I get why people think that every job but theirs is fake. There's a sense that we sort of intuit that in complex orgs the actual load-bearing positions differ from the org chart (cf. Ed B's post about Peggy and the University). BS jobs flatters the, "only I do real work" impulse.
I get mad about my companies org chart and pay structure not reflecting the actual load bearing positions that is not the same as thinking I am a load bearing position or that managers are useless.
Having held a combination of managerial and analytical/technical roles (often at the same time) over several decades, I tend to think the analytical jobs are "easier". There's little appreciation for what mgmt deals with, the breadth of skills it takes, the time commitment, and the pure energy drain
I have the blessing and curse of living in a micronation where anyone can walk up to the Tribal government and be like "I want to be involved in politics" and get put on 3 committees, and honestly? Maybe we could use more managers and less democracy.
It'd be nice if we just ran our museum instead of having it be run indirectly with an oversight committee consisting of five elders, all of whom have beeves with the other four.
my theory of governance is that good governance requires government that is effective enough but isn't too effective because being too effective means beeves have too large an impact. so all human governmental history is attempts to balance out effectiveness.
Right. And that's a common Young Person Sentiment. But growing up means realizing you don't have all the answers, and a book like Bullshit Jobs flatters the reader with no, it's fine, you can keep telling yourself you're the only one in your org who does anything.
In my organization it's not necessarily that the people above me are more / less talented but they definitely have more demands on their plate, their decisions have bigger consequences, and their jobs are more at risk.
this is being a uni administrator.. You're paid marginally more but you have to put up with so much more crap.
and I say that as a professor who has joked that people who went into admin have "gone to the Dark Side"
In larger companies it is a lot easier to skate by barely doing your job. So the jobs aren't bullshit, but the number of all but incompetents (by choice or by rising to their level) grows as the company does. The jobs aren't bullshit, but if you try you can make yours bullshit.
The funniest thing about BS Jobs is that when you go out & try to get actual numbers, the entire thesis falls apart.
Even a piece I read trying desperately to salvage something from it couldn't avoid the conclusion that its list of jobs that were BS was just a list of jobs Graeber disliked.
