fandomhigh | Slacking - First Meeting [Friday, Period 1]

Max wasn't sure how a class on slacking had gotten scheduled so early in the day, but he found it vaguely amusing, really. He had already located his assigned classroom so that he wouldn't embarrass himself too much by wandering around lost. He even arrived early to class, but that was mostly so that he could prop his feet up on his desk, slip on his sunglasses (they were a great invention, and his trip to Fandom was probably worth it to discover the things even if nothing else came of it), and take a nap. He woke up when the first student arrived, but he didn't give any sign that he had. He wanted a chance to observe them.

Once the count of students matched the list he had been given he spoke without shifting position. "Welcome to Slacking. I am Tribune Antillar Maximus. You may refer to me as 'Tribune' or as 'Maximus' or as 'Max'. I'm not planning on this being too terribly formal." He sat up and slipped off his sunglasses. "That said, you are each here to learn, and I am here to ensure that you do just that. Keep that in mind during our sessions."

He pushed himself to his feet and settled into a relaxed stance, voice falling automatically into the steady cadence of someone who taught people how to stay alive. "The first thing we need to do is establish a shared definition of our subject matter. For the purposes of this course you should understand 'slacking' to refer to the productive avoidance of assignments. I suspect that each of you have found yourself in positions where someone in authority over you is incompetent, stupid, or both. And if you haven't yet, well, it won't be too long. Such situations are an inevitable part of life. When these situatiosn arise you find that you are much better at determining how to accomplish things than your sueprvisor is, and further you find that they tend to give you orders to do things in an inefficient or even counter-productive manner. Slacking allows you to get your incompetent superiors to leave you alone while you get real work done."

Max's gray eyes scanned the room calmly. "Since your incompetent superiors are, in fact, incompetent, they expect work to take far longer than it really does. This, in turn, allows you to spend much of your time relaxing. A successful slacker is able to deflect the attention of their superiors, get their real work done, and do whatever they feel like doing with the rest of their time."

"For today's meeting we're going to keep things simple. State your name and describe a situation from your own life where slacking has been useful, or where it would have been useful if you had been better at it. Then, since I have no desire to waste anyone's time, you're free to do as you wish. Talk to one another, talk to me, leave..." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Oh, and if anyone is interested, I am looking for an assistant for this class."

[The assistant position is actually open here, so if anyone is interested feel free to chime in.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Fiona Post," she said with a lift of her head, "and I... occasionally 'slacked' while at work in my hometown as our manager was an idiot who liked to work me harder than anyone else."

While the connotations had never actually struck Fiona, he'd also liked to see her sweaty with her clothing stuck to her.

...then he'd gotten a fryer vat to the arm on her birthday.

Max managed, barely, to suppress the urge to say something about wanting to work her harder than anyone else. He was pretty sure that wouldn't go over too well.

"Any particularly effective ways you did that?" he asked instead.

"I made sure to maintain a balance between tables left to bus and the table I was working on. If I had more, I'd work a little faster. If I had less, I'd work slower so he didn't find something else for me to do. I also kept to the back of the restaurant away from where he could see me if at all possible."

...no, she'd mostly blink at him.

Max nodded in clear approval. "Managing perceptions of both your efficiency and current work load as well as remembering that out of sight is out of mind." She was pretty good at this. For a beginner, at least.

She nodded.

"Just a matter of survival."

Unfortunately, her brother hadn't caught on and Mike's interest hadn't exactly extended to her twin. He'd just been overworked.

"Actual survival?" Max sounded a bit doubtful, but he wasn't going to dismiss such a claim out of hand.

"Not in that particular situation," she had to admit.

"But we did work there every day."

"Still, that's a good place to start."

Slacking - First Meeting [Friday, Period 1]

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