Sounds like something out of Office Space or the show "Silicon Valley"

However, I did have a sort-of-real-life experience which was similar, back in the '90s.

I was working for a very large corporation, as a software developer. For the first two years, I was part of a small department which was producing a lot, and my role there was very important. Then the project shut down in California and was being moved across the country. My choices at that point were either:

1) Move across the country with that group
2) Accept an assignment into a new group in the same building
3) Get laid off

I chose the obvious one -- #2, as did almost everyone in my department. Unfortunately, almost all of us got moved to the same new department, which was already bloated and had way too many employees compared to the amount of work needed to be done. I went from incredibly essential to extraneous, in one day.

I was shoved in some cubicle in a different office than most of the other people in the department, meaning I had literally no direct supervision. Everyone else in the physical office worked for a completely different department, and didn't give a shit what I did with my time.

For about a week, I was given a small binder to "get familiar with the program", which took me about 1-2 hours to read, and then they had no work for me for the remainder of the week. I fucked around on the (early) internet for that time.

Then when Monday rolled around again, I was given a new task -- only because I asked for one. I got that done in about 2 hours. I asked my boss, "Okay, what should I do now?", and he responded, "Oh sorry, I thought this would take you a few days. Let me get back to you."

He didn't get back to me.

I felt like Wally from Dilbert, except with an even less demanding job!

I remember saying to myself, "If only I were in my 50s and just showing up to work to collect a paycheck, this would be fucking ideal."

But I was only 26, and wanted more from my young life than a career where I did real work for 2 hours per week and fucked around the other 38. Eventually I quit and went to a small electronics company where they needed drivers and other shit written for their hardware. The good thing was I had loads of time to go on interviews, because nobody cared (or noticed) whether I came or went -- or how late I showed up to work.