there are lots of jobs that have little to do with making the machine go, as they basically track and record what the machine is doing for future reference. this is deemed socially necessary, and may perhaps be, but it is divorced from the functional operation of the firm.
Says someone who has never gone through a serious audit. Many of these things are critical corporate memory. And often the problems of today are rooted in these records.
pretty simply. paying taxes is socially necessary but wholly irrelevant to firm functions. firms do that work *for* the government (as they should), but it's not what they're for.
yes, and again, safety is vital—but it's not a core function of a firm. in practice, firms end up paying lawyers and consultants to carry out purely formal activities to demonstrate compliance. it would in fact be more efficient to pay gov't agencies to do that!
I think we aren’t going to agree. Safety is a critical part of many brands. I think I get what you are saying, but I find trying to separate core from non-core in this way is artificial & bad for company culture.
well, if your priority is company culture, then you may be in the wrong conversation. Graeber in particular loathed that expression and everything it entails, to say nothing of the bullshit of which branding consists.
Okay? I admire Graeber greatly but do not agree with everything and this in any case was not my point. But we aren’t going to agree so that indeed makes this at lease a pointless conversation.
