$93,803 a Year to Do Nothing

According to Randall Hinton he is paid $93,803 a year to do nothing. As an employee of the New York State Insurance Fund his work day consists of: listening to rock 'n' roll, blues or classical tunes and placing his feet up on his desk, staring out his office window and counting cars on the New York State Thruway. He sees no one and talks to no one at work and it's been this way for almost a decade. Since February 2002, Hinton has been director of investigations for the Insurance Fund, but he said he has never been allowed to investigate anything. Hinton contends he is without portfolio as retaliation for suing Gov. George Pataki's administration 10 years ago. In a January 2002 settlement in his suit against then-DEC Commissioner John Cahill (who later became Pataki's top deputy) and then-Assistant DEC Commissioner James W. Tuffey (now Albany's police chief) he was guaranteed state employment as a director of investigations. If I were Randall, I would enjoy my exile, but he's a bit more ambitious and has filed a complaint with the Division of Human Rights claiming discrimination stemming from the retaliation of his original claim against the DEC.

Almost ten years???

[Dekortage]

"It's been this way for Hinton for most of this decade." So now that he's earned almost a million bucks, plus retirement and benefits, he's coming forward. What a guy!

Wife: "So honey, how was work today?"

Hinton: "It was really tough. They kept playing lousy music on the radio, and the commercials were terrible! At least I finished learning French on tape."

Re:

[PingPongBoy]

Can we say so what? Why criticize this guy so much? He doesn't do worse than many other highly paid people, if one were to just take a look around.

BTW, we might have something to say about the system that allows and enforces this. Then again, I've heard of street punks that sue cops and get tens of thousands in payout just to make them leave the system alone, so perhaps we have to applaud making this guy get out of bed daily for his money.

I guess it has its downsides...

[Het Irv]

I say count your blessings and get a hobby that you can do while at work. Not many people can say they get paid to do whatever they want. I guess after ten years the boredom would get to me as well though.

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[Phantom Zmoove]

I'm not sure 10 years of being paid to do nothing would quite push me over the edge of causing a ruckus about not having to do anything. Maybe after 20 years or something, hard to say really without trying.

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[CastrTroy]

Wouldn't be so bad, as long as I had a computer at my desk.

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[ricegf]

I wish all politicians would take a cue from Algore and Hinton. Every time they "do something", something else gets screwed up.

Doing nothing?

[Sadza]

He'll probably develop some sort of dementia soon. Move along, folks.

But then again, doing nothing sounds oddly familiar...

Violin

[fyoder]

He should use the time to learn violin. Depending on how thin his office walls are, they may send him out on investigations soon enough. Otherwise, if he's got years to spend and it takes years to learn the violin, seems like a good match.

What an idiot...

[WCLPeter]

I read the article and it basically boils down to this:

He sued the state. The people who got in trouble eventually became his boss. They couldn't fire him, so they stuck him in a back corner and basically forgot about him. Now years later, after collecting all kinds of cash, he's kicking up a ruckus so that they'll give him "meaningful" work again.

What an idiot. Really, what... an... idiot...

He has the "dream job". He gets paid to do nothing. I would *love* a job like that. Give me a laptop, so I can

Re:

[Nebulious]

I'm pretty sure he would get fired if he didn't show up at the office and other stupid things. This is supposed to be a revenge, so there must be strings attached. If you actually read the full article twice you'd see he's given trivial and tedious work as as bare minimum. Also, some people actually enjoy their their work. Taking that away is the worst thing you can do to them.

Re:

[WCLPeter]

This is supposed to be a revenge, so there must be strings attached. If you actually read the full article twice you'd see he's given trivial and tedious work as as bare minimum.

While it is true that there were probably some strings attached, I also doubt his employers would have been overly concerned had he decided not to show up for work every now and again. Continued employment was part of his original settlement, and as long as he could have adequately proven he *was* doing the little work that he was being given, there's really nothing his employers legally could have done to get him.

Also, some people actually enjoy their their work. Taking that away is the worst thing you can do to them.

It *is* true that *some* people do enjoy working. It certainly helps to love what you're doi

what the hell?

[timmarhy]

some people don't know when they are on a good thing, seriously.

if your reading this, you can have my job and i'll take yours.

i suspect this is him attempting to get yet more free cash though, pay him out and get him to quit that way. after all he could have quit long ago but by his own choice he has stayed. actually now that i think about it what an asshole...

Office space

[operagost]

He shouldn't complain. I had this happen to me, but suddenly they "fixed the glitch", so I stopped getting my paycheck. They also had the audacity to take my Swingline stapler, which is superior to the Bostich and with which I had used Swingline brand staples purchased out of my own pocket to maintain compatibility. Unfortunately, I had no recourse but to set the building on fire.