Being chief comes with certain perks, of course; the corner office, the beautiful secretary, and of course, goofing off.

It's a useful early-warning that a villager is sick. If I see the TC desert his post when he should be directing work, I'll look around and like as not spot the sick villager walking slowly on his way to be healed. I can then drop a doctor (or another villager if no doctors are yet trained) on him in good time.

Generally speaking I agree, it usually means someone is sick but not with this guy, he was just too lazy to keep directing work. He's now died off, I got a new chief and got the statue put up in a reasonable amount of time.

Tess

I found out the Chief will heal the sick if you put him/her there a couple times.

And --I think-- as the chief gets elderly they stop directing work as easily...and walk around thinking a lot...