Just to add probably the millionth example to this, I currently have a nothing job where I show up for work every day, read the news, play on my phone, network, and generally sit around doing very little. It was not always this way, I used to do work as a developer, then I moved several times, now I work in a special projects team that have no defined remit.
The team had a remit when set up and has existed officially for 2 years but the original head was fired 8 months in, and since then the team has had no purpose. We tried for a while to revive the team and have the original remit reinstated, but efforts of myself and others were in vain. For probably the last 9 months I have had no defined job to do, so I swan around some days trying to be useful, others trying to do nothing (depending wholly on my whim) but always trying to look busy (which I am not). The company is massive so I contribute to internal open source projects when I want to, and have recently started looking for another job in company time as I am mind-numbingly bored. Reading this story was like reading someone living the life I've had for the last 9 months, but with them actually seeking to prolong it (which I don't want to)...
While it's nice to know others are in this boat, it's depressing that any company lets this happen, particularly when I see people working hard at much less well paid things: the cleaners are working much harder than I!