Doing nothing: a dream job or not?

It almost sounds like a dream: getting paid to drink tea with people or walk through the park. You probably think I'm joking now, but I'm dead serious, because this is exactly what the Japanese Shoji Morimoto (38 years old) does to earn his money. He rents himself out to people for all sorts of very low-effort activities, such as having tea or (on a ‘heavy’ workday) waving people off at the station. So you could say that he mainly rents out his presence. By the way, he does not provide sexual favors and declines requests that he does not like; for example, he once refused to move a refrigerator for a client. Well, that's quite a lot to ask.

I hear you thinking: how on earth did this man get this job and can he make a living from it? Well, the latter will surprise you, because he charges around 70 euros per session. With that, he can easily support himself and his family. Well, I’d like a job like that too. I'm especially curious about how my parents will react when I tell them that I now make a living eating cakes and waving people off at Amsterdam Central. I fear they won't be jumping for joy.

Back to the beginning: how did he come up with this idea? I find it quite a funny story. At his previous employer, Morimoto was regularly criticized for his lax attitude and for doing very little. This, of course, surprises us very little. Well, you guessed it: he started to wonder how he could make good use of this ‘talent’ and thus the idea of renting himself out to people to do ‘as little as possible’ was born. Not so crazy after all, right? He genuinely believes that ‘doing nothing’ is perfectly fine and that people don't always have to be useful in a certain way. There’s actually something to that.

But is this really a dream job? Personally, I don't believe this is entirely my calling. Imagine having to do high tea all day with dreadful women or that people at the station think you're a lunatic because you regularly wave at strangers? Is this actually just paid volunteer work? No, I’ll stick to writing.

source: AD