Bullshit Jobs
A eory
Contents
Preface: On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs 6
Chapter 1: What Is a Bullshit Job? 14
Chapter 2 32
What Sorts of Bullshit Jobs Are ere? 33
Chapter 3: Why Do ose in Bullshit Jobs Regularly Report emselves Unhappy?
(On Spiritual Violence, Part 1) 60
Chapter 4: What Is It Like to Have a Bullshit Job? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 2) 83
Chapter 5: Why Are Bullshit Jobs Proliferating? 111
Chapter 6: Why Do We as a Society Not Object to the Growth of Pointless Employ-
ment? 144
Chapter 7: What Are the Political Eects of Bullshit Jobs, and Is ere Anything
at Can Be Done About is Situation? 181
Acknowledgments 209
About the Author 210
Bibliography 212
To anyone who would rather be doing something useful with themselves.
Preface: On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs
Strike!
are
same
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs
not
they
Strike!
Canberra Times
Russia Today
Canberra (Australia) Times
“i
bono?”
anti
wasn’t
Boulots de Merde!
Chapter 1: What Is a Bullshit Job?
Catch-22
Spanish Civil Servant Skips Work for Six Years to Study Spinoza
—Jewish Times
El Mundo
El Mundo
Guardian
e Pale King
Utopia of
Rules
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3410547.stm?a
why a maa hit man is not a good example of a bullshit job
http://overhetnieuwewerken.nl/vier-op-tien-werknemers-noemt-werk-zinloos/
they
bole
that
e Godfather
sharif
e Godfather
on the importance of the subjective element, and also, why it can
be assumed that those who believe they have bullshit jobs are
generally correct
feels
is
Inside Higher Education
know
kinds
New York Post
http://nypost.com/2013/04/28/influential-economist-says-wall-streets-full-of-crooks
Business Insider
and
on the common misconception that bullshit jobs are conned
largely to the public sector
e Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
House of the Dead
e Utopia of Rules
too
e Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy
why hairdressers are a poor example of a bullshit job
e Restaurant at the End of the Universe
jobs
because
e Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
e Restaurant at the End of the Universe
e Telephone Sanitisers of Navarone
X
Y Z
Au Bonheur des Dames e Ladies’ Delight
on the dierence between partly bullshit jobs, mostly bullshit
jobs, and purely and entirely bullshit jobs
Slate
2016–2017 State of Enterprise Work Report
Slate
Chapter 2
What Sorts of Bullshit Jobs Are ere?
the ve major varieties of bullshit jobs
1. what unkies do
real
why
2048
then
2. what goons do
not
Adbusters
ought
3. what duct tapers do
because
“Oh… how strange . . .”
actually
hire another carpenter
4. what box tickers do
not
job
éminence grise
e Tell
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/07/14/citi-will-have-almost-30000-employees-in-compliance-by-year-end
How to Improve Engagement Among Key Digital Health Care Stakeholders
Journal of Cell Biology Clinical Endocrinology Ameri-
can Journal of Internal Medicine
5. what taskmasters do
Lithopinion
Central Valley
Business Times http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=33748
did
plus
would
on complex multiform bullshit jobs
e Bachelor
is
a word on second-order bullshit jobs
real
a nal note, with a brief return to the question: is it possible to
have a bullshit job and not know it?
of value
can
usually
else
Chapter 3: Why Do ose in Bullshit Jobs
Regularly Report emselves Unhappy? (On
Spiritual Violence, Part 1)
about one young man apparently handed a sinecure who
nonetheless found himself unable to handle the situation
Le Monde
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
Strike!
should
wasn’t
concerning the experience of falseness and purposelessness at the
core of bullshit jobs, and the importance now felt of conveying
the experience of falseness and purposelessness to youth
forced
nothing
have
look
and
too
not
is
why many of our fundamental assumptions on human
motivation appear to be incorrect
do
should
homo oe-
conomicus
how
Policy Report
not
is
not
Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis
a brief excursus on the history of make-work and particularly of
the concept of buying other people’s time
Boss:
Worker:
Boss:
Worker: you
ergastulum
otium negotium
should shouldn’t
time
buy
e Ancient Economy
thes
Odyssey
Critique of Anthropology
for
e Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutes of a Nilotic
People Anthropology and the Cognitive Challenge
Past & Present
Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages
concerning the clash between the morality of time and natural
work rhythms, and the resentment it creates
e Slave Ship: A Human History
too
nothing
was
she I’ve
not of one’s own making
Chapter 4: What Is It Like to Have a Bullshit
Job? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 2)
why having a bullshit job is not always necessarily that bad
on the misery of ambiguity and forced pretense
e Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling
Calvin:
David:
Calvin:
don’t
that
objects
on the misery of not being a cause
some
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
tomorrow morning
told her
was
David:
Annie:
huge
e Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
Sadomasochism in Everyday Life: e Dynamics of Power and Powerlessness
on the misery of not feeling entitled to one’s misery
any
Nouri:
Job 1:
Eect on me:
Job 2:
Eect on me:
Job 3:
Eect on me:
Job 4:
Eect on me:
that
should
all
isn’t
you
on the misery of knowing that one is doing harm
Í
coda: on the eects of bullshit jobs on human creativity, and on
why attempts to assert oneself creatively or politically against
pointless employment might be considered a form of spiritual
warfare
Guardian
Harry:
David:
Harry:
David:
Harry:
Disciplined
Minds
Catch Me If You Can
International Journal of Mental Health
Political Psychology
Chapter 5: Why Are Bullshit Jobs
Proliferating?
could
Distribution of the labor force by sector, 1840–2010
that
MinnPost
Sector contribution to GDP (%), India
Information as a Component of the Economy
a brief excursus on causality and the nature of sociological
explanation
e Work of Nations
Empire
could
some
not
didn’t
sundry notes on the role of government in creating and
maintaining bullshit jobs
Jacobin
concerning some false explanations for the rise of bullshit jobs
Nation
Economist
no
e Fall of the Faculty
Changes in the Supply of and Demand for Administrative Services, 1985–2005
Source: Calculated from NCES, “Digest,” 2006
Administrative Growth at Public and Private Institutions, 1975–2005
Source: Calculated from NCES, “Digest,” 2006
more
than twice the rate
sta
Economist
are
why the nancial industry might be considered a paradigm for
bullshit job creation
investment in your future
David:
Elliot:
David:
Elliot:
Bleak House
Jarndyce and Jarndyce—
on some ways in which the current form of managerial feudalism
resembles classical feudalism, and other ways in which it does not
always
Utopia of Rules
then
how managerial feudalism manifests itself in the creative
industries through an endless multiplication of intermediary
executive ranks
Guardian
e Day the Earth Stood Still
Snipped
Transsexual Housewives Too Fat to Fuck.
is
X X
Jarndyce and Jarndyce
e Hero with a ousand Faces
all this
Too Fat to Fuck
Baer
Utopia of Rules
conclusion, with a brief return to the question of three levels of
causation
isn’t
Utopia of Rules
Chapter 6: Why Do We as a Society Not
Object to the Growth of Pointless
Employment?
not
too
should
on the impossibility of developing an absolute measure of value
X Y
Debunking Economics
should do
real
create
how most people in contemporary society do accept the notion of
a social value that can be distinguished from economic value,
even if it is very dicult to pin down what it is
should
should
for capitalists.
from the perspective of capitalism
much
because
concerning the inverse relationship between the social value of
work and the amount of money one is likely to be paid for it
Virtutum omnium pretium in ipsis est.
MarketWatch
Utopia for Realists: e Case for Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, and a 15-Hour Workweek
Journal of Political Economy
https://eighty-thousand-hours-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/2014/12/TaxationAndTheAllocationOfTalent_preview.pdf
A Bit Rich: Calculating the
Value to Society of Dierent Professions
http://b.3cdn.net/nefoundation/8c16eabdbadf83ca79_ojm6b0fzh.pdf
Journal
of Community Medicine & Health Education
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/the-contribution-of-public-health-and-improved-social-conditions-to-increased-life-expectancy-an-analysis-of-public-awareness-2161-0711-4-311.php?aid=35861
capacity
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/bs-jobs-and-bs-economics.html
Houston Chronicle
http://wtonchronicle.com/business/article/A-glut-of-lawyers-dims-job-prospects-for-many-7099998.php
other
knowing
should
New Le Review
https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/c/cohen92.pdf
not
X
be
Jacobin
on the theological roots of our attitudes toward labor
Laborem Exercens On Human Labor
Principles of Economics
producere
e Human Condition
on the origins of the northern european notion of paid labor as
necessary to the full formation of an adult human being
e Generalization of Avoidance: Manners and Possessive
Individualism in Early Modern Europe
A relation, or rather A true account, of the island of England; with sundry particulars of the customs of these people, and
of the royal revenues under King Henry the Seventh, about the year 1500, by an Italian,
Past & Present
how, with the advent of capitalism, work came to be seen in many
quarters either as a means of social reform or ultimately as a
virtue in its own right, and how laborers countered by embracing
the labor theory of value
White Collar: e American Middle Classes
e Anatomie of Abuses
Anatomie of Abuses
Anatomie of Abuses
not
Past and Present
Past and Present
Capital—
Outlines of Political Economy; Being a Plain and Short View of the Laws Relating to the Production,
Distribution and Consumption of Wealth
e Rights
of Nature Against the Usurpations of Establishments
Most Uncommon Jacksonians: e Radical Leaders of the Early Labor Movement
e Treasure of the Sierra Madre
How the Irish Became White
Home Missionary Sermon Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present
Crisis
Inherit the Wind
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
concerning the key aw in the labor theory of value as it became
popular in the nineteenth century, and how the owners of capital
exploited that aw
and
Utopia of Rules
Stop
Making Capitalism
Crack Capitalism
how, over the course of the twentieth century, work came to be
increasingly valued primarily as a form of discipline and
self-sacrice
told
are
Working
is
should
because
How the Irish Became White
because
Ibid.
Chapter 7: What Are the Political Eects of
Bullshit Jobs, and Is ere Anything at
Can Be Done About is Situation?
Down and Out in Paris and London
Game of rones
on how the political culture under managerial feudalism comes
to be maintained by a balance of resentments
Life of Aristides the Just
did
the teachers themselves
e Gleaner
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100125/news/news5.html
http://rustbeltphilosophy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/no-offense-meant-to-individuals-who.html
e Commoner Harper’s
Harper’s
could
New York Times
both
and
how the current crisis over robotization relates to the larger
problem of bullshit jobs
Player
Piano
e
Rise of the Robots
Cat’s Cradle
problem
cannot
less
Memoirs of a Space Traveler: e Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tich
could
Creation of Course Prole/Syllabus (Managerial)
Creation of Course Prole/Syllabus (Non-Managerial)
on the political ramications of bullshitization and consequent
decline of productivity in the caring sector as it relates to the
possibility of a revolt of the caring classes
did
Creation of Exam (Managerial)
Creation of Exam (Non-Managerial)
because
on universal basic income as an example of a program that might
begin to detach work from compensation and put an end to the
dilemmas described in this book
X
Candi:
David:
Candi:
David:
Candi:
David:
Candi:
Black Women and the Peace Movement
David:
Leslie:
Candi:
Leslie:
David:
Candi:
Leslie:
down
Critique of Economic Reason
Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India
aer
they
for
would
have
already
how could
they possibly end up with a distribution of labor more inecient than the one we already have
Acknowledgments
Strike!
Strike!
About the Author
DEBT: e First 5,000 Years Harper’s e Guardian e Baer
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International Journal of Psycho-Analysis
Black Women and the Peace Movement
Boulots de Merde! Enquête sur l’utilité et la nuisance sociales des
métiers
e ought of Work
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Sadomasochism in Everyday Life: e Dynamics of Power and Powerlessness
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India
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e
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theanarchistlibrary.org
