Pure Writerly Moments 2 (Short Stories, Essays, Book Reviews, and More)

Review - Bullshit Jobs - A Theory

Before there was this book, the concept of "bullshit jobs" was examined extensively in a popular American film. I present to you "Office Space" (1999). Watch the movie if you have a bullshit job!

I'll never forget this moment in 2006. I was working in Japan for a kid's English school. For that day, it was my job to pass out flyers for about two hours after I was done teaching. As I passed out flyers, I stood across from a woman who was wearing a sign made out of cardboard. She had put the sign over her shirt and was wearing it as she stood. I asked her how long she had been doing it. Since nine in the morning, she replied. I left at five and so did she. It was her eight-hour job to wear a sign. The store could have easily propped it up or made it into a poster or something, but instead they paid a person to just wear the sign. (Not even a proper sign-person who flips and twirls the sign). They also paid people at the time (and still do I think) to pass out tissues with advertisements. And one more thing. There are a lot of taxi drivers in Japan. Too many. What will happen when the automated taxis come?

So...bullshit jobs...that is the question this book takes up.

The author has identified a phenomenon, an elephant in the economic world, but does the author have a theory?

I think the frame of reference for this book is troubling. It's not that most jobs are bullshit -- the question that should be asked is how various people, societies, and nations have dealt with abundance, technological change and the growth of efficiency, and the role of "work" in social life. The shift from agriculture and industry to services has been well documented. Graeber does a nice job of showing how what is often defined as the growth in services really equates to useless administrative positions (not barbers and daycare workers).

Having lived in the US, Saudi Arabia, and Japan, I know that "work" is often looked at through a cultural lens.

In Saudi Arabia, citizens are readily able to admit that work is "bullshit" and that it should be avoided, foisted on foreigners, or minimized altogether. Everything meaningful in life is found in prayer, play, family, and friends. No one in Saudi is under the illusion that their talent produced the oil that has made them rich. So, why not just enjoy the benefits in the forms of subsidies, incentives, and handouts. Such is the mindset of a "rentier state".

In the US, work is both a duty and a right. Citizens ostracize those who don't work and organize to protect jobs and industries even when they are not productive. They are both angry at welfare recipients, but also angry at politicians who can't produce jobs. Socialism is something that leads to "soft" citizens. For an average US citizen, "work" is a good in-and-of itself, a sign of stoic virtue.

In Japan, work -- and especially unpleasant work -- is seen as a duty and way of showing submission to authority. The phenomenon of "no-pay overtime" demonstrates this principle. Workers stay overtime to do work for no pay even when there is very little work to do. This is a way of showing submission to your company. In return, companies perform social functions like retaining workers during economic slumps and even hiring unnecessary workers to maintain the country's official low unemployment numbers.