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Does your job contribute meaningfully to the world? Do you spend all day doing poo poo that doesn't really need to be done? This poll is inspired by David Graeber's new book coming out, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, which was based on his 2013 essay: On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs quote:In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century's end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There's every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn't happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be created that are, effectively, pointless. Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed. The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound. It is a scar across our collective soul. Yet virtually no one talks about it. Also, what is your job? Rated PG-34 fucked around with this message at 20:01 on May 17, 2018 |
# ? May 17, 2018 06:08 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 04:35 |
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We totally could have a 15 hour workweek but instead the bosses decided it would be easier to just do mass layoffs when technology improves instead.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:12 |
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I took some vacation time this week and only worked about 15 hrs so mission accomplished imo
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:15 |
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Melinda what did I do wrong
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:16 |
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Office workers probably work only 15 of the 40 hours anyway.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:18 |
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I’m reading the book rn and it’s good but he gets pedantic a lot. I’ve decided that I have a second order bullshit job. I do real, good work for people, but those people in turn have bullshit jobs
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:19 |
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Oh Adaira posted:Office workers probably work only 15 of the 40 hours anyway. Dude posting and making GBS threads at the same time is work
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:19 |
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One of the hats I wear at my job is Baker. So I guess it contributes, in the sense that I make things people want and eat on a daily basis.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:20 |
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Oh Adaira posted:Office workers probably work only 15 of the 40 hours anyway.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:21 |
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rgocs posted:Do meetings count as "work"? Lol no
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:21 |
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Sounds like commie talk to me. Tesla x ain't free losers
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:25 |
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Oh Adaira posted:Office workers probably work only 15 of the 40 hours anyway. This is true, but I think having to get up and go to work is slavery.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:32 |
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Oh Adaira posted:Office workers probably work only 1 of the 40 hours anyway. ftfy
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:34 |
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Im a supervisor at a hospital laboratory. Im in charge of testing that doctors use to save peoples lives. When i get home i eat my own waste make love to my dog and then check these forums.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:34 |
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I know people look down on what I do, but I take pride in the fact that I actually make something that's useful everyday.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:36 |
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Otto Von Jizzmark posted:Im a supervisor at a hospital laboratory. Im in charge of testing that doctors use to save peoples lives. This seems like a really interesting job.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:36 |
your poll is broken because of the way you framed it "is your job bullshit?" yes or no vs "does your job contribute meaningfully?" yes or no answering 'yes' to the first means 'no' to the second, but you pose both questions at once
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:38 |
I help automate IT jobs.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:42 |
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SKULL.GIF posted:your poll is broken because of the way you framed it Oops, thread title is not the same as the poll question but I guess that may not be wholly clear. Edit: if a mod sees this and could change the thread title to “bullshit jobs: a poll”, that would be super duper. Also modding is not a bullshit job Rated PG-34 fucked around with this message at 07:01 on May 17, 2018 |
# ? May 17, 2018 06:43 |
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I'm a marine geoscientist. Does my job contribute meaningfully to the world? Eh~
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:45 |
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my dog died im sad posted:I know people look down on what I do, Why? I like bread and stuff.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:50 |
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Being a baker is probably a job that smells really nice.
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:51 |
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Raere posted:I’m reading the book rn and it’s good but he gets pedantic a lot. I’ve decided that I have a second order bullshit job. I do real, good work for people, but those people in turn have bullshit jobs sayme
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# ? May 17, 2018 06:53 |
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Hmm, how to answer without doxxing myself. I work in proposals. The company I work for is ok in my book, the problem is it was bought by the parent company some years ago, which runs private prisons. So no, I don’t feel good about what I do at all, and I desperately want to be in another industry. remigious fucked around with this message at 07:04 on May 17, 2018 |
# ? May 17, 2018 07:01 |
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My job is to write papers that maybe 15-20 people in the world will ever read. I only have one paper with 100 citations and it took 9 years to rack up that many. So I'd say my job is pretty worthless to society, but that doesn't bother me.
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# ? May 17, 2018 07:04 |
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I’m supposed to be analyzing policy and managing whatever that means? As far as what I actually do, I look at the internet all day, whine around to everyone “is it 4 yet” and take 2-3 hour lunch breaks.
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# ? May 17, 2018 07:07 |
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The good thing about work is that I get to catch up on all the latest movies and pop culture while producing nothing!
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# ? May 17, 2018 07:33 |
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I'm a medical courier so I guess my job isn't bullshit because people need poo poo I move around to live. I hardly consider it work though. Nobody bothers me and I just drive around all day with my tunes blasting.
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# ? May 17, 2018 07:45 |
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I sell money at the bank, so no
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# ? May 17, 2018 07:47 |
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im the last of my familys dying business so i get to tell people to go gently caress themselves if they act stupid
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:04 |
I like how it frames our current situation as being by design by the elite. The ones that are smart enough to shape society to their will are trapped in the same existential hell that I am. I have a shitload of free time and money. Ultimately, there are too many hours in the day, and it’s a small world. And if I did enough drugs to make every one of those hours interesting, I would be dead in a month.
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:05 |
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soon i will be out of a job but until then if you tos s a credit card on the counter instead of hand it to me ill gently caress you for like $10
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:05 |
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Cracker Barrel is the worst waiting job Ive ever had; I mean I thought it would be a good idea being near school and all but the truth is that you can't make any money. They want you to act like a sever in fine dining but you get about $4 per table. Im doing good, b.c. I have other things, but like don't work there if you need to pay bills.
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:10 |
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bikesonyx posted:Cracker Barrel is the worst waiting job Ive ever had; I mean I thought it would be a good idea being near school and all but the truth is that you can't make any money. They want you to act like a sever in fine dining but you get about $4 per table. Im doing good, b.c. I have other things, but like don't work there if you need to pay bills. Yeah I would imagine anywhere that caters to mostly elderly people would be awful for the waiters tip-wise. Plus they make you pick like 4 sides and a lot of people are super indecisive when they only have to pick one.
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:13 |
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my job is pretty bullshit. im a panel membership rep for a market research company. i work from home and out of my car. i’m salaried but really only need to do about 15-20 hours of real work a week to be productive. the remaining 20-25 i fill on my time sheet as nebulous administrative time, most of which is spent lying around or doing whatever. the company gives me a car, pays for all my fuel, and my manager pretty much only checks in on our weekly market call, which I usually do half asleep from bed. before I started this job I was a cable technician for a cable company for years. i worked 50+ hour weeks and came home every day filthy, covered in scrapes, sweaty, and sore. i climbed up and down telephone poles, through attics and crawl spaces all day. i came to hate how I was too exhausted to want to do anything in what little spare time I had. but i was doing something productive, fixing stuff, solving problems. yeah whenever it was all to get some rear end in a top hat’s Fox News working again it felt pointless but when getting people’s communications up and running or fixed or better than they ever had them again made me feel useful on a psychological level i don’t think I realized. at first I was embarrassed to tell people I was a cable guy but then it was this great mine of bizarre stories of all the weirdos I met every day and strange situations I’d been in what im doing now pays better, has great perks, gives me more freedom and autonomy than I could have imagined was possible from a big company, laid back management, and an almost creepily caring and positive corporate culture that respects me as a person with a life, and yet I just feel hollow about it and I can’t bring myself to take any personal pride in it. i recruit panelists to participate in market research so they can be more effectively sold things. nothing about this is necessary, if I have a fantastic week the only person it’s helped is me and my quarterly bonus. i always thought the dream would be a fake job where i could basically just do whatever with the majority of my time with no oversight and get paid for it, but im starting to realize it might be sucking the soul out of me, idk.
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:13 |
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yeah I eat rear end posted:My job is to write papers that maybe 15-20 people in the world will ever read. I only have one paper with 100 citations and it took 9 years to rack up that many. So I'd say my job is pretty worthless to society, but that doesn't bother me. I respect what you do tho
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:17 |
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Mandrel posted:my job is pretty bullshit. im a panel membership rep for a market research company. i work from home and out of my car. i’m salaried but really only need to do about 15-20 hours of real work a week to be productive. the remaining 20-25 i fill on my time sheet as nebulous administrative time, most of which is spent lying around or doing whatever. the company gives me a car, pays for all my fuel, and my manager pretty much only checks in on our weekly market call, which I usually do half asleep from bed. feel good that you paid your dues working a rough job but now you have enough money and free time to give a poo poo about other things you care about
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:19 |
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Nuts and Gum posted:Sounds like commie talk to me. Tesla x ain't free losers tesla are going to collapse ftw
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:23 |
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MOOBS! posted:feel good that you paid your dues working a rough job but now you have enough money and free time to give a poo poo about other things you care about yeah that’s true, i know this is very much privileged whining and me a few years ago would punch softer me now in his idiot face
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:33 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2024 04:35 |
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Mandrel posted:yeah that’s true, i know this is very much privileged whining and me a few years ago would punch softer me now in his idiot face not privileged if you worked for it just make sure you care about stuff all that hard work was worth god bless
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# ? May 17, 2018 08:40 |