What's the worst thing a boss has ever asked you to do……

What's the worst thing a boss has ever asked you to do for your job?

Richard Muller, Prof Physics, UC Berkeley,author "Now, The Physics of Time" (Norton, 2016)

157.6k Views

Look busy.

It was summer, I was in high school, and I had a summer job as a busboy. My job is to clean the tables, sweep the floors, take out the trash. If I finished, just pretend to be doing the same thing. Customers don't like seeing employees idle.

I would have liked to chat with the other employees or to talk to the customers. No. That looks unprofessional. Just look busy.

It reminded me of the Disney film Cinderella, in which Cinderella has finished her tasks, and her stepmother says, "Then do it again."

It helped me understand why solitary confinement is the worst punishment for prisoners. Boredom is worse than pain.

Of course, for many years (decades) now I have not had a boss. That's a fortunate position for a tenured professor; even our nominal bosses know they can't really tell us what to do.

I think I am pretty lucky that this trivial problem is the worst a boss had done to me, compared to the other answers I read for this question.

Vocabularies：

busboy：n. 〈美〉餐馆工（从里学到）；

idle：(of people) avoiding work; lazy （指人）无所事事的、懒散的、懒惰的: an idle student 懒散的学生；

Cinderella：

• girl or woman whose beauty or abilities have not been recognized 灰姑娘、（美貌或能力未被赏识的）女子；

• person or thing that has been persistently neglected 长期被忽视的人或物、被埋没的人

• This department has been the Cinderella of the company for far too long. 这个部门在公司不受重视由来已。

solitary：alone; without companions 单独的、独居的、独自的: a solitary walk 独自一人的散步；（solitary confinement (口语作 solitary)：隔离监禁）

confinement：being confined; imprisonment 限制、监禁；

• confine：

• ~ sb/sth (in/to sth) keep (a person or an animal) in a restricted space 限制在某空间以内；

• (of space) limited; restricted （指空间）有限的、受限制的；
  

boredom：n. 厌倦、令人厌烦的事物；

• bore：

• make (a hole, well, tunnel, etc) with a revolving tool or by digging 挖、掘、钻、开凿（洞、井、隧道等）: bore a hole in wood 在木头上钻个洞；

• make (sb) feel tired and uninterested by being dull or tedious 使（某人）感到厌烦（因单调或乏味）: I'm bored: let's go to the cinema. 我闷了，咱们去看电影吧。
  

tenured：adj. （美）享有终身职位的；

• tenure：permanent appointment as a teacher, etc in a university or some other institution （大学或其他机构中教师等的）长期聘用: granted tenure after six years 六年之後受长期聘用；
  

nominal：existing, etc in name only; not real or actual 名义上的、不实际的、有名无实的、不真实的: the nominal ruler of the country 名义上的国家统治者；

trivial：(常作贬义) that has little importance 不重要的、琐碎的: a trivial mistake, loss, offence 小小的错误、损失、罪过；

突然想起了某海发过的关于工作的这个小故事：

一人去向一位老人订购凉席，便问老人这手工编织的多少钱一张，老人说35，这人又问那订200张的话多少钱一张呢，老人回答说40。这人惊讶不已，订的多怎么不便宜反而更贵了呢？这时，老人抬头望着天，说：“因为重复的做同一件事情会让人觉得很烦躁。”