Bullshit Jobs

[doc_loliday]

Which employer generates the most bullshit jobs, by the way?



Firefighter Earned $300K in Overtime by Working More Hours Than Actually Exist
Donn Thompson was paid for more than 9,200 hours of work last year. But there are only 8,760 hours in a year.

Hard workin American right thur'. What's your excuse Senor Billable Hours?

[DPM17]

Which employer generates the most bullshit jobs, by the way?



Firefighter Earned $300K in Overtime by Working More Hours Than Actually Exist
Donn Thompson was paid for more than 9,200 hours of work last year. But there are only 8,760 hours in a year.

Los Angeles firefighter Donn Thompson had a busy year in 2017. If his pay stubs are to be believed, he literally never stopped working.

Data obtained by Transparent California, a project of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, show that Thompson pulled down $300,000 in overtime pay during 2017, on top of his $92,000 salary. Over the past four years, Thompson has earned more than $1 million in overtime, according to Transparent California's database. Thompson's ability to work so many hours "boggles the mind," says Robert Fellner, director of research at the institute.
. . .

While Thompson's payouts are certainly eye-popping, he's hardly the only firefighter in L.A. reaping huge taxpayer-funded earnings. During 2017, the Los Angeles Fire Department had 512 employees who cashed in with at least $100,000 in overtime pay, according to Transparent California. That's a tenfold increase over the 51 employees who got six-figure overtime pay as recently as 2012. Thompson was one of 26 employees to get at least $200,000 in overtime pay last year, when the department reported spending $198 million on overtime pay—a 74 percent increase since 2012.

PS: Wassup DPM? Long time, no see.

That he got away with such intense graft is evidence that someone in the LAFD isn't taking their bullshit job seriously...

Yeah, I've been working like crazy and starting a family. Reading the forum a lot more lately, it's still some grade A catharsis in the days of the intellectual dark web.

[DBTrek]

Where’s JD and Jedi to explain why we need to pay more taxes into more obvious graft and corruption, because “people are dying”?

[DPM17]

Regarding category 3, software programmers aren't just being shoddy, its the nature of their job. They're basically not allowed to write elegant code, they're more or less paid to write code that is functional right now. Funny, informative article. http://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

According to Graeber, Duct tapers are there to fix a problem that does not need to exist and everybody knows it. Someone who's hired to deal with the damage created by something being poorly organized because it's easier than addressing the problem.
Here's the example of a "duct taper" job from a testimonial he received:

Magda’s job required her to proofread research reports written by her company’s star researcher-statistician. “The man didn’t know the first thing about statistics, and he struggled to produce grammatically correct sentences. I’d reward myself with a cake if I found a coherent paragraph. I lost 12lb working in that company. My job was to convince him to undertake a major reworking of every report he produced. Of course, he would never agree to correct anything, so I would then have to take the report to the company directors. They were statistically illiterate, too, but, being the directors, they could drag things out even more.”

Easier or cheaper? Capitalism isn't 100% efficient, it's just more efficient. Marx would be the first to tell you that. I, and anyone that has worked a company with more than 20 people can tell you that shit just creeps in. Large companies struggle with bureaucracy big time. It's pretty much baked into the cake. So long as there is competition, it eventually gets sussed out or they go under.

Easier or cheaper is a good question. I think the book is just pointing to a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that no matter what, jobs like these are mind killing, even if you're well paid for the undertaking. People slowly go crazy doing this kind of shit.
My pet theory is that shit like Islamic terrorism largely has nothing to do with religion, it's more of a personal choice that people in bullshit jobs make between middle management purgatory and running around shooting guns in the desert under the banner of some bullshit group ideology. I mean which one sounds more fulfilling?

[doc_loliday]

Easier or cheaper is a good question. I think the book is just pointing to a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that no matter what, jobs like these are mind killing, even if you're well paid for the undertaking. People slowly go crazy doing this kind of shit.
My pet theory is that shit like Islamic terrorism largely has nothing to do with religion, it's more of a personal choice that people in bullshit jobs make between middle management purgatory and running around shooting guns in the desert under the banner of some bullshit group ideology. I mean which one sounds more fulfilling?

For sure, most jobs, I think, are personally unfulfilling. I am not sure if this is different from eras passed, with the exception of scope. Farming sucks, being a raider is way more fun. I also suspect that boring repetitive jobs are more tolerable when they aren't your life. Coming home to a family and community puts things in perspective, work is just something that has to get done. Living alone and working a miserable job is a pretty shitty life.

Is there a "solution"? Beyond getting so sick of it you finally force yourself to find something else, I don't know.

[DBTrek]

You generally don’t have to pay people to do fun stuff. Most people do fun stuff for free. So ... the idea that jobs aren’t fun, and this is somehow a punishment or an anomaly, seems specious.

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Doing something fun for free makes you an enthusiast. Doing something fun for money makes you whore. Doing something shitty for money makes you either unfortunate or a fool.

[DBTrek]

Doing something fun for free makes you an enthusiast. Doing something fun for money makes you whore. Doing something shitty for money makes you either unfortunate or a fool.

You’re a real “glass is half empty” kinda guy.

[Speaker to Animals]

I half-suspected for some time that large corporations agree how many bullshit jobs they will create to keep the system going.

What is a Walmart greeter if not corporate welfare?

[DPM17]

Easier or cheaper is a good question. I think the book is just pointing to a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that no matter what, jobs like these are mind killing, even if you're well paid for the undertaking. People slowly go crazy doing this kind of shit.
My pet theory is that shit like Islamic terrorism largely has nothing to do with religion, it's more of a personal choice that people in bullshit jobs make between middle management purgatory and running around shooting guns in the desert under the banner of some bullshit group ideology. I mean which one sounds more fulfilling?

For sure, most jobs, I think, are personally unfulfilling. I am not sure if this is different from eras passed, with the exception of scope. Farming sucks, being a raider is way more fun. I also suspect that boring repetitive jobs are more tolerable when they aren't your life. Coming home to a family and community puts things in perspective, work is just something that has to get done. Living alone and working a miserable job is a pretty shitty life.

Is there a "solution"? Beyond getting so sick of it you finally force yourself to find something else, I don't know.

There's a distinction between "shit jobs" and "bullshit jobs". Farming is most definitely not a bullshit job, being that it has a direct effect on the world. Whether it's a "shit job" or not is kinda up to the employee. I go work on my buddies farm one or two days a week because it's so much different than my actual job, and I feel grounded from doing it. But I don't know how I would feel if it were day in day out.

Bullshit jobs are different. They have no actual societal value.