Employee Automates His Work & Gets Paid To Do Nothing For 5 Years

Nov 24, 2021 by apost team

Maybe it isn't a dream for everyone, but there are plenty of people who would love to get paid to do nothing. This is the crowd who believes we should work smarter, not harder. And that is exactly what one man did when he used code to automate his work-from-home data entry job and was paid to do whatever he wanted, even sleep, for five years. 

The man shared his story to the Reddit forum r/antiwork after he lost his job. He began his post by explaining that the work was very simple, and he realized it could be automated. He then hired a freelancer to create a code that would automatically input all of the data for the job. For the first couple of years using this code, the man spent some time each day monitoring the work but eventually even stopped doing this. 

The Reddit user explained that he was able to watch movies, go out with friends or just sleep while the code was running. Because the job was at night, he was eventually able to get a better-paying day job. The man decided to keep his data entry job at the same time since it required no effort, and he still got paid in full. This plan worked so well that the man even earned promotions at the data entry job while doing nothing every day. 

Eventually, the company developed its own code to do the work, and the man was let go. However, he feels successful because he was able to go on doing nothing at work for five years, and they never suspected a thing. Keep reading to learn more about this genius plan and what other users had to say about it.

The Reddit post has almost 100,000 likes and begins with: "My 5-year getting paid for doing nothing is over. I'm heartbroken. I got a night-shift job doing data entry back in 2015. I quit and needed something fast at night while I looked for something better during the day. It was a data entry position, meaning I get an email containing the details of an order and proceeded to input the information into our system. Right after my training I knew this is something Autohotkey can do." 

Hiring a freelancer to create the code was expensive but easily paid for itself with time. "I don't know how to code that well, so I went to a freelancer website to hire a guy to develop the code, it cost me a two-month salary...I just had to input how many orders I want to process per hour," wrote the man.

He continued, "For the first 2 years, I would check if there was something the code cannot do (usually took me less than 5 minutes) and then I would let the computer run. Then I added those functions to the code as well. I was doing such a remarkable job I was offered promotions a few times, new positions during the daytime that I'd reject stating I'm a very introverted person that enjoys this type of position."

In the end, the man lost the job but not because of his lack of work. He explained, "It took them 4 years to develop new software that will replace my data entry position. Since clients were granted access to our new system. A few weeks ago I got my severance check, I was told I could keep the laptop and office equipment and that I'm welcome to apply for any position I want."

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The man never came clean to anyone about what he was doing. "I never talked about that with anybody (in my life), not even my family, even my wife wasn't sure what my job was about with that other company. Now that it is over, there you go, my darkest work secret," he shared. 

The man did try to tell the truth to the company once, but they didn't want to listen. He said, "I did try to schedule a demonstration of 'my code,' I think that was back in 2017. The regional manager told me they're very busy dealing with the important stuff, just to keep doing the good work I was doing.... which I did until the day I was let go."

Commenters on Reddit were impressed with the man's story. One person wrote, "Slow Clap. You could have retired and it would never matter to the company they paid for the results with no complaints."

Others pointed out that he would have ended up losing his job regardless, so it was good the man didn't waste his effort. Another commenter said, "Actually, imagine OP didn't automate his job. Imagine he was working (hard) for 5 years, always getting the highest possible numbers, putting his heart and soul into it. He would have been let go all the same."

Even more, people brought up that because the company didn't check up on the man, then it was their fault for paying someone to do nothing. A third commenter said, "If in 5 years no one ever checked in to find out how he was spending his time, it's on them. He got paid to fill in data, he filled in the data. Contract fulfilled."

Do you think what the man did was wrong? Would you automate your job if you could? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your loved ones.