Do you have a bullshit job?

[bogrl]

On zoom earlier with some friends and were having this discussion about what constitutes a 'bullshit job' (ie one that doesn't really matter in the great scheme of life.

Given the current circumstances and how life has really been pulled into focus we were thinking about what we contribute.

I was being smug as a teacher and then when I thought about it, all I really do is prepare kids for bullshit jobs!

We basically ended up with saying we need to live in small communities where everyone works for the good of that community with no travel - essentially going back hundreds of years. No bullshit jobs and living off the land.

Do you have a bullshit job? Has all this made you look at things differently?

Gosh - this is my place. I have been struggling with this one. My job is surely utter BS. I’m a lawyer for a pensions company. I mean I guess people need pensions...but it’s all so far removed from reality.... they pay me ok to work part time but it is becoming too depressing for words

I was thinking of retraining as a teacher!! I was thinking that is surely the pinnacle of avoiding BS!!

Yes - I just make the company more money. I work out how to make more profit on our products, get people to spend more and strategies to shift the stuff that won't sell.

I used to have a marginally important job working in clinical trials, but it was SO boring that I had to go into a more interesting industry. Which is now shut, lol.

I'm thinking of retraining as a teacher actually.

I value my job more than ever now. I'm responsible for the management of evidence seized by the police during criminal investigations. A tiny cog in a big wheel, but a necessary one. I'm still going in to work every day and feeling faintly jealous of those enjoying the full lockdown experience.

I have been thinking a lot about the ire meted out towards "pen-pushers" middle management in the NHS and other public sector, but surely the issues with PPE and organising round the clock critical care needs to be better valued now we now how critical it is.

I agree with the principle that a lot of jobs are bullshit but I disagree with your views about what some of them are.

teaching is more than preparing people for work, so your work is valuable - and would be even if your pupils were all going into bullshit jobs, which they are not.

My job (that I used to have - been kicked out) was not directly related to physically sustaining people but though there were strong elements of serious bullshit, and enriching people who do not need to be any richer, the core of it is entertainment - good quality entertainment for children - and I don't think entertainment is bullshit. Literature, music, toys, drama, TV, film, opera, etc - all of these are important and are more than bullshit. Children are enriched and developed by good quality culture and I don't regret what I do.

I wish I could do it in a less bullshit way though

Yes, but my job is to make people do more of their bullshit jobs and so it goes on.

@BeijingBikini
@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow

Teaching is fabulous BUT the bs part for me is

What am I prepping them for!? A life in this bullshit system!! I try to do as much pastoral stuff with them to feel like I am truly contributing to their holistic wellbeing.

Good luck with retraining

In theory mine is a bullshit job and the economy could manage just fine without my individual job. However, at some point if you took out my whole "bullshit" sector a hell of a lot of non-bullshit stuff wouldn't exist either. We are a necessary bullshit

I also think that while we can all see which sectors are definitely essential, no one is smart enough to decide what sectors are definitely not essential. Innovation is always non-essential at the start because we haven't had time to harness and rely on it yet. It's only with hindsight we see what's important.

I don't think management jobs are necessarily bullshit jobs. If you work for a company or organisation that serves a valuable purpose and you help to make that company or organisation run more effectively, then your job isn't bullshit.

But if you work for a company or organisation that doesn't do anything useful, or if it does but you could go to your office, sit and play candy crush all day and it wouldn't make any difference then your job is a bullshit one.

Generally yes. My job is bullshit and nobody would miss it if it vanished tomorrow. My plan is to escape the rat race as soon as possible. My kids will “work” for me. ie havdd Ed nice lives going fuck all or choose to work in public service. That’s my way of giving back, I’ve created 4 useful geniuses that will add value because they can afford to work for buttons due to my life of bullshit. Does that make sense ? It does in my head

I have spent the last 20 years helping to line someone else's pockets (our company MD, private sector, business services type company) I have always gone over and above but am paid very well, have a lot of flexibility and now part time as well which has been a godsend.

In the grand scheme of life my job and the company is definitely bullshit no one would miss it but in terms of our lives it fits well.

I'd love to re-train but I think i'm a bit of a one trick pony now, it's a bit like i've been institutionalised.

What am I prepping them for!? A life in this bullshit system!! I try to do as much pastoral stuff with them to feel like I am truly contributing to their holistic wellbeing.

Teach them to recognise, decode and question the cultural messages that bombard us so they can consciously decide what's important to them rather than unconsciously following their cultural blueprints.

They probably can't escape the bullshit system (or rather, the price of escape is too high for most) but if they see it they can decide for themselves to what level they want/need to participate, and if they have to perform bullshit they do it knowingly because it serves their purpose.

I'll be honest, I picked my job because I'm quite lazy and it's a good salary-effort ratio. I clock off at 5. But for 2 months before lockdown, every single thing I created was either dismissed or not looked at by the person who I was doing it for, because they were too busy. I regularly had weeks with no work on where you either do "training" or wave the mouse around. I started volunteering months ago to try and get some usefulness out of my life.

A few years ago I was a Travel & Tourism lecturer, then left to work in the industry. I see some of my old students on social media and I despair for them. They had flourishing careers that are now mostly ruined. I was, until recently doing my MSc in international business and tourism but I've quit (still a post grad cert) as I can't see the point.

I'm now working in emergency services and really feel that I'm actually doing a real job. I don't have to carry on pushing myself to do cpd and moving up the ladder. I feel fulfilled just helping people be safe and trying to keep everything civilised. I'll probably just pootle along doing this until I retire now as it's a great job.

Yes. I enjoy my job day-to-day and have lovely colleagues, which really counts for a lot, I know. I would find it hard to leave. But literally every time I have a holiday I wonder what I am doing with my life. This lockdown is just compounding that feeling. The worst part to me is that none of my colleagues seem to feel the same, as far as I can tell (obviously I don't just go around all day saying this is bullshit). Am I missing something or are they?

I feel like other people think I have a bullshit job. I'm a childminder, I love it but it can be very hard going. My friends have witnessed the very stressful times, but they know I have a great times aswell. So I think they are under the impression it's a fun ride most of the time. Even although people say, " I don't know how you do that job" I think they are under the impression that childminders have some sort of magical powers that make children angels all the time 😂. We don't, but still I love it. I love my mindees almost as much as my own children and I am missing them terribly atm. Infact I know for a fact they get preferential treatment over my own kids, my kids know that aswell and treat them like siblings and they never complain.
I don't think their parents know how strong the bond I have with their children is. Infact I hold back on telling them certain things because I don't want them to feel like I'm taking their place.

I'm public sector middle management 'waves at @sassanach who works for the same organisation'.
Yes, mine probably is a bullshit job. I manage people who do the actual work. It fits in with the rest of my life though and I do enjoy it. I think management is a lot like parenting.

I’m in marketing, so what many people would call 100% bullshit, but I love what I do. I’ve done other jobs and trained in other things, but this is just me. Not sure what that says, but I also am currently missing the bullshit.

I know what I do won’t save lives or make a huge dent in the world, but it makes my life better.

I like to think that I have never had a bull shit job. Currently working in Children and Family services ( social work for shorthand but I’m not actually a social worker ) definitely not a bull shit job.
Which is why I have never earned a high salary, society has never properly valued actual key workers.
I would like to think as a result of Coronavirus we no longer call footballers and other sports people heroes and worship non entities off the TV and pay them thousands of pounds a week while paying people like retail workers and carers minimum wage and treating them like shit.

I’m in two minds. I think assuming small set sufficient communities are happier overall is a bit rose tinted - they’ll be happier socially, but much much more likely to have more average poverty due to the lack of overall economy. My job helps big organisations be more efficient - feels bullshit a lot of the time but actually a lot of these organisations are very important e.g. utility companies, television broadcasters, government etc. But on a day to day basis it’s hard to see if I really make any difference at all...

This has made me think of Chandler from Friends and his ridiculous job where he just crunched numbers that nobody gave a shit about.

I do absolute corporate bullshit that people take so seriously, I just do as I'm told and I try not to get to sucked in, do my best but its seriously a job that a few people could do but instead there are 15 cooks and thousands of pounds spent.

I always wonder what the unemployment rate would be like if you could get rid of all the over staffed, over analysed job, reckon it would be very high

I used to work in market research as a statistician, I enjoyed it but I knew that it was a bullshit job the entire time I was doing it. That was part of the appeal tbh, nobody died if I made a mistake, in fact it was very unlikely that anyone would even notice let alone suffer because of it.

I had a total bullshit job for almost two years, I literally wasted my days making reports nobody read but would get mad if they weren't ready for them to stick into their reports that nobody read. It was well paid, I stuck with it until I got my mortgage then left. I am now an environmental researcher and am doing my best to try to make some small contribution in my area. I feel much better about myself as a result. It's amazing looking back how ground down I felt doing pointless work. There are much harder jobs out there but it was pretty soul crushing for a while. I worked with some great funny people though!

Am an artist.

You tell me

I’m in sales so whilst our services are bullshit my job is fairly practical as I get money in for a business that pays people

But many of my colleagues have bullshit jobs

Oh yes