A WAHumorous World

There's loads of wild and weird WAH opportunities from sheepwagon building to multi-level casket sales. But the next time someone tells me I should get a "real job", I'll take this one:

The man who gets paid to watch paint dry

Most of us would admit to finding our working day slightly tedious at times.
But spare a thought for Keith Jackson.

The married father-of-one has perhaps the most boring job in the world - watching paint dry.

For more than 30 years, assessing the drying time of industrial paint has been part of Mr. Jackson's working life.

The highlight of his day is simply touching the paint to assess its tackiness.

Although he admits his job is seen as a bit of a joke and can be slightly tedious at times, the 57-year-old has never tired of the task. "People do laugh and find it amusing when I tell them what I do,” Mr. Jackson said yesterday.

"It could be described as the most boring job in the world, but it is a very important one. We supply paint to a variety of industries and for our customers it is very important that they can cover their products with paint that dries quickly.
For example, we make the paint for the floors and walls of stations for the London Underground. They can't afford to shut to passengers for long periods so the painting can only be done between 3am and 5am. Once the paint is on the floor it has to dry hard and fast enough for people to be able to walk on in time for when the station re-opens in the morning."

Mr. Jackson, from Llandegla, North Wales, whose official title is technical manager, has worked for industrial paint manufacturers AquaTec Coatings for the past four years. However, he has been in the paint industry since he left school as a 16-year-old.

Mr Jackson refused to reveal exactly how much he earned, but said watching paint dry paid "fairly well."

"Watching paint dry sounds quite easy, but it can be stressful at times," he added.