The book Bullshit Jobs has changed my life

[Polarbearflavour]

Anybody else?

Article here. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/25/bullshit-jobs-a-theory-by-david-graeber-review

Most of my jobs are bullshit. My current job involves vast periods of time doing nothing, sometimes doing audits that nobody reads and just get filed away. Or attending committees, doing minutes for them that again, nobody ever reads.

But how has it changed your life? Did you quit your job?

It made me realise that the current capitalist system isn’t working. It then got me wondering what will happen in the next 20 years when 20-50% of all jobs are automated.

Yeah my job is bullshit.

Well I think so but I have imposter syndrome and I can’t believe I get paid what I do and get away with it.

There is a lot of bullshit in the public sector too.

Approx 60% of NHS jobs are bullshit.

What do you do WingBingo

PolarBear. I understand it’s got you thinking (I’m an accountant, I know my jobs bullshit 😂) but how has it ‘changed your life’?

It’s made me think I might re-train and do a less bullshit job.

I'm a temp in a bullshit job that I could fix but then I wouldn't have a job.

🤷‍♀️

So many jobs are just inexplicable, and I don't mean the ones I don't understand in IT!

It's nothing new though: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was a long running TV comedy on this theme.

I’m thinking how nice it would be to live in the wilderness in a cabin and not work in an office.

So not actually changed your life. More like food for thought.
If you take their advice, and if you retrain, then come back and say it changed your life.
Bet you don't
None of these books ever do change lives for more than 5 mins

This comic strip about the concept of bullshit jobs is great.

english.emmaclit.com/2017/10/05/work-why/

I used to be a teacher, but have a freelance copywriter after having my kids. I was writing dull articles for corporate websites and realised that it being a bullshit job was a big factor in my unhappiness. I've retrained to work in children's mental health (not a bullshit job) and feel massively better.

Ahh but Bondiandbabe do you ever wonder whether it is infacg a bullshit job because the reason why children have mental health issues is generally because we live in a shitty society where we are generally expected to have a bullshit job - thus making parents miserable, depressed and unable to cope and resulting in kids MH problems??

I only say this having worked with kids for many years and recognising that the reason that they are so fucking sad is that we expect them to live within a bullshit society.

There are SO few jobs that don’t relate back to the fact that we are a complete and utter bull shit society...

hazell42 - are you going to be watching this thread then for my triumphant return or something?

A book might not have changed YOUR life but not everybody is like you.

Boohootoyootoo - exactly.

I regulary look on the Reddit sub “Anti Work” too. At school, nobody ever says they want to grow up to work in an office. Yet that’s what not of us do. My job adds nothing to society, I have nothing to do 90% of the time and I just sit in my little office. If I stopped going to work, nobody would notice.

Utopia would be UBI for all and automation of all these bullshit jobs. More likely to be the 0.01% living in guarded palaces and everybody else living like a medieval peasant.

My manager literally just fucks around with spreadsheets, sorting the same data in different ways and sending them to us asking that we focus on different things. I ignore every single one of them and am exceeding all my targets.

I need your job OP. Want to swap? I’m a primary school teacher. I get paid sod all for long hours and a whole load of stress and I can’t even leave the job in the building. At this point in my life I need to just turn up, fiddle about on a keyboard and go home again.

Oh and my bosses just make spreadsheets all day long to ‘measure progress’.

Sounds a bit like my midlife crisis! I retrained to do something that actually mattered and, through that, realised that the education system is just as messed up! What are we actually preparing our kids for with all of this info that they’re cramming into their brains to pass a test with? Those are not the skills they are going to need. We are going to struggle if we don’t drastically change the way we teach our kids.

The book sounds fab!

The thing is, having no work is boring. I still have to sit in an office pretending to work. It’s a different kind of stress. I do think that most people want to be productive and useful but that doesn’t mean making money for somebody else and doing pointless tasks.

And I love the cartoon featured above! Just sums it up really.

Oysterbabe we could have the same manager - or I could actually be your manager.

The bullshit you have to put on forms to get these bullshit jobs is astonishing.

I was applying for jobs on the Civil Service website today.

You have to list five competency examples for a low grade admin job.

Seeing the Bigger Picture
Delivering at Pace
Making Effective Decisions.

Etc

Oh do fuck off. I found a book on 'Tough Interview Questions' on the library shelf and copied the examples.

Well bullshit is the name of the game in the Civil Service!

Oh yes, the Civil Service is largely bullshit. It’s basically existing to keep people in (poorly) paid employment.

Most of the clerical jobs could be automated.

I have to disagree about books not changing lives.

I read the "Joy of Not Working" on my honeymoon...it's not about not working, more about being mindful of what you're doing and a load of other stuff and applied the ideas. Been interesting!

Do I have a bullshit job? My job is to help other people with their bullshit jobs (consultant). I get satisfaction from helping them, but if I'm helping them to do more of their bullshit job, does that mean my job is a bullshit job too?