Why am I talking about bullshit jobs? Because I think there are many of us who’ve seen people with higher salaries than us, working in similarly simpler and less taxing jobs.
And we want that.
But I’m here to say - actually you don’t really want it.
Because it can be utterly soul-sapping.
I had the fortune (or misfortune) of observing
this HR manager a few weeks ago, and realised slowly that he wasn’t doing much. Most of his days was spent pretending to work. Making an impression to his bosses that he was doing a lot, when in fact he wasn’t. Making a lot of noise.
As I spoke to him, he didn’t sound happy at all. In fact, he sounded unhappy that he wasn’t earning more money, buying more things, getting a bigger car, sending his children to a fancier childcare.
But he wasn’t taking any
effort to change things.
1 talk
If you feel your job is meaningless, it probably is. Don't kid yourself.
1 tip
Here’s a question. How many people do you need to staff a concierge?
If your answer was one, you’d probably be right.
Except that WeWork doesn’t just have one, it has 3.
3 people just sitting there, typing on their Macs, and barely
looking up when someone walks in. What are they doing there? No one knows.
Graeber argues that having people at concierge gives the company a badge of credibility that makes customers okay to pay hundreds of dollars for rent per month, when one could basically sit for free in a public library, and work, with possibly, even more productivity.

But what this whole phenomenon reveals, is a deeper malaise around our culture today.
That even if your job were BS, looking like you work (even if you don’t actually produce any value, and you know that for yourself), is better than just following what you really want to do.
I’ll close with this story. In October 2021,
I finally had enough of social work.
I loved the counseling bit. I would film my sessions, agonizingly go through the times where a client teared, experienced some emotional movement, and try to repeat that.
But increasingly, a large chunk of my time was spent filling forms, doing ‘assessments’, and not doing the real interventions that would produce change. I was talking about my work, without actually doing the work.
So I left.

This checks out across other research too.

2016-2017 US State of Enterprise Work Report
Today, if you have some leeway over what you’re doing, ask your boss why you’re doing certain bullshit tasks (like the forms you’re filling). Tell your boss,
okay, we have to do X, Y and Z. Realistically, only Y contributes to the change of our clients.
What would you prefer to have me do?
Push back against bullshit
tasks.
Because if you don’t, it will keep growing.
John
Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love