Reply to: I'm looking for a word...

[d000hg]

Desk-filler?

[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! )

[NotAllThere]

'Clockwatcher'

That sounds about right.

[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)

[vetran]

tenure

[xoggoth]

Skriggelyboffeltook

[NotAllThere]

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

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

Sinecurist?

[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!

[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.

[vetran]

Oxygen thief.
Waste of space.
Pointless paycheck
PHB

[WTFH]

"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."

[OwlHoot]

I am after a single word to describe an overpaid underworked workshy public servant.
Can anyone help?
PS: "A Boris" has been deemed unsuitable as has a Hancock, Gove, Patel, Raab and other similar!

A drone? Nah, that can't be right. Bees work pretty hard. A timeserver?

A "wonky shopping trolley"? (c) Dominic Cummings

[courtg9000]

Does it have to be a single word?

Shame we don't do compound nouns like the Germans do

heres where I need to get to: Your employee is obviously a overpaid underworked incomepetent workshy four king bar steward!
Everything after the word obviously is what I need to encapsulate!

[lorakeen]

apparatchik?

[malvolio]

How about "An Appleby"?