later on, right before the bubble burst, the place was totally over-funded and hired tons of people who didn't know what they were doing at a technical level. many of the people "in charge" (VP level, etc) were complete buffoons.
cronyism, nepotism, and incompetence ran rampant. there were many useless managers, directors, assistant directors, on and on. this was typical of companies of that era. this provided ample opportunity for goofing off.
i could tell you some detailed and hilarious stories, but i'd wind up outing myself.
I have yet to have a programming job where more than 4 hours a day of "work" was required.