It's all well and good until they find you, figure out what you've been doing (or rather not doing), then fire you and attempt to sue you for damages.
CYA. Make at least some attempts to be noticed. If they do notice you, at least you got a little bit of easily excusable free time - if they don't, now you get the easy life AND a paper trail so they can't say "why didn't you try to tell us".
I heard many similar stories like that from friends and it's always a bit shocking to me. I'm no go getter or anything, i run my own business, but even then, i don't want to work more than i really have to. But i just really can't imagine what that must be like.
I had a friend who worked as a static engineer. He then worked for a company that made bearings for big machines, which wasn't his line of work but he liked it. The company got bought by another company who did something different and he just fell through the cracks. At first he was super anxious and just pretended to draw on his drawing board and had excel open on his computer. But no one cared, a lot of people switched jobs and suddenly he didn't really know anyone anymore and after a few month he told me that he doesn't really know what his job is.
I’ve had jobs that amounted to sitting around waiting for work and hated it. I’m the first to tell people that I work just hard enough to not be bored and to keep everything under control
From what i gathered, the whole company was a huge mess. It was basically a very small company buying A big company that was going under. It was kind of the inverse of how these things would usually go. So the new company moved their things into the old factory so to say. With the merger, new people working with old people and new working spaces and what not. He shared his little office with another guy who quit in the merger because he was 62 and wasn't gonna have it. People kinda just started working.
I don't know if they have much of a case to sue you, if you fall through the cracks on their own negligence. Fire you, yes. Sue, I am doubtful most larger businesses would even try. They'd rather solve the problem and sweep it under the carpet in my experience. Not USA experience of course, but still the attitude would be similar I expect.
I would worry a bit about whether they're allowed to give negative references though. Because if so, it might not be so easy to get another job after.
Best move would be to line up another job to start like a month before the review, and never reach the review stage. Even if discovered, most people that would "know" wouldn't really be driven to report anything if they're leaving anyway. The "not my problem, and this will make it my problem" attitude in big companies is real.
I think in Spain there was a legal case, but that person was paid for decades without any work. And it was also public funds, as the employer was some municipality iirk
I looked at that. Actually I would argue that was even more negligence by the management there. I mean they couldn't even say how long he'd not been working for.
But in reality he was paid for at least 6 years of work (and they suspected more) and only fined for 1 year of pay. So, he's still a winner I think. And yes, public funds likely did help in bringing that case forward.
Most larger private businesses tend to avoid going to a court for such things unless they need to in my experience.
I mean it's kinda embarrassing for the company to pay people to do nothing. It makes them seem a bit incompetent.
I worked in a military branch where the three biggest fish of the branch got fired (maybe sued) because they hardly did anything. They would go to work, and then go on hunting trips together or shit like that. They did that for years, but they didn't really know how long.
So now people obviously began to wonder what else they are doing with their money, and why no one realised that there were 3 people making an absurd amount of money for a job that is already super chill and overpaid, that didn't even do the work of one competent employee. I remember they had trouble finding replacements, so no one did their job until i left like a year or two later.
While this is technically true, some pissed off business wanting to make an example of you, can most definitely cost you a lot of money trying to sue you in court.
Hmm, You'd probably get by fine representing yourself. Given it's a bad idea....
I'd probably pick up a remote side job to work during the first job and store about 10k away to handle eventual legal fees. You wouldn't need much of a lawyer to defend yourself.