Is there a job which is NOT needed?

[Jux]

I mean, does anyone know of an actual existing post in any firm, company, organisation, where the employers' believe that they don't need to pay someone to do that work, but it's just nice to have someone there and to pay them for the privilege? That they could sack that person, not fill the vacancy adn there would be no effect on anything except their payroll is a bit less?

A friend of mine has one of those Corporate Governance type jobs.

very good at her job, but been made redundant about 4 times in last 15 years.

Meeter and greeter is a good example of a job for someone that has been out of the workplace for a long time.
We need roles like that.

Very true. There are some roles that often particularly suit very elderly people who don't want to sit at home alone all day, or those with learning difficulties, where it could probably be argued that they aren't crucial roles; but the value that it brings to society and customers to see a friendly face and a smile as they hand you a basket or whatever, as well as the sense of self-esteem of the person doing it, is very significant.

I think it's great when some more caring and community-minded companies are able to factor roles like this into their budget without hard-nosedly seeking to justify every single penny of overheads when they still end up with big profits at the end of it all.

Then I’m glad I don’t work in this department as they all sound incompetent!

@Jux then to meet your criteria, I would suggest various roles within the royal family and royal court are kept but are neither needed nor, if King Charles does want to slim down ‘the firm’ are they wanted- more they are kept for sentimental / historical reasons.

Instagram influencers.

I feel I have to stand up for the lollipop people. At my kids school on a major road with traffic lights, zebra crossings etc, the number of kids I see fly out of nowhere is not good. What is worse is the number of cars who even beyond the zebra crossing, that break the red lights on one side, whilst the other side of traffic has stopped is crazy as the kids are going. I think they help.

layers of managers in non jobs, lots in my old teaching job...several seemed to be away all the time 'bidding' for funds at conferences and nothing ever came of these long expensive trips !!....

i once temped in an office...i answered the phone about 3 times a day....sat all day totally bored, anyone else could have picked up the phone but the Edina Monsoon character employed lots of people to do very little....her husband was one of the 3 callers to ask me how many fags she had smoked and glasses of wine drank...totally pointless.

Social media influencers

Minister for Brexit Opportunities.

Actually they did get rid of that one didn’t they? A nothing job.

well I'd say a lot of middle management jobs; middle management marketing, that to me is a total-utter waste of time and not a position. You have client meeting with a marketing manager/account executive, brief passed to account/procurement person for costings and say production costs and logistics and then creative team. Any other middleman confuses the client brief, waters it/builds it and then what the client gets as an end product is lost in translation, a form of Chinese whispers. So marketing middle management, not necessary whatsoever.

yes!

My boss in1996.

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if it's been mentioned already but highly recommend David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs

I don't see how lollipop people are needed now children are walked/driven to school.

They were fir an age when 5 year olds walked themselves to school.

Those days are long gone.

Estate agents. It's so easy to replace them with an app.

Leaflet delivery people- we don't want them.

Dental nurses- just give me that bloody suction tube and I will do a better job myself!

I don't know if it's still the case but the lorries which deliver beer for Courage used to have 3 staff on board - driver, his assistant and someone to hold the horse, as a hang over from pre-mechanization. Probably gone now but this certainly used to be the case

Check out Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. He says load of jobs are just created with no need or output for a variety of Pizarro reasons eg : to help some feel more important by managing more people, or for token tick boxes etc

I also think whole industries, like gambling and advertising, are industries humanity could do without.

I often go through in my head what wouldn't be needed if there were no crime.
Most of the police, prisons, a lot of the courts, alarm systems, locksmiths, security on cars, some insurance costs to name the obvious ones.

Any job involved in making and selling things people don't need, clutter up homes and are polluting our planet.

Duke or Duchess of Sussex?

I used to have a job that fit this description. It was a specific advisor role in the public sector. I was part of a whole team that made minimal difference to anything really.

Estate agents. It's so easy to replace them with an app.

I beg to differ. I know the industry is renowned for far more than its fair share of sharks and ruthless incompetents, but when we sold a house last year, there were a whole load of pitfalls beyond our control that we could have fallen into without our EA - she was well worth every penny.

About 25 years ago I had a temp job where they mustn’t have had a call queuing system so someone answered phone and would shout out line 1 etc I’d put number on white board , someone would take that call iyswim . A kinda call queuing system . Obviously now calls are queued and the internet took over a lot of the calls . I did enjoy working there though got a free lunch and everyone was very nice think I was there about 3 months .

That’s part of the sales persons job, they get rotated on the shop floor to do that for an hour then move to assisting customers/cash desk/replenishing stock/keeping shop floor tidy etc.

I used to hate standing at the bloody entrance (especially in winter) having to smile and welcome customers as they walked in through the front doors.

My last job was like this (receptionist in council office). Took me about half an hour in the morning to clear whatever paperwork/post there was, then the rest of my job was passing on the odd phone call, opening the doors and saying hello to people who came in.

They introduced a new telephony system that cut out most of the phone calls and moved a lot of their procedures online. When my last informal performance ‘conversation’ 😬 came up with all sorts of bullshit ‘concerns’ (like sticking labels on wrong, apparently) I saw the writing on the wall and found another job. I was interested, but not surprised, that they didn’t replace me.