Goldbricking comes from the practice of overlaying gold plating over a useless metal thus appearing valuable. Goldbricking was common word usage during the 1800s. During World War I, it became popular as an army term when a soldier feigns injury, he is known as a goldbrick.  

Have you ever worked with a coworker who wasted time on questionable activities? I have and it frustrates other workers and management. I observe people and events with curiosity and sometimes concern.  One day, I watched a woman spend two hours sorting through freight to give herself less work.  The time spent on this activity could have used to do actual work. She did this because of a need to do the minimum required of the job. I asked her about this, and she replied, “this counts as time on task” (tot). Does it though? This made me think of that word.  

I am not even sure how this word came into my vocabulary. If a person is curious, they look to the origin of the word. I studied California history as part of my general education requirement. The gold rush brought to the state hundreds of con artists. Greediness made fools out of the novice prospector. That is probably the beginning of my knowledge of this word.  

I never goldbrick with writing because it is inspiration that drives me.  I do not write every day, it’s impossible with my schedule. But during downtime and inspirational well springs, there are spurts of effort.  I have a variable number of in progress writing activities. There is an effort of expansion in my writing repertoire.

Unfortunately, part of the problem is a passive aggressive attitude towards management. If you want to justify these antics you can because when I worked at a warehouse, the workers gave less effort in the belief if you do more than expectation, management will raise rates.  This is true though. There needs to be median expectation somewhere. 

In writing, I think of an author who writes the same book only with different character names. See image above. Stephen King used to be an interesting author until he became a millionaire which decreased his creativity. As Richard Bachman, his stories were variable. If only, he could go back to being a struggling writer instead of a goldbricking multi-millionaire. 

Productivity is vital for any business. I modify and hone routines that cut time and save aggravation. The process breaks down when you have a worker who is a goldbrick when you need teamwork. How do you get a goldbrick working? There are different methods tailored in situational events.