My perspective - The pointlessly employed
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- Published on Monday, September 3, 2018
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
Neepawa Banner & Press
Maybe it was because Mike Rowe鈥檚 words about the war on work were still fresh in my mind, or maybe it was the title, but I clicked with interest on a story from the Economist. 鈥淏ullshit jobs and the yoke of managerial feudalism鈥濃�� this had to be good.
The piece was a question and answer with David Graeber, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics, who in 2013, wrote a viral essay about 鈥渂ullshit jobs鈥�. This essay was recently expanded into a book. As we look at the problems facing the developed world, could it be that the type of work we do is playing a role?
According to Graeber, a 鈥渂ullshit job鈥� is one that even the person doing it secretly believes need not, or should not, exist. If these jobs, or their industry, were to vanish overnight, it would make no difference in people鈥檚 lives and in some cases, the world might even be a better place. The problem isn鈥檛 isolated, Graeber points to surveys which have found that 37 to 40 per cent of workers say their jobs make no difference.
In an era where corporate cultures are driven by efficiency and lean operations, how can so many people feel that their jobs are so useless? Graeber explains that the 鈥渓ean and mean鈥� ideal most frequently only applies to the workers actually making or doing things. In many cases, he says that the same executives who pride themselves on downsizing on the shop floor use the money saved, at least in part, to fill their offices with 鈥渇eudal retinues of basically useless flunkies鈥�.
It鈥檚 a problem we see across industries; for most managers, managing more people means more prestige and often, more money. For example, in health and education, Graeber explains, 鈥渕anagers now feel they need to each have their little squadron of assistants, who often have nothing to do, so they end up making up new, exotic forms of paperwork for the teachers, doctors, nurses鈥� who thus have ever less time to actually teach or treat or care for anyone.鈥� Sound familiar?
The interesting thing is how people respond to feeling that their job is pointless. Graeber noted that most don鈥檛 relish the fact that they are essentially getting something for nothing. Instead, the pointlessly employed report high rates of depression and anxiety. He noted that these would 鈥渕agically disappear the moment they were given what they considered real work鈥�. It鈥檚 not so much that people want to work, it鈥檚 that they want to feel they are having a positive impact on the world around them.
It鈥檚 an interesting truth that Graeber points out, there is an almost perfect inverse relation between how much someone鈥檚 work directly benefits others and remuneration. While I would argue that there are large pockets of rewarding, helpful, well paying jobs, in broad strokes, this holds true. Health care aides are more useful than marketing managers, but I know which title tends to be better paid.
Why don鈥檛 we see this as a major social problem, Graeber wonders? I can鈥檛 help but agree. If half the workforce is making good money doing jobs that really don鈥檛 need doing, imagine the other things they could be doing with their time? In many ways, it鈥檚 a different side of the war against work Rowe talks about.
If many of the 鈥渂ullshit鈥� jobs disappeared, few would notice. Certainly far fewer than would notice if we lost all of the cleaners, auto workers, teachers and nurses. Yet most people chase a 鈥渂ullshit鈥� job, why? Because we created an environment in which recognition and prestige are, in most cases, completely unrelated to the job鈥檚 necessity in the smooth functioning of our society. It鈥檚 a big problem that鈥檚 easier to ignore than solve.
