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BS Jobs - most work is a waste of time

59 replies

Nimbostratus100 · 18/01/2023 16:55

Anthropologist David Gaeber, in 2013, suggested that around half the jobs done in developed countries are BS jobs, a pointless waste of time, and the economy would be much more efficient if we do away with these jobs, and give these workers universal credit to do nothing instead.

What do you think? AS a teacher, a lot of my job comes under category 4, while being assessed and monitored by a deputy head from category 5 - every school has one!

Here are the pointless waste of time job categories:

1) flunkies, who serve to make their superiors feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants, store greeters, makers of websites whose sites neglect ease of use and speed for looks;

  1. goons, who act to intimidate harm or deceive others goons on behalf of their employer, or to prevent other goons from doing so, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists, community managers;

  2. duct tapers, who temporarily fix problems that could be fixed permanently, e.g., programmers repairing code, airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags do not arrive;

  3. box tickers, who create the appearance that something useful is being done when it is not, e.g., survey administrators, in-house magazine journalists, corporate compliance officers, quality service managers;

  4. taskmasters, who create extra work for those who do not need it, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals

OP posts:
ssd · 19/01/2023 10:40

Influencers do my head in

museumum · 19/01/2023 12:03

BigFatLiar · 19/01/2023 10:32

Social media influencers, entertainers, media people (especially reality tv people)

This is a tricky one because I absolutely think that art and music etc are essential to joyful human existence and people can sell their art, storytelling or music if people want to buy it.
I agree reality tv etc is utterly shit and no benefit to human kind - but who is the gatekeep? It’s not up to me to tell someone else what entertainment to enjoy. Unfortunately the crap can only be stopped by the consumers of the crap switching off.

housemaus · 19/01/2023 12:14

My job could disappear, tbh. DH's couldn't (or shouldn't).

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 19/01/2023 12:30

I agree there certainly are plenty of 'non jobs' but I don't agree with the examples given. Most customer-facing jobs are necessary, for example. You might argue that some industries are unnecessary and therefore, customer-facing role within them fall into that category, but there is a difference between an industry being unnecessary and a job being unnecessary.

The example about coding - I know next-to-nothing about it - but surely rewriting an entire piece of code takes time, so temporary fixes are needed. I doubt David Gaeber would be happy if, for example, his bank told him he couldn't use his bank account for six months because there was an error with the code and it needed to be rebuilt from scratch.

Anonmousse · 19/01/2023 12:32

I make and repair jewellery. Its not that essential, I mean technically no one needs jewellery.
But since it is a thing then my job serves a purpose.

Nimbostratus100 · 19/01/2023 15:19

I agree all the art/culture stuff is important - I dont really know what I think, tbh, the more I think about it, the more I move from one side to the other. I am certainly very aware of a huge amount of box ticking and taskmastering in education - get rid of all that and we'd free up a lot more teacher hours!

OP posts:
Nimbostratus100 · 19/01/2023 15:21

Anonmousse · 19/01/2023 12:32

I make and repair jewellery. Its not that essential, I mean technically no one needs jewellery.
But since it is a thing then my job serves a purpose.

I dont think this is what is meant though, jewellery is part of a functioning society. I think he is talking about jobs that are literally just Make-works for nothing, not for any benefit culturally, or emotionally, which jewellery definitely is, as is music, fiction, etc.

OP posts:
ADHDeee · 19/01/2023 15:44

I think it's a sneering and snobbish list.
100% agree. I would fucking howl if I had to witness some of my past colleagues / managers do their oh so important jobs without admin staff. Mind you if more middle aged management knew how to do any sort of basic admin task like populate a spreadsheet or even just set up a computer / use a computer properly (while raking in £60k plus) then maybe admin wouldn't be needed. Incompetence needs to stamped out more than 'BS jobs'.
This guy sounds like a right cunt.

slamfightbrightlight · 19/01/2023 15:48

I’m a 4. But that’s because external bodies put pressure on my organisation to comply with certain things and if I wasn’t around it would be an extra thing on the workload of people who are already stretched. I don’t expect my job to last forever though, it’s a “nice to have” and non-essential.

I wouldn’t put teachers in any of those categories though

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