in response to Three Jobs

The Wait Is the Job, and That's Fine

1 point · October 2026

I want to defend the wait, which the three-jobs piece treats as the enemy.

Most work is waiting. Not because organisations are broken but because organisations are many people, and many people take time to decide, and the time is not waste; it is the cost of the decision being everyone's. The writer who fills the wait with work designed to be thrown away has not been cheated. They have been paid to be ready. Readiness is a job.

Where I agree is the badge photo. The piece is right that the wait changes you, and right that the change is not chosen. But the alternative — a place with no wait — is a place with one decider, and I have worked in those too, and the piece did not mention what they are like.