Work and Taxes

[VisualThinker7@zzzzzzz]

1.    Many of us who work in research, commercially or  for the government,
have to spend long hours at our workplace when we are simply  monitoring
processes, or waiting, and there is actually nothing for us to 'do'  during that
time.

2.    One of the essential benefits of a job such  as mine - arriving at the
office at 6 AM and often staying until 8 PM, is the  way in which I am
permitted to use the waste time during the day.

In the earlier years, before the internet,  I'd read the entire NY  Times
 from cover to cover, and listen to most of the Howard Stern show, while  sitting
and waiting for the printer to spit out the results of my work. Or  waiting
for a courier to show up on his motorcycle with a box of floppy disks,  which
then had to be copied, one by one, onto our computer.
Later in the day I'd watch 15 - 20 minute segments of TV shows, while
keeping one eye on the flashing red light of the hard drive - this is what  studying
psychology in grad school gets you - and I'm employed by a well known
marketing research firm!. Everyone in the firm knows that my work has real  tangible
value to the company.And most of the time it looks as if I'm doing  nothing.

No one has any business criticizing someone who logs on or posts messages
 from an email account provided by a government agency or private corporation.
You simply DON'T KNOW how much work the person actually does; or how their
day is structured by the requirements of the job, to force them into idleness
for hours on end.