[bryanlarsen]

They're very much like firefighters. Firefighters spend the vast majority of their working hours either literally doing nothing or else doing somewhat pointless make work, like washing the fire truck.

If your firefighters are spending more than ~10% of their time doing their actual job, then the odds of them needing to be in two places at once reaches unacceptable levels.

Old fashioned secretaries are similar, if less extreme. An executive secretary's main job is not to do secretarial work, but to be available at a moment's notice. If they're busy, they're not generally available.

[JumpCrisscross]

> If your firefighters are spending more than ~10% of their time doing their actual job

Firefighters do a lot more than just fight fires.

[justinclift]

Cats up trees aren't just a meme, right? :)

[rickydroll]

In other words, we don't pay them to put out fires; we pay them to be trained and available to put out fires

[ta1243]

Which of course leads to the parable of the old engineer with the hammer

[nullc]

When I worked at a muni the firefighters seemed to have a knack for setting the firestations on fire.

That might also fit into your model of corporate participation pretty well.

[paulpauper]

pointless make work, like washing the fire truck

lol

I think it's more than that