The bullshit jobs

“Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” is a book published by David Graeber in 2018. He described the modern world as a place flooded with meaningless jobs that don’t make any contribution.

Really? I thought the world was increasingly becoming a busy place due to the exponential growth of information. Let’s break down his definition of “Bullshit Jobs”.

Flunkies are roles that make others look or feel good. The job can be eliminated or easily replaced with automation.

Goons are people for jobs that are not essentially needed. These jobs exist only because competing organizations have them.

Duct tapers are roles that solve problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Box-tickers are whose job is to appeal that something valuable is happening. Remember all those periodic reports that nobody really cares about?

Taskmasters are middle management positions that create extra work to manage things. Knowingly or not, they create unnecessary work disguised in the form of improved management.

In 1930, John Keynes predicted that advanced economies would have achieved a 15-hour work week by the end of the 20th century thanks to technology. It’s been 25 years since we entered the 21st century but we are yet to meet Keynes’s prediction.

The author suggests Keynes was actually right as we effectively reached the level of productivity he predicted. However, we are still working a lot more than 50 hours a week by spending a lot of time on bullshit tasks. It’s neither productive nor ethical.

Why? Because every bureaucracy has a tendency to expand by creating bullshit tasks, create unnecessary processes, layers of approval, and extra paperwork., so it can consume time and resources as much as it can.

Indeed, some of these “Bullshit Jobs” are necessary for execution and plan implementation. But essentially, they don’t create any value and will suck all resources out of those who do the real job if not managed carefully.