The Rubber Room

This American Life has an amazing episode called Human Resources with a segment on the NYC public school system. When teachers in the NYC public school system break some serious rule or cross the wrong principal, they are assigned to a relocation center, affectionately known as the "Rubber Room." They are assigned there until they have a hearing. It is typical for hearings to take over a year to schedule. So these teachers are basically paid their full salary to come in for 40 hours each week to sit in a room and do absolutely nothing. At any one time, there are typically 700+ teachers assigned to these centers. And many have been there for years.

The stories of these teachers are incredible. One teacher accidentally said the word "shit" in a hallway to another teacher and was accused of "verbal abuse" of students and sent to the rubber room. Another teacher ended up there and was never told the reason why. The rubber room resembles a prison where the teachers segregate themselves by race and territorial fights break out over who has the rights to a certain chair or spot in the room. It's a pretty amazing commentary on the human condition.

Only the government could run a business where they pay tens of millions of dollars each year to employees to come in every day and do absolutely nothing. It a shameless waste of taxpayer money and it just is another small example of why government rarely gets anything right.