What is Deadwood Gopher?
1.
Describes an office employee typically in a cubicle setup that always sticks his or her head out of the cubicle and listens to your conversations and makes comments about what you say when you aren't talking to that person. They like to stare at you for no reason and people that are walking by their cubicles. The employee is just plain nosey and frequently sucks up a pay check but has little if anything to do all day long. They are often overpaid and unfairly frequently paid more than harder working more competent employees who have to cover their asses constantly in what some employers snow-ball you with as "team work".
They usually only have their jobs because they know someone who is willing to give them what amounts to corporate welfare or charity and suck up to that person and others in power frequently. They are good about showing up to work everday on time but are generally incompetent and contribute nothing. They like to knock government welfare programs to the poor but are blind to the fact that that is exactly what they are getting from the company.
They annoy hard working employees in the office with stupid jokes or questions. They have the obnoxious habit of rudely interrupting your work related conversations to make stupid comments without excusing themselves or apologizing. Since they have nothing to do all day long and really don't want to learn to do anything, they frequently bother you while you are tring to do your own work because they are bored.
Doug is a deadwood gopher. Anytime 2 people are having a private conversation he not only listens to it, but chimes in unvited with his 2 cents.
Dave was a really dumb-ass deadwood gopher. It's bad enough he didn't have anything to do all day long and bothered people because he was bored, but he wandered about the building into other departments making it obvious that he had nothing to do. That is what got him canned.
Shortly after her boss' retirement, Diane was laid off for incompetence. Like a typical deadwood gopher, she was clueless about finding work. She would call people and tell them to find her a job. She would also tell potential employers to hire her because she had bills to pay instead of trying to sell herself on what she could do for them.
See
