and converting them in to house style. I work alongside between one to three other people, all middle-aged women.

I would say I work 40% of the time. From 2.30 to 5.30 there is never any work to do, so that's sweet. From then on it can get busy, and I don't want to seem like I'm the only one slacking off, but we have the radio on and I make myself as many cups of tea as I like. And I do a lot of surfing too - 2+2, or writing posts to my blog, or Facebook (though not so much since I have no friends ofc!!), or just news sites or whatever. At 7.30pm I go for a half hour break to eat a free hot meal in the canteen (a perk of working evenings).

The good thing about this job is I don't feel like I'm accountable to anyone. The lady who's my boss is a sweetie and finishes at 5pm anyway. And since it's shift work, I needn't feel intimidated by the piles of documents being brought round through the evening by the postroom boys, since it can always be done by the night shift people after I've gone home. And, if there's no work coming in, it's perfectly acceptable for me to sit doing nothing - you don't go looking for work.

So, yes, there are some office jobs where you really don't have to do much. Depends whether you want any kind of job satisfaction or sense of being on a meaningful career path - if not, and you have plenty of things to do to fill the time you're spending not working, then I say go for it!!!!

By contrast the lawyers I work for I'd say spend 90% of their time working, as opposed to the 40% or less we do, plus they do many hours of unpaid overtime. The junior ones get paid just twice as much as we do. Is it worth it? No [censored] way. Not for the first few years, anyway. But one day they'll be rich, I guess, and we won't.