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One-Hour Work Week: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:joback.jpg|link=Sluggy Freelance
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For the childhood equivalent of this trope, see [[Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?]]. Compare [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]] (who are literally their profession [[In Name Only]]) and [[What Exactly Is His Job?]] (when the profession isn't even named).
This can also be contrasted to shows that take place primarily around the profession (when the profession itself is exciting enough, or can be made exciting through creative license), where the focus can be almost entirely on [[Work Com|the work itself]]. Examples are ''[[
{{examples}}
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* Not even Nayuki in ''[[Kanon]]'' knows what her mother does for a living. The hours and pay seem very good, though, as she is still there with no sign of leaving soon at eight AM and will be there whenever Yuuichi gets home from school as well!
** Ayu goes to a school that lets her come and go basically whenever she wants, and doesn't even require a uniform. The explanation for this is finally given near the end, though, and turns out to be an important plot point.
* ''[[Yotsubato]]'' is [[Playing
* Deconstructed in episode 8 of ''[[
* Lampshaded in ''[[Durarara]]'', where Mikado and Anri are surprised to learn that [[Otaku|Walker and Erika]] actually ''do'' have jobs--Erika makes jewelry, and Walker's an ice-sculptor. They're freelance, though, so their schedules are flexible.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Ed is a state alchemist for the military, but doesn't seem to do anything the military asks of him. He seems free to swan off with his brother to Dublinth (although he could have still been on medical leave), wander the countryside without any immediate obligation to call in or report, and even act against the government's plots without bothering to inform his superiors. When he DOES do something useful like fight off terrorists, it's often because he ended up in the situation by accident. He is also clearly paid a ridiculously large sum of money for this, including a research grant of which he spends fairly casually.
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* [[Superman|Lois Lane]] [http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics108.html can be like this].
** Clark Kent is too--They wanted him to have a job where he could plausibly disappear for hours a day to save the world without raising too much suspicion from his co-workers.
* Belgian comic book hero [[Tintin
** He introduces himself as a journalist and occasionally takes out a book to take notes in an interview, but really he's a detective in all but name.
* [[Blacksad]]'s sidekick Weekly, a scrawny little weasel journalist, tries to convince Blacksad that the nickname is because his work is so good that he can get away with only showing up at the office once a week or so. Eventually he admits that it's because the pungent odor Blacksad noticed when they first met has given rise to an office rumor that "weekly" is how often he bathes. He never elaborates on how often he actually shows up at the office, so he might be encouraged to stay out in the field to save his coworkers from his scent, but he evidently wasn't kidding about the quality of his work, because either way he's still employed.
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** Joey shouldn't be let off the hook either. It was justified when he was a struggling and mostly unemployed actor. However, daily soap opera stars have incredibly long work hours.
* Sportswriter is a popular vocation; Paul Hennessy from ''[[8 Simple Rules]]'', Oscar from ''[[The Odd Couple]]'', Raymond from ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'' and Tony from ''[[Listen Up]]'' (based on the writings of sportswriter Tony Kornheiser) all fitting the part. This is probably so the character could be manly AND lazy at the same time.
* Carrie of ''[[Sex and
** Lampshaded slightly with Samantha, a PR agent, who in real life would be just as busy as Miranda is supposed to be, yet always has time to go shopping, to nightclubs, to restaurants. . .but as a PR person, she would no doubt HAVE to do this as part of her job.
* Jessica Fletcher in ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' never seems to find time to write all these thrilling mystery novels [[Informed Ability|for which she is so famous]], what with [[Mystery Magnet|people happening to die everywhere she goes]], which is everywhere on the Atlantic seaboard and reasonably beyond, just about all the time. (True souvenir mug of Maine: "Cabot Cove: If You Lived Here, You'd Be Dead By Now.")
* In the [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Castle]]'', the title character spends a good deal of time tooling around with the cops, but scenes often open with him writing at home.
** In the second season finale, Castle is in trouble with his ex-wife/publisher because he's late finishing his new book. It's noted that the amount of time Castle spends with Beckett leaves him with very little time to write, and perhaps there's [[UST|another reason]] he [[Will They or Won't They?|follows her]].
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** For that matter, Niles himself seems to have a lot of time to hang out with his brother during the day, and aside from a few episodes where it represents a significant plot point, is never seen working. Daphne's supposedly "full time" duties as Martin's physical therapist are also somewhat vague, and can easily allow one to reach the conclusion that Frasier is essentially paying her just to hang out in his home.
* On ''[[Hart to Hart]]'', Jonathan is supposed to be the head of a large multinational corporation, yet has plenty of time to solve mysteries with his wife.
* ''[[
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Buffy's "job" as a counselor at Sunnydale High School late in the series. Kids rarely come see her and she hardly ever does anything in the office (her boredom at work is a [[Running Gag]]). Basically, the only purpose of the job is to explain how she manages to pay the mortgage on the house she inherited from her mom and support Dawn, and still have time to slay vampires. This is somewhat justified, as she got the job because the principal is in on the town's secret and kept her around to deal with any Hellmouth issues.
* ''[[
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'', though it's a little more justified than most examples. Jerry is hardly ever shown working on his material. We do see him get the occasional bit of inspiration and bounce an idea or two off his friend's heads but even a talented comedian puts in long hours to develop a bit (IIRC its about 40 hours for 30 seconds of decent material.) Too, he gets away with doing very little touring. Perhaps lampshaded by later seasons when he is not shown performing and friends talking about his material falling off. Yet somehow he can still afford a nice New York apartment and has money to buy his dad a car.
** Jerry lives in a rent controlled apartment building.
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* Literally true for the Fraggles of ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' -- one first-season episode is actually ''called'' "The Thirty-Minute Work Week".
** The Doozers are the exact opposite. They work constantly, because they enjoy it so much.
* ''[[
* [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart]] and [[The Colbert Report|Stephen Colbert]] have both joked that they only work a half-hour a night for four days a week. Of course, it's just a joke because they, along with their teams, [[Crazy Prepared|research everything.]] It's honestly pretty damn amazing they have free time at all. Especially considering how Jon Stewart reads, cover to cover, every book that people promote on his show. That's [[Bookworm|fifty to seventy books per year]], plus research to provide context for the discussion and, in the case of political works, provide counter-points to the author's claims.
* Similarly, [[David Letterman]] has explained to his audience that unlike companies that provide 24/7 service, ''[[The Late Show]]'' provides 1/5 service.
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** At the same time, it was established in at least one episode that Charlie is living above his means.
** It's also somewhat justified in that many episodes are set during the weekends when Alan has custody of Jake.
* Billie from ''[[Accidentally
* In ''[[
* In ''[[The New Adventures of Old Christine]]'', the title character is the owner of a women's-only gym. Despite her constant complaining about money, Christine must be pretty successful to afford an exclusive private school for her son as well as a big home in Los Angeles with a guest house on the property for her brother. But she is rarely shown at work (and is pretty clueless when she's there), and she comes every day to pick up her son from school.
* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. The gang seems to meet almost every evening either at the bar or at Ted's apartment, and there were a number of road trips on short notice. But Ted was, at different times, either an architect with a big firm or an architecture professor who had a contract to design a major skyscraper. Those would seem to be time-consuming jobs. Furthermore, Marshall was a corporate lawyer, and he ''said'' he worked seventy-hour weeks. But this was shown a total of ''once'', when he was in the office at 3:00 a.m. Other than that, he spent just as much time hanging out as the other members of the group.
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*** There was also one strip where he was getting ready for work, and thinking it was a shame he had to sit in an office when he could be spending quality time with his family. Then he sees Calvin tearing off in a hurry, followed by his wife in a bath towel screaming at Calvin to remove all the bugs he put in her shampoo. The last panel shows him hard at work and whistling contentedly.
* In the French comic ''[[Blacksad]]'', the title character meets a little weasel (no, he's literally a weasel -- the characters are [[Better Than It Sounds|furries]]) who goes by Weekly. He claims it's a work-related nickname -- he's a journalist, and his articles are so good that he's still on the payroll even though "Weekly" is how often he shows up at the office. Later on, he admits that while it was coined by a coworker, it has more to do with his (well deserved) reputation for poor hygiene; the rumor goes that "Weekly" is how often he bathes.
* The protagonists of the German comic ''[[Lula
* Cutter John from ''[[Bloom County]]'' is a particularly big example; we're told he's the new town doctor in his first appearance, but we '''never''' see him doing anything remotely medical. Maybe Bloom County's residents are just so healthy that he has all the time he needs to make out with his girlfriend and play ''[[Star Trek]]'' with the local [[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]].
== Tabletop Games ==
* Player characters in ''[[
* In ''[[
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== Webcomics ==
* [[Justified]] [[One-Hour Work Week]]: the hour in question is the live broadcasts of the reality show, ''[[Last
* Happens a lot in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', though there is the occasional work based storyline. It's [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] with Torg when he works for Adversion Advertising, since he has rather...''[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=070111 unique]'' views on time off. He gets away with this because he somehow convinced his boss's boss that he's an "[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=081001 advertising genius]."
* Parodied in ''[[
** However, her congressional position has been used as the focus for a few storylines, especially when she's up for re-election.
* Lampshaded by [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20070414.html Jean] in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' since we'd seen Bob actually working at his newsstand (which should be a pretty time-consuming job) a grand total of once over the first five story arcs. Later stories have made it clear that Bob misses work a lot because of his adventures, and his customers don't appreciate it.
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** Sven, on the other hand, does have a [[One-Hour Work Week]]. He's a country music songwriter and [[Informed Ability|apparently a genius]] when it comes to lyrics that will be popular but [[Stylistic Suck|sickeningly trite]]. Frequent strips have him taking credit for a country song with a ridiculous name, or another character asking him what he did all day, reading a few lines of horrible lyrics, and being informed that his agent is negotiating a bidding war over them.
*** He's usually not ''as'' successful as that last example, though. That was a gag about him having been dumped (more or less) and putting barely any effort into writing the song, only for it to be more popular than anything else he'd written.
* ''[[Living
* The comic [[Sequential Art (
* Zac in ''[[What the Fu (
* It's not entirely clear what ''[[Dr. McNinja]]'''s parents do to be able to afford a house in a remote cave with phone lines and electricity, equipment for their younger son to build giant robots to defend their gigantic amount of outdoor property, and so on. It's implied they do hired ninja work or something, but they're never actually shown doing this or any other paid work, and they always have time to help Doc with his schemes. Doc himself spends relatively little time actually working as a doctor, yet has no trouble hiring contractors to rapidly rebuild his entire doctor's office after it gets blown up.
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* For the longest time in ''[[King of the Hill]]'', we were never treated to Boomhauer's job and how he can afford such expensive things. A few episodes suggested he worked at some sort of factory; however, the last episode reveals he is a Texas State Ranger.
** Every character on the show falls under this trope. Some, like Peggy or Dale, hold part-time or infrequent employment while others like Bill and Nancy work regular full time jobs but still have all the time needed to screw around. The most blatant examples of this trope are Hank and Kahn; Hank works a regular 9-5 day and loves his job so much that he won't leave 10 minutes early on a Friday when he literally has nothing to do but sit at his desk and stare at the wall. An entire episode revolves around Kahn's job, in which he gets on with a 2 hour commute that is forgotten about a few episodes later. Notice that most episodes take place over several days; basically, the show falls under the rule of only showing the characters working when it suits the joke.
* Applies varyingly in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* Although they work for a delivery company, the characters in ''[[Futurama]]'' are rarely seen doing deliveries, unless the plot calls for it. This has been [[Flanderized]] with the new season, as the crew seem to do even less deliveries then before.
{{quote| '''Hermes:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|Didn't we used to be a delivery service?]]}}
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