333 pages
Published May 15, 2018 by Simon Schuster.
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber that argues the existence and societal harm of meaningless jobs. He contends that over half of societal work is pointless, which becomes psychologically destructive when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth. Graeber describes five types of bullshit jobs, in which workers pretend their role isn't as pointless or harmful as they know it to be: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history, and proposes universal basic income as a potential solution.
A look at the increased amount of bullshit in the world, where it comes from, and how it impacts our lives. If you've ever had a bullshit job, or raged at all the bullshit getting in the way of your real job, this book is for you. You'll find good company in the real-world examples David shows off, and gain understanding in how you ended up in this predicament in the first place.
This is an interesting read. It was interesting to me as someone aspiring to not have a job and close to making that happen. The look at "why have jobs?" and "why treat them as so sacred?" really hit home.
I have long said that this reverence for having a job is rooted in Puritanism. Recently I am wondering if it is more deeply internalized capitalist frames. Graeber's viewpoint is that it is some of both, which I found interesting.
This book was a good companion piece to Chokepoint Capitalism
Interesting book. First half left me laughing and crying constantly. I’m pretty cynical already but the amount of BS jobs was even worse than I thought. Then it slowly turned into a weird mix of Marxism and academic research, culminating in a call to consider UBI. While I don’t agree with the author’s conclusions, it was a thought provoking book.
Political and economic philosophy is a dangerous subject to write. Your words will have a natural target audience. Fail to properly shade your text to your audience and your book will end up in (large) piles in a discount book warehouse. Or, in the age of digital books, with a 7-digit rank in the overall store...
Fortunately for the readers of this book, Graeber's commentary is equally caustic towards the movement conservative, the country club liberal, and even the well-meaning but slightly sanctimonious social democrat. The central thread of this work, which builds on an earlier essay that he published, is that regardless of whether you speak of the public sector, the academy, or private industry, the desire to build fiefdoms and heirarchies in the workplace give rise to the proliferation of meaningless jobs that are as damaging to the mental health of their incumbents as they are wasteful.
I …
Political and economic philosophy is a dangerous subject to write. Your words will have a natural target audience. Fail to properly shade your text to your audience and your book will end up in (large) piles in a discount book warehouse. Or, in the age of digital books, with a 7-digit rank in the overall store...
Fortunately for the readers of this book, Graeber's commentary is equally caustic towards the movement conservative, the country club liberal, and even the well-meaning but slightly sanctimonious social democrat. The central thread of this work, which builds on an earlier essay that he published, is that regardless of whether you speak of the public sector, the academy, or private industry, the desire to build fiefdoms and heirarchies in the workplace give rise to the proliferation of meaningless jobs that are as damaging to the mental health of their incumbents as they are wasteful.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a large portion of one chapter dealing with the phenomenon of people working in BS jobs in order to fund their passion. Graeber accurately, and with recourse to excerpts from several interviews, documents the difficulties with this lifestyle and the drain on creative energy it can cause.
Ce livre fait partie de ceux qui changent votre vision du monde ou qui corrigent ce que vous croyez savoir.
Le précédent livre m’ayant fait cet effet est « Tout sur l’économie (ou presque) ».
Avant de lire cet essai : * Je savais que des « jobs à la con » existaient, mais je pensais que c’était un peu anecdotique * Je croyais les « bullshit jobs » beaucoup plus répandus dans la fonction publique et les grosses administrations. * Je ne connaissais pas suffisamment les racines historiques, religieuses de la « valeur » ou des « valeurs » que l’on accorde au travail * Je croyais à la fable de l’efficience du capitalisme
Et bien cet essai :
* S’appuie sur des témoignages pour illustrer son propos. Mais même une foule de témoignages n’est pas une preuve. Alors justement…
* Trouve des preuves de ce qu’il avance …
Ce livre fait partie de ceux qui changent votre vision du monde ou qui corrigent ce que vous croyez savoir.
Le précédent livre m’ayant fait cet effet est « Tout sur l’économie (ou presque) ».
Avant de lire cet essai : * Je savais que des « jobs à la con » existaient, mais je pensais que c’était un peu anecdotique * Je croyais les « bullshit jobs » beaucoup plus répandus dans la fonction publique et les grosses administrations. * Je ne connaissais pas suffisamment les racines historiques, religieuses de la « valeur » ou des « valeurs » que l’on accorde au travail * Je croyais à la fable de l’efficience du capitalisme
Et bien cet essai :
* S’appuie sur des témoignages pour illustrer son propos. Mais même une foule de témoignages n’est pas une preuve. Alors justement…
* Trouve des preuves de ce qu’il avance : oui les « bullshit jobs » existent et ne se cantonnent pas au « public » (au contraire !)
* Casse le mythe dans le privé il y en a peu
* Casse le mythe d’un capitalisme efficient
* Plonge aux racines de la place, de la valeur, des valeurs que l’on associe au travail
Depuis quand associe-t-on le travail à la pénibilité ?
Qu’est-ce qui se cache derrière le fait de « vendre son temps ? »
* Catégorise de façon pertinente les genres de « bullshit jobs »
* fait le pont avec les décisions politiques
* Quelles conséquences sur les individus coincés
* et bien plus !
Alors évidemment on ne peut pas mesurer précisément le nombre de bullshit jobs car comment savoir qu’un poste apporte quelque chose à l’humanité ?
Il ouvre d’énormes pistes de réflexion :
* Pourquoi travaillons-nous ?
* Pourquoi garder les gens occupés à des tâches inutiles voir néfastes ?
Un livre indispensable alors que la voie « travailler pour consommer » nous aliène et nous conduit dans le mur.
Quelques citations
Votre emploi apporte-t-il quoi que ce soit d’important au monde ? », plus d’un tiers des personnes interrogées (37 %) ont dit être convaincues que ce n’était pas le cas (50 % ont répondu par l’affirmative et 13 % se sont déclarées indécises).
Un job à la con est une forme d’emploi rémunéré qui est si totalement inutile, superflue ou néfaste que même le salarié ne parvient pas à justifier son existence, bien qu’il se sente obligé, pour honorer les termes de son contrat, de faire croire qu’il n’en est rien.
En 2016, les employés de bureau américains n’auraient consacré aux activités qui constituent le cœur de leur travail que 39 % de leur temps, contre 46 % en 2015, et ce en raison d’un accroissement proportionnel du temps passé à traiter leurs e-mails (de 12 % en 2015 à 16 % en 2016), à assister à des réunions « inutiles » (de 8 % à 10 %) et à gérer la paperasse (de 9 % à 11 %).
Où et quand en est-on venu à considérer que le travail inutile était préférable à l’absence de travail ?
Le « fondement du statut social », comme le dit Harry Braverman, n’était « plus la capacité de fabriquer des choses, mais celle de les acheter
« Chaque matin, en nous levant, nous fabriquons collectivement un monde ; pourtant, lequel d’entre nous, s’il ne tenait qu’à lui, choisirait de fabriquer le monde que nous avons ? »
Autres avis
Grosse recommandation pour ce livre. Il a beaucoup changé ma perception de certains débats actuels
Saggio dell'antropologo anarchico David Graeber. Il libro affronta a mo' di testo argomentativo come più della metà dei lavori della nostra società siano senza senza senso e/o frustranti. Per farlo l'autore riporta testimonianze e dati raccolti da un campione di persone che hanno risposto al suo sondaggio. Consigliatissimo, soprattutto per le prospettive nuove e stimolanti.
Halfway between the humoristic and scientific publication, what started as a provocation ends up in building a theory that is in fact a (often humoristic, sometimes depressing) criticism to capitalistic system and the work culture that is embedded on it. A must-read.
My first intro to Graeber. The book is poignant, funny, and well-argued, tying together anthropological, economic, and political theory into a satisfying web of connected ideas about labor, value, and human happiness. I'm not surprised that a lot of readers got mad because they were expecting a libertarian lambasting of government regulation of markets; I, for one, was pleasantly surprised at how well-situated his argument was in anarchism, marxism, and feminism.
David Graeber presents his theory - that an alarming number of jobs in western society (37-40% at least) are made up just to waste time or fill space, for various reasons. Each chapter digs a little deeper into these reasons, from the overcomplexity of western capitalist systems, to a puritanical attitude toward work (and suffering) being humanity's lot. Finally, he puts forward ideas on what can be done about this. This is all presented with Graeber's artistically analytical eye, his fierce political views, and his wry sense of humour.
Bullshit Jobs was Graeber's final book, which is a pity as it feels like it's building up to a crescendo. He observes western society as an anthropologist, unapologetically making sweeping statements, but using interview and survey as means to reinforce his theory. And it is very convincing. Few people who read this book would fail to identify with some of what …
David Graeber presents his theory - that an alarming number of jobs in western society (37-40% at least) are made up just to waste time or fill space, for various reasons. Each chapter digs a little deeper into these reasons, from the overcomplexity of western capitalist systems, to a puritanical attitude toward work (and suffering) being humanity's lot. Finally, he puts forward ideas on what can be done about this. This is all presented with Graeber's artistically analytical eye, his fierce political views, and his wry sense of humour.
Bullshit Jobs was Graeber's final book, which is a pity as it feels like it's building up to a crescendo. He observes western society as an anthropologist, unapologetically making sweeping statements, but using interview and survey as means to reinforce his theory. And it is very convincing. Few people who read this book would fail to identify with some of what Graeber writes, and his biting criticism of western politics (left and right) is pitch perfect.
I wish I could go back in time and give this book and Tom Hodgkinson's "How to Be Idle" to my 27-year-old self. It would have opened my eyes to what was going on with me and my career at the time. I was pretty miserable after a few dead-end jobs, and starting to despair. Hodgkinson would've shown me I wasn't alone and I wasn't broken. This book would've shown me exactly where the working world WAS broken, and why I was having such a hard time with it. Sadly, neither book was available back then.
The main question of this book is "Why aren't we all working 15-hour weeks, as we were promised in the 1930s?" The answer Graeber finds is that we absolutely could be, but because of some unfortunate political and cultural choices made by society in the 20th century, 94% employment was taken as the greatest …
I wish I could go back in time and give this book and Tom Hodgkinson's "How to Be Idle" to my 27-year-old self. It would have opened my eyes to what was going on with me and my career at the time. I was pretty miserable after a few dead-end jobs, and starting to despair. Hodgkinson would've shown me I wasn't alone and I wasn't broken. This book would've shown me exactly where the working world WAS broken, and why I was having such a hard time with it. Sadly, neither book was available back then.
The main question of this book is "Why aren't we all working 15-hour weeks, as we were promised in the 1930s?" The answer Graeber finds is that we absolutely could be, but because of some unfortunate political and cultural choices made by society in the 20th century, 94% employment was taken as the greatest good and the goal of the economy. Thus, a number of meaningless jobs have been created, and even those jobs that aren't meaningless are increasingly buried in bullshit paperwork.
Graeber's mostly interested in exploring the nature of the problem, rather than solving it, but he does see some promise in the Universal Basic Income proposals of the late 20th century, although he acknowledges these can be hijacked by right-wing bad actors if we're not careful. Solutions aside, his history of how the problem arose is very compelling.
J’avais envie de lire depuis un moment ce livre, tiré du célèbre article du même auteur sur les « bullshit jobs » (les jobs à la con) qui avait fait beaucoup de bruit à l’époque de sa parution.
J’ai beaucoup aimé cet ouvrage, qui aborde frontalement une réalité vécue par beaucoup. Je dois tout de même avouer avoir survolé certains chapitres, en particulier les derniers. Non pas que leur contenu ne soit pas intéressant, bien au contraire, mais ils sont plus théoriques que les premiers et comme je m’interroge beaucoup depuis un moment sur mon rapport au travail, et à mon travail actuel en particulier, j’avais peur d’y retrouver de trop près mes préoccupations actuelles. Manque de courage peut-être, mais je suis persuadé que je reviendrai vers ce livre pour une lecture plus approfondie quand je m’y sentirai prêt.
Sooooo disappointed in this book after Graeber's excellent Debt: The First 5000 Years.
While I do believe there are bullshit jobs, and those that harm or subtract value from society, I found his analysis fuzzy, arguable, and to be honest, sloppy and way too tied to Marxist and elitist arguments as to value, labour, and capitalism. I felt the subjective definition of a BS job to be way too fuzzy, though ultimately I think he's on to something about the fact we should all be working less, there are many roles that adds little value (if not harming society), and there needs to be recognition of this, I felt this was shoddy. His assertion that work of value in undervalued compared to work that he says provides none lacks deeper analysis (imho).
However, I do think he is onto something in our need to decouple livelihood from work. While he …
Sooooo disappointed in this book after Graeber's excellent Debt: The First 5000 Years.
While I do believe there are bullshit jobs, and those that harm or subtract value from society, I found his analysis fuzzy, arguable, and to be honest, sloppy and way too tied to Marxist and elitist arguments as to value, labour, and capitalism. I felt the subjective definition of a BS job to be way too fuzzy, though ultimately I think he's on to something about the fact we should all be working less, there are many roles that adds little value (if not harming society), and there needs to be recognition of this, I felt this was shoddy. His assertion that work of value in undervalued compared to work that he says provides none lacks deeper analysis (imho).
However, I do think he is onto something in our need to decouple livelihood from work. While he says he is avoiding making policy recommendations, I do think he makes very good points about first order reasoning on Universal Basic Income (though,I feel everyone really need to do more second order effects thinking on this or some really larger experiments to understand how it might work in practice (which I am very supportive of).
