Comment by CRConrad
2 years ago
> You have missed the point.
No, I think at least in large part, you missed the point.
> It has nothing to do with coding but everything to do with adding tangible value towards achieving an Objective Goal (Business/Technology/whatever).
As I understood _Bullshit Jobs,_ "adding tangible value" to some business that doesn't actually add anything of actual (non-monetary) value to the world is bullshit. There are whole industries that make billions of dollars, but everyone who works in them is still doing a bullshit job. (I often think I do.)
You are talking about the meaningfulness/meaninglessness of the Business/Technology Objective itself. That aspect is certainly relevant and can be Bullshit (eg. companies selling Scrum master/Agile coach certifications :-) but in the context of this thread we are talking about the bullshit jobs created within an organization in the bureaucratic/administrative/managerial/leadership "roles". This is what is more insidious and needs to be rebelled against.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs :
... as he describes, five types of entirely pointless jobs: ... 5. Taskmasters, who create extra work for those who do not need it, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals.
In companies, he concludes that the rise of service sector jobs owes less to economic need than to "managerial feudalism", in which employers need underlings in order to feel important and maintain competitive status and power.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_job :
Graeber also formulated the concept of bullshitization, where previously meaningful work turns into a bullshit job through corporatization, marketization or managerialism.