Bullshit Jobs

[DPM17]

I've been reading David Graeber's new book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, which is an exploration of the rise of pointless, unfulfilling jobs in western society. In it he draws some cringeworthy borderline bolshie conclusions, but I think the premise: that the private and public sector both create tons of bullshit jobs, is sound. I'd be willing to guess that some participants in this forum are holding down bullshit jobs, and posting here is a way of staving off the consequent spiritual violence of such enterprises... No judgement, get that paper.

The book is based on an essay he authored titled On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs. He defines a bullshit job as: Any job that if it ceased to exist, would have no positive or negative effect on society. If you think your job is bullshit, chances are it probably is.

He breaks down bullshit jobs into five categories:
1. flunkies, who serve to make others feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants
2. goons, who act aggressively on behalf of their employers, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations
3. duct tapers, who fix others' problems, e.g., programmers repairing shoddy code
4. box tickers, e.g., performance managers, in-house magazine journalists, leisure coordinators
5. taskmasters, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals

Does this speak to the inevitability of UBI, or is it evidence that a bloated state apparatus cannot co-exist with anything resembling a truly free market?
It's definitely a societal problem. We all know the deal in the public sector, but why is market competition not rooting out such inefficiencies in the private sector? We prize "Job Creation" over anything else in the political sphere, so the pressure to create BS jobs seems to be huge. So many jobs that should be automated aren't because it would put someone out of work.

What percentage of your job is complete bullshit?
I'm at about 40% on a good day.

Here's the original 2013 essay.
Here's the book.

[Speaker to Animals]

I was arguing this for years. I think probably half the jobs in the corporate world today are bullshit or superfluous. I think, in effect, corporations are running a a work program at this point.

These jobs do serve some internal purposes, especially social and cultural ones, but in terms of actual productivity and innovation.. nah.

A lot of this has to do with so-called diversity. If you bring in a shit ton of females into the corporate world, you are going to need a huge HR department that never had to exist before. Then you will need to split of management tracks in engineering departments because women don't want to be engineers for the most part, and prefer for advancement roles like department manager rather than project manager. I suspect places like Google have become so toxic that there literally are cultural marxist job titles where degenerates try to promote "inclusion" or whatever other codeword they have for anti-male and anti-white.

But most of it is just superfluous jobs. That started exploding in the 1990s. Office Space actually covered it pretty well.


It's just the dark age creeping up on us. If you go back the last collapse in Western Europe, you would see a lot of superfluous jobs happening. Actual innovation ground to a halt because everybody's idea of research was to read what the old masters had written and try to come to a synthesis as to what they said was true. People didn't actually go out and try to figure things out for themselves. In our age something similar is happening in sciences, but the bigger analog is what is happening in business and industry.

[Martin Hash]

Ma & Pa, the real JOB CREATORS (well over 90%) don't have this problem.

[doc_loliday]

Regarding category 1, there are more of those bullshit pointless jobs in third world countries. When you can pay people the market rate, it turns out you can put a lot more people to use. There are actually very few door attendants in the US, whereas a big city is SE Asia might have all sorts of people doing menial tasks for the customer. Think of opening doors, directing parking lot traffic, carrying bags, etc.

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

[Speaker to Animals]

Depends on your team and what you are doing.

If the product actually is the code, and your customers are other businesses, I can assure you that you are paid to write elegant code.

Most programming work is actually IT-related, though, and that domain requires speed and functionality over quality.

That's one big difference between programming and software engineering (besides the compensation).

[Kath]

They're basically not allowed to write elegant code, they're more or less paid to write code that is functional right now.

+1
I'll bet the technical debt in this world is staggering. (Not to mention documentation, which is another form of technical debt.)

[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.”

[Zlaxer]

Ma & Pa, the real JOB CREATORS (well over 90%) don't have this problem.

Don't worry - CT is doing its best to push it on them...New state law requiring mandatory "inclusivity training" for all employers, regardless of number of employees....

They're going to be crushed out of existence...

[Fife]

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.

[doc_loliday]

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.