Standort: fm4.ORF.at / Meldung: "Today's Webtip: Bullshit Jobs"

Dave Dempsey

Dave digs the Dirt, webtips, IT-memes and other online geekery. Also as Podcast.

4. 6. 2014 - 12:36

Today's Webtip: Bullshit Jobs

An anthropologists perspective on work and value.

I would be a terrible manager. Well, I probably would have been, had my one management level position not ended before it began.

I hate meetings, and prefer to be doing something that actually ends in results. I also prefer finding jobs that provide a sense of value. Doing construction was rough, but much more satisfying than the telemarketer gig I had as a kid. The only good thing about that job was the day I quit.

That was truly a bullshit job. Poorly paid, adding no value to society, and high pressure. The fact that it was a nuisance to the people being called seemed to only be an issue for the recipients and a handful of marketers.

Anyway, bullshit jobs. What are they? Why do they exist? And why are so many non-bullshit jobs so poorly paid?

David Graeber is an American anthropologist with some possible answers.

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