Seno, my boss, asks me to press some plastic "bits" into flat square sheets for testing. First, i pile the "bits" in a square mold. Then i pull down the press to melt them. Then i wait for two minutes. Then i increase the pressure. Then i wait for two more minutes. Then i put the flattened sheet in the cooling press. Then i wait two minutes. Then i increase the pressure. Then i remove it. If there are any blemishes on the sheet, then i have to throw it out and start again. Even so, i had to make about 30 of them (good ones, and the rate of success is about 50%, since it is pure chance whether there are bubbles etc). It took all day, Unfortunately, the actual use of these sheets was apparently beyond my intellect, because i never found out what the things were for.
Another example: Seno has gathered that i am good with a computer, spreadsheet programs and such things. He gives me a spreadsheet which he has made. It has about 500 cells. Many of them have question marks in them. I have to go through and replace the question marks with a line of dashes. That is the task. Unfortunately, since this is a special japanese spreadsheet program, there are no "cut" and "paste" options, so i have to fill all the cells one at a time with a line of three dashes. The fun never stops at the Pipes R Us Technical Centre!
And now some statistics:
Actual hours spent at office: 55 (includes morning "arriving early to impress the boss, even though you have nothing to do", which is mandatory for all employees, morning "taisou" (the "daily jerks" from 1984 minus the telescreen), lunch break with god-awful bentou boxes (yesterday's special was rotten soybeans and cold miniature pork sausages), and evening "stay behind even though you have nothing to do because to leave at 5:15 on the dot would be shameful")
Hours spent at office by other employees: 70+ (i am not joking, they are there from 8am to 10pm every night. No, i am not going to conform to this absurd practice, to hell with all that "when in Rome..." crap)
Percentage of working hours when Nick has something to do: started at about 10% in first week, and has crept up to about 60% recently
Percentage of Nick's assigned tasks which require an education beyond primary school: started at 0% for first week, then gradually ascended to about 40% (of total work assigned)