Yes and no. While there is legitimate "standing around" as your link makes clear, and safety should be paramount, most building projects from where I am - Philadelphia - take twice as long as the Empire State Building at 1/4 the size. We have labor unions that contribute to the problem, but you can't imagine how slowly work goes around here.

I'm aware that OSHA rules are different, and we have a higher standard of safety now than we did, but so too have materials and tools and building methods improved.

Planning should be done before important infrastructure is made unavailable. If there is no progress being made for a long time, then there is something wrong.

Please also realize that my example does not apply to every country. It was meant to point out a danger of a form of fake jobs that seems to exist from my observation, not criticize all construction workers for being lazy or ineffiecient.