History Main / OneHourWorkWeek

** The people we are shown who are happy with their job are a guy who pretends to be a crackhead to sell magazines door-to-door (it works and he makes a lot of money) and Peter's neighbor who spends a lot of time sitting at home, drinking beer, and watching TV. At the end, Peter gets a job working for the same construction company as his neighbor and actually the manual labor.

* Chandler's job in early episodes of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' is subject to a LampshadeHanging in one episode, where the deciding question in a trivia contest is "What is Chandler Bing's job?" Incidentally, it was Statistical Analysis and Data Reconfiguration until he got a job in an advertising firm. Even when Chandler and Monica are a couple she can't remember what he does. This is Lampshaded in one episode, where the Friends note that their bosses don't seem to like them... at which point Joey [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that this may be because they're hanging out at a coffee house at 11:30 on a Wednesday morning. Made more fun by the fact that Joey is one of two people in the group - the other being Phoebe, and even then Phoebe sometimes does hold regular jobs as a masseuse - who works as a free-lancer.
** Rachel and Chandler the one with ordinary 'office jobs' appear to take lunch breaks for hours at a time.
** Monica has a character arc about her career as a restaurant chef. This is usually a job with 14 hour days, often seven days a week, but she seems to work about as much as Joey.

* Zig-Zagged on ''Chuck''. As part of the Nerd Herd, Chuck can skip out on work hours relatively easily on spy missions by logging the time as "being on an install." It's also helped in the first three seasons by Big Mike being one of the worst slackers at the store, and it's not until Emmett comes aboard in season 2 that anyone ''actually'' takes a look at Chuck's work forms.

** The people we are shown who are happy with their job are a guy who pretends to be a crackhead to sell magazines door-to-door (it works and he makes a lot of money) and Peter's neighbor who spends a lot of time sitting at home, drinking beer, and watching TV. At the end, Peter gets a job working for the same construction company as his neighbor and actually enjoys it.

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 [[WorkCom the work itself]]. Examples are ''GreysAnatomy'' for medical drama, ''BandOfBrothers'' for drama about soldiers, and ''Series/{{Mash}}'' for both.

* Sportswriter is a popular vocation; Paul Hennessy from ''Series/EightSimpleRules'', Oscar from ''TheOddCouple'', Raymond from ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' and Tony from ''ListenUp'' (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.

* In the epilogue of ''[[VorkosiganSaga Captain Vorpatril's Alliance]]'', Ivan turns his ReassignmentToAntarctica to this. Upon being transferred to a minor consulate on a backwater world, he quickly discovers that most of the actual work is done over the phone, so he relocates the consulate from the rainy capitol to a tropical island and reorganizes the workload so that he can fulfill all his consular duties by working two days a week and spends the rest of his time enjoying an extended honeymoon with his wife.

* In the epilogue of ''[[VorkosiganSaga Captain Vorpatril's Alliance]]'', Ivan turns his ReassignmentToAntartica to this. Upon being transferred to a minor consulate on a backwater world, he quickly discovers that most of the actual work is done over the phone, so he relocates the consulate from the rainy capitol to a tropical island and reorganizes the workload so that he can fulfill all his consular duties by working two days a week and spends the rest of his time enjoying an extended honeymoon with his wife.

* Depending on the institution, subject and level, English and Welsh universities expect students to be anything from 50% to 95% 'self-guided' while still technically on a full-time course. Of course this in theory should mean they spend 50% to 95% of a working week studying in libraries or their rooms, but as they're generally young people living away from home for the first time, most of them regard their brief as this trope (and in fairness, university culture tends to be fully aware of this, or at least that changing it is a prolonged learning curve. Allegedly it stays because self-motivation is an important life skill.)

** In the fourth game, he's a professional poker player. His daughter also chips in as a magician, and is implied to work ''really'' hard at her job.

* Lorelei's job as an innkeeper in ''GilmoreGirls'' doesn't ever seem to take up much of her time, unless the plot so demands and it is always extremely easy for her to get holidays or weekends off

* ''Series/{{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 it's 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.

* Similarly, DavidLetterman has explained to his audience that unlike companies that provide 24/7 service, ''TheLateShow'' provides 1/5 service.

** Off screen. Assume it is done off screen.

* This is lampshaded in the final season of ''Series/TheWestWing'' when CJ, as the outgoing White House Chief of Staff, is headhunted by various organizations. A number of those job offers are for a position on the organization's Board of Directors which offers a lot of money but is largely ceremonial and requires her to work only a few hours a week. She expect a similar 'emeritus' offer from the incoming administrations but President-elect Santos instead offers her a real job that would keep her almost as busy as her current job.

*** Also, his boss informed him that people with Roger's qualifications are worth three times his salary in the current job market. Why Roger took the job (with a pay cut!) after being told this is anyone's guess. (Note that this arc ran long before the recession.)
*** [[EpilepticTrees Perhaps it was a threat]]; people ''like Roger'' are worth three times what he's being paid. ''Roger himself'' is not ''like Roger'', he ''is Roger'', and thus he is not among the people who are worth three times his current salary, so he will take this job at reduced pay and like it. Even with a pay cut, his salary must be pretty impressive, considering ''just'' the regular Jason-induced damage to the house. (Rockets are usually involved.)

*** 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.

** {{Played straight}}, however, when the player has an artistic Sim make money by selling paintings.
** Or crafting Gnomes for profit.
*** Any self-employed career in The Sims 3 may count as this.

** Sven, on the other hand, does have a OneHourWorkWeek. He's a country music songwriter and [[InformedAbility apparently a genius]] when it comes to lyrics that will be popular but [[StylisticSuck 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.
*** FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you realize he wrote that song after a very emotional "breakup" with Faye, one that has been shown to be still affecting him for months in the strip. He probably wrote the only truly heartbroken song he has ever did in his life, a theme country music just 'loves'.

** And then the site freezes Pip's account, forcing him to get a job at a consignment store. With a hot woman who was Kat's school rival. [[spoiler:Who manipulates and actively drugs him so he thinks they're in a real relationship, while she's actually dating a much-hotter guy and building connections to get a better job. Which effectively reduces her to a ''zero'' hour work week.]]

** Given an implied HandWave by the fact that Mr. Burns seems to have LaserGuidedAmnesia for everything related to Homer ''every single week''. His inability to remember Homer's name was {{Flanderized}} to the point where he is incapable of remembering the man's central role in ''everything he's done'' for the past few years. As such, it seems as if even Homer has caught on to the fact that he will be forgotten, if not explicitly forgiven, for everything from multiple industrial catastrophies to flagrant dereliction of duty, and as such, can pursue his AttentionDeficitOohShiny with impunity. [[WordOfGod Groening himself]] has stated that he's lost track of how many times Homer's been fired and re-hired, so they just default to him being at work when the jokes require it.

* Applies varyingly in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (of all places). Most often played straight with Pinkie Pie, who's rarely ever seen ''working'' at Sugercube Corner (though throwing parties is practically her second job). Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are rarely seen "on the clock", but the unusual natures of their jobs ([[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows micromanaging the local fauna and weather, respectively]]) let Fluttershy set her own hours and let Rainbow do her job in "ten seconds flat." Averted with Twilight Sparkle (Celestia's student, seen studying more often than not. Has also been shown to work as a caretaker and librarian of the library she lives in), Applejack (apple farmer), and Rarity (fashion designer), who are often shown working; in fact, entire episodes have revolved around the latter two's lines of work and one of Applejack's major character flaws is workaholism.

** Workers at remotes mines in Canada usually have a two-week in/two-week out work schedule. While some people jump at the job thinking having two solid weeks off is great, they often fail to note that the "two-weeks in" is a ''solid'' two weeks: 14 straight days, no days off. And those are often 12 hour work days, so over a 14 day period they'll work roughly the same amount of time in that two weeks as they would in a normal 8.5 hour job/5 days week over in a month. Many people end up not being able to deal with it, while others thrive and even have a second job in their two weeks out.

[[caption-width-right:144:[-In his defense, his job is first mentioned five years in.-] ]]

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 [[WorkCom the work itself]]. Examples are ''GreysAnatomy'' for medical drama, ''BandOfBrothers'' for drama about soldiers, and ''{{MASH}}'' for both.

* Non-pyramid scheme multi-level companies can be like this.
** Correction: they would, were they not a completely nonexistent creature of mythology. (multi-level marketing companies ''are'' pyramid-schemes, quite literally, ''by definition'')
** A legitimate multi-level company makes the bulk of its money off of sold products; a pyramid scheme makes the bulk of ''its'' money off the 'entry', 'registration', or otherwise named fees from new members. Both involve bugging people you know.
*** Legally it isn't a pyramid scheme if there is a product involved.
*** Which of course depends on which country's laws you consider for calling it "legal". Only having "some product", especially if it is the book about the MLM scheme itself, may be legal in the US, but not in all places.