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bullshit job update

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wgroeneveld 2020-12-20 13:24:56 +01:00
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@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ What's a bullshit job, you ask? I'm pretty sure everybody instinctively knows wh
You know, the sort of very useful governmental paper pushing that is required when registering a travel passport, making a complaint, or trying to convince your bank employee that no, you're not going to take that extra insurance. There are obvious examples, but as I read the book, and as David also admitted, very large portions of virtually _any job_ contain bullshit parts. And bullshit percentages are increasing at an alarming rate.
There's also a theory on why society does not object to bullshit jobs. According to Graeber, social value and pay are inversely correlated: hospital cleaners and garbage collectors contribute to our social structure, but barely get paid anything, while corporate lawyers effectively hurt our social culture, and get a paid royal amount for doing so. There seem to be papers on the discussion of jobs and their (perceived?) social value, of which a few are referenced in the book.
There is, however, one small but important detail present in the definition: it is **the employee** him/herself who cannot justify the existence. I'm not entirely convinced that this is the only kind of bullshit job. Imagine a HR advisor that admits his/her job is useless: bullshit job. Imagine another HR advisor who thinks he/she's doing incredible valuable work, while in fact, it's the same bullshit. Does the latter mean the job is not a bullshit job? We all know a lot of people in denial working bullshit jobs...
The theory on why society does not object to bullshit jobs is also worth looking at. According to Graeber, social value and pay are inversely correlated: hospital cleaners and garbage collectors contribute to our social structure, but barely get paid anything, while corporate lawyers effectively hurt our social culture, and get a paid royal amount for doing so. There seem to be papers on the discussion of jobs and their (perceived?) social value, of which a few are referenced in the book.
<script type='text/javascript' src='/js/amcharts4core.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='/js/amcharts4charts.js'></script>
@ -105,6 +107,8 @@ createChart("jobdiv", [{
}); // end am4core.ready()
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Isn't that something - research that claims researchers produce the most valuable output (economically speaking) for society?
### Bullshit in the software engineering industry
In my [a decade in the industry](/post/2018/10/a-decade-in-the-industry/) post, I reflect on ten years as an agile software developer working for various privately held companies. After reading bullshit jobs, a lot of _'shit'_ I've done there can be easily categorized as bullshit:
@ -121,6 +125,8 @@ Let's be honest. A lot of 'Scrum Best Practices' are totally bullshit. We never
- Writing business reports that are never read;
- ...
To anyone who isn't familiar with [The Dilbert Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert_principle): promoting incompetent people to management to get them out of the workflow fits perfectly with this theme.
A social value of `0`, according to the above graph, is in my opinion dependent on what kind of software you're creating. In general, being a software developer for a large company does not necessarily entail virtuous behavior, nor does it mean finding meaning. So I quit and joined the academic world to teach undergraduates how to do a bullshit job.
### Bullshit in computing academia
@ -136,7 +142,7 @@ Now that I'm an academic, I'm not particularly better off. In fact, if I look ar
The supply and demand of administrative services has risen up to `+240%` between 1985 and 2005 (p. 161), meaning both industry and academia are heavily burdened by paper pushing. These _'strategic vision documents'_ aren't going to write themselves, you know! David admits that his tenure as a professor in reality entails that about `50%` of his job is total and utter bullshit (p. 263). That is not something to look forward to.
The question is, is a professor a schoolteacher (social value `+1`), a researcher (social value `+9`), or a manager (`-0.8`)? Furthermore, I've read a lot of published research that can be safely called bullshit. Simply reducing a job or even entire sector to a financial number to see if it adds or subtracts from the economy overall seems to be bullshit too.
The question is, is a professor a schoolteacher (social value `+1`), a researcher (social value `+9`), or a manager (`-0.8`)? Furthermore, I've read a lot of published research that can safely be called bullshit. Simply reducing a job or even entire sector to a financial number to see if it adds or subtracts from the economy overall seems to be bullshit too.
### Coping with bullshit jobs