MAN: Sure, I'll admit to goofing off. Everybody does.

WOMAN: I goof off all the time, yeah I do.

MAN: Do I goof off? Ah... a little bit but not really.

    There are at least two obvious places where goofing off occurs. One is at home.

MAN: I do, until my wife gets after me.. by just not getting the jobs done that she's
lined up. Procrastinating... I say I'll do it a little bit later, and it carries on to 
a week later.

WOMAN: Yeah, it's really easy to do nothing at home: watch soap operas that you never 
even watch, you don't know who the characters are, you don't know what's going on.

MAN: Go to the bathroom. And stay in there away from the family and kids..

FLYNN: Reading material?

MAN: Sure... sure, or just stayin'.

    It's another story to goof off on the job- getting paid for doin' nothin'-

MAN: Maybe cut out from work early and go see a movie or go to a bar for a drink.

WOMAN: Where I used to work, people would take long coffee breaks or they would go to 
the bathroom a lot just to get out of their work, or they'd go someplace to smoke a
cigarette.

WOMAN: Oh, yeah at fast food places, you can really goof off. When you're young, you're
working with kids your own age, you can screw around. And your managers are young, too, 
so they don't care.

WOMAN: Yes, there was a girl once, and I happened to be the floor lady on the job. 
And she'd come in late, and she had Art punch her time card. She was getting paid for
something she wasn't doing, and I caught her.. and she went..out of a job.

WOMAN: Honestly, I have a secret friend and by computer we talk back and forth when I
should be working.

    Many feel guilty when goofing off, maybe because they know they're getting away with
something. Others feel they deserve the break.

MAN: No, I'm retired. I don't have that problem. I don't worry about anything like that.
That's all I do now is goof off. I worked two jobs most of my life. I think I'm qualified
to goof off. I watch TV, hit a few golf balls, play a little euchre with the boys.

WOMAN: I'm too old, crippled up with arthritis. I goof off all the time.

FLYNN: By goofing off, what do you do?

WOMAN: Knit.

MAN: I'm going on 75 years old but I still work. What do I do? I work in the yard, that's
my goof off time.

    When asked to name a profession synonymous with goofing off, here's what some said-

MAN: I'd say government workers.. especially when you're talking drivers, bureau or
taxation.

MAN: Bankers.. attorneys.

FLYNN: You wanna qualify that some how?

MAN: No. (laughs) Which means all my banking buddies and lawyer buddies will hang me for
that

MAN: Oh, all them white shirts! (laughs) The guys who wear white shirts, do very little..
the bosses, supervision-type people.. people who aren't productive.

MAN: You want a good answer don't you?

FLYNN: Whatever you wanna do..

MAN: All our politicians. All of 'em, starting with President Clinton. Congress are the
worst. They're the worst goof offs and overpaid.

    Seems that every office or job site has a number one goof off.

MAN: We were service people and what this one guy would do is.. he would go and park his
car in a park and have a picnic, and be there. And whenever people would call him in, he
say "I'm out here.. I don't have time for anything else, but I'm working, so I'll call 
you back. And all he was doing is out in his car, on the clock.

    True, a person can't be working and serious all of the day, though some abuse the
priviledge.

MAN: Lets put it this way: there aren't too many people putting in an honest day's work
for an honest day's pay. I'm talking about goofing off on the job.. getting lost in the
men's room, hiding in corners, grabbing a smoke when they're not supposed to be smoking,
stuff like that.

FLYNN: Some people really work at goofing off then?

MAN: Oh, yeah.. they make a hobby of it!

    Bill Flynn, WXXI 1370.