government job

Unofficial task done in the workplace. Common abbreviation: G-job. Origin: during WWII, some sensitive tasks were given directly to a worker, and his supervisor might not be authorized to know exactly what it was. Thus the response when the supervisor questions what appears to be personal work done on company time: "it's government work."

Hey Tim, you're not scheduled to be running the lathe today, what are you working on? Just a little "government job".