I'm looking for a word...

[vetran]

"He is impossible to underestimate"

"He should carry a plant to replace the air he is wasting"

"I'm not saying he's the dumbest person in the world, just that he better hopes they don't die"


"I am jealous of your employee's ability to be overpaid, underworked, incompetent and workshy. While I'm sure his local village has appointed a new idiot, I have to admire his skills in tricking you into giving him money for nothing, and as such he is my new role-model."

He has a lot to be modest about.

[courtg9000]

"I am jealous of your employee's ability to be overpaid, underworked, incompetent and workshy. While I'm sure his local village has appointed a new idiot, I have to admire his skills in tricking you into giving him money for nothing, and as such he is my new role-model."

Absolute class this one!

[NotAllThere]

I am after a single word to describe an overpaid underworked workshy public servant.

Civil servant? (OK two words...).

Sinecurist?

[xoggoth]

Skriggelyboffeltook

[vetran]

tenure

[d000hg]

'Clockwatcher' seems like the closest well-known term I can recall, though it's not perfect. 'Jobsworth' similarly.
'Peter' could work (as in the Peter Principle)

[NotAllThere]

'Clockwatcher'

That sounds about right.

[OwlHoot]

But neither jobsworth or clockwatcher (nor neccessarily mine, timeserver) necessarily imply incompetence.

Someone could be an infuriating, nitpicking jobsworth but actually pretty good at their job (maybe _because_ they are a jobsworth! )

[d000hg]

Desk-filler?