Work without purpose

In 1930s eminent economist, John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the end of the century, the advance of technology would see us all working 15 hour week, but they were proved wrong, instead, today on average working hours have increased considerably. Now across the world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services or admin that do not add any value to the society, bullshit jobs.

“A bullshit job is a job that the person doing it believes is pointless, and if the job didn’t exist it would either make no difference whatsoever or it would make the world a better place”, David Graeber.

An American anthropology professor at the London School of Economics confirmed Graeber was onto something huge about 21st-century capitalism and looked like 20th-century Soviet socialism, generating innumerable pointless jobs to keep workers employed. Anthropologists David Graeber, in bullshit jobs, provides a funny, exploring account of how the world has been engulfed by pointless work, our valuation of work, how work has become an end to itself, and how we can get out of it.

It all boils down to the anxiety about keeping one’s job safe from a robot, as his book is based on a 203 essay he wrote for a radical magazine called Strike! Which was a big hit it crashed the publication’s website and was translated into dozens of languages within days? Even The Economist published a critique of it, and adverts quoting it appeared in the London Underground.

Imagine having a job that you £30,000 to write the minutes for a big company meeting where the document is never discussed or do a method statement to move a person’s computer ten meters from one room to another.

Capitalism is supposed to deliver efficiency, technological advances are supposed to mean we spend less time at work of any sort,  rent-seeking corporate elite fearful of giving exploited workers more time and leisure to think. His book is based on email testimonies received from 250 people, after setting up a bizarre email account, doihaveabsjoborwhat@gmail.com.

David Graeber, labelled this sort of jobs bullshit jobs and even categorised them into various categories as there is the underemployed receptionist who exist to make bosses look good,  PR workers, telemarketers, duct-tapers, box-tickers and taskmasters who supervise people who do not require supervision.

Simon who spent two years analysing the inner workings of a big bank, where at least 80 percent of the bank’s 60, 000 staff were not needed as their jobs could be performed by a program or were not needed at all because the programs were designed to enable to replicate some bullshit process.

A UK survey showed that 37 per cent people didn’t believe their jobs made a meaningful contribution.

Graeber’s thought-provoking examination of our lives capture our imagination and is must read for everybody.

 Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber, Allen Lane £20, Simon & Schuster $27, 368 pages.