Something I've noticed, especially recently, is that there always seems to be a 1:1 ratio of people actually working on a construction site, and people watching the people working. I've never understood why this phenomenon actually exists because I've never worked on a construction site, but every single time I pass one (or just workers outside in general), they always seem to be doing nothing about half of the time.

For instance outside of my work they're replacing the railroad tracks with new tracks. It's a pretty interesting process with them having to lift huge sections of the track into place with a gigantic fork lift, position them, and then finalize their place. They have about 4-5 people working fairly regularly, but then they also have around 4 people literally just standing there and watching them work. They didn't do anything for the 10 or so minutes I was taking a break. Is it part of the culture of construction to do this? Are they on break? Are they required by law to have a certain number of people around just in case someone gets their head cut off so they can replace them? I don't know. It kind of bothers me in a wasteful sort of way, but then again, I probably don't know what's going on and am using my jump to conclusions mat liberally.