The person checking for an opening may be doing work made invisible by the word waiting.

Waiting sounds like nothing is happening, which is why it is such a poor description of what many people are actually doing. Checking a list each morning, keeping a phone within reach, holding a plan loosely enough to drop it at short notice: all of that costs attention and none of it shows. The word makes the effort disappear, and the person doing it often ends up feeling they have nothing to report.

If someone in your life is in the middle of this, ask what the checking involves rather than whether there is news. And if it is you, count the vigilance as work, because it is.