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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

The book Bullshit Jobs has changed my life

97 replies

Polarbearflavour · 06/04/2019 18:39

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.

OP posts:
Polarbearflavour · 08/04/2019 12:02

On a couple of occasions, I’ve been made to go to corporate brainwashing bullshit events. You know the kind of happy clappy nonsense I mean. At one event they played the song “Proud” and expected attendees to join in clapping and singing! Ridiculous. It’s a job in an office, not the Olympic Games.

I signed in and went to the pub instead and went home early. I have no interest in being brainwashed with “values” and “behaviours.”

Like most people, I want to go into work and go home again.

Many years ago I worked in retail. We had to “empathise” with customers and “excite” them with our products. In a stationery store. It beings wifh a P! How are you meant to have a deep emotional understanding of someone buying an envelope? Who actually cares?

That’s a job that could be automated. When I’m shopping, I don’t need an assistant or “advisor” to consult with me about which brand of dairy free milk I want.

When I worked for an airline they really tried to zombify us with cheesy videos and stupid mottos. “Passion” and “going the extra mile for the customer.” One crew member was given an award for “driving a passenger home when they felt unwell.”

OP posts:
InternetArgument · 08/04/2019 16:50

What’s a non-BS job then? Asking for a friend

DGRossetti · 08/04/2019 16:57

Anyone read the (still as true today) The Peter Principle ?

Polarbearflavour · 08/04/2019 17:36

What’s a non bullshit job? I suppose anything that actively improves the lives of others such as nursing, teaching etc. They may still have large amounts of bullshit in them such as excessive paperwork.

Ask yourself...would anybody die or be harmed if you didn’t do your job? Would anybody notice if you failed to turn up to work? Do YOU think your job is meaningful? Could your job be automated?

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ethelfleda · 08/04/2019 17:47

You need to read ‘The Art of Frugal Hedonism’
I bought the other day and couldn’t put it down - finished in a few days.
Made me realise that most of us work full time in order to buy things we don’t need to cheer us up because we work full time. In the 1950s, they predicted a 2 day working week in the future because most things would be automated. Advertising and wanting to buy a lifestyle is what keeps people in their jobs full time.
I work in freight forwarding and my job is to move all the stuff around the globe that everyone has to buy! I’m seriously considering slashing my hours right down.

AnnaNutherThing · 08/04/2019 18:08

I think working the bins is up there. And running the water and sewage system.

AnnaNutherThing · 08/04/2019 18:09

Quite ironic really.

Hearhere · 08/04/2019 18:15

reaping and sowing, digging ditches thats the only real work innit

LeatherFace · 08/04/2019 18:27

Had a bullshit job for yeeeears. Totally here the “no one would notice if I didn’t do it” and “having to make myself look busy”.

One day I cracked and quit. Got a new job, working for a company who’s ethos is that we only do work for people making a difference in the world. And I believe it’s true!

It’s stressful, and hard every day. But totally worth it.

LeatherFace · 08/04/2019 18:28

*hear not here! Thanks autocorrect Hmm

notanotherfucker · 17/05/2019 14:04

I just found this thread, I made another last week about having nothing to do at work, but surprisingly being rewarded for it, and very well thought of. This quote pretty much sums up my role:

“Provisional Definition 2: a bullshit job is a form of employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence”
― David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

Unihorn · 17/05/2019 14:11

I often think about getting one of these jobs. I'm a restaurant manager and run around from the start of my shift til the end, doing safety checks, assisting team when busy, recruiting, training, doing appraisals, sorting payroll, updating noticeboards etc etc.

I often look at job descriptions and adverts and think, surely that can't be someone's actual job for 40 hours a week. Reading between the lines there seems to be about 10 hours of actual work then 30 hours of filling the day.

notanotherfucker · 17/05/2019 14:20

Well I have timed it and my work is normally done by 9.30am, the other day I was flat out till 10am which was unusual but good. The rest of the time I spend listening to music, watching tv on my phone, occasionally answering the phone to people who have called the wrong number.

UnicornBrexit · 17/05/2019 14:26

I came in, early at 7.45, I finished the days work by 9.10, before everyone else rolled in, late.

Bored bored bored. But it pays well enough, my boss is flexi and the pension is amazing.

Unihorn · 17/05/2019 14:27

You're all making me jealous. Definitely need a career change to a bullshit job.

GabriellaMontez · 17/05/2019 14:28

I have a real job for which I'm paid fuck all and treated like shit by my bosses. Sometimes I lie awake worrying about individuals. My job is never boring but often frustrating.

I've been looking for a bullshit job for a while! It's comforting to know I should be able to pick one up! I'm reassured from this thread that they're out there and I'm qualified.

PopcornZoo · 17/05/2019 14:29

You might like a book called The Radical Homemaker.

lemonsandlimes123 · 17/05/2019 14:29

FYI teaching is a totally bullshit job. Teaching children irrelevant skills, arbitrarily decided on by politicians mainly for the sole purpose of being tested on those skills - bloody waste of time.

lemonsandlimes123 · 17/05/2019 14:30

leatherface - so what do you do?

Hollowvictory · 17/05/2019 14:31

I'm not sekei g how it's changed your life? You might think about getting a different job, is that it?

Duchessgummybuns · 17/05/2019 14:48

I usually finish my day’s work in an hour, but I’m there 4.5 hours 4 days a week.

I find myself bored to tears by it, I’d rather be productive. And the work I do when I have some is bullshit, that I know inside out and am bored by. I look forward to something going wrong so I have to use my brain to fix it. Add to this being micro managed and I think one of these days I could well explode.

Polarbearflavour · 17/05/2019 14:49

It’s totally changed how I think about the world. Most of life is bullshit so it’s made me a lot more laid back. Why worry when it’s all meaningless anyway? Enjoy the time you have left!

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notanotherfucker · 17/05/2019 15:02

@Duchess at least you are part time. I get the boredom, I sometimes go to the toilet just because it's something to do, I don't even need the toilet. I'm luckily not micro managed, but am just left to my own devices. My manager is more than happy with my progress and a promotion is on the cards. The higher up job is currently unfilled and there is no extra work heading my way, so it seems that job is a bullshit nothing job too.

ACPC · 17/05/2019 15:11

I want a bullshit job. I'd love to get paid for hee haw. Can I leave out the corporate news speak though? No? Damn.

flirtygirl · 17/05/2019 16:04

Can all those with the work done in an hr jobs. Please add their job titles and/or industry.

I need a job but my mh will not handle a full on job or being micro managed. These jobs sound brill as I can join so called "productive" society and get paid to sit 4 hours a day in my own world and read the Internet, which I already do for free at home.

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