Working It27 Sep 2022

Office slackers: the truth about doing nothing at work

Regular listeners might be forgiven for thinking employees are mostly overwhelmed and overworked. But is the world actually full of people looking artfully busy? Employees who may be slipping under the radar in big organisations? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to David Bolchover, author of ‘The Living Dead: Switched Off, Zoned Out – The Shocking Truth About Office Life’, who spent several years employed at a large organisation doing nothing. And she hears from Leo Lewis, the FT’s Asia business editor based in Tokyo, about a backlash in Japan against the phenomenon of the hatarakanai ojisan, the old geezer (or, less commonly, his female equivalent) who manages to get away with doing no work.

Want more?

The rise and rise of Japan’s unsackable slacker https://www.ft.com/content/4012c8f4-cb16-4bf5-ac25-a88c1aae8a51

The threat of boredom at work https://www.ft.com/content/bccf5464-0996-11e7-97d1-5e720a26771b

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Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Manuela Saragosa. Produced by Novel.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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