Why do so many people think they are in a bullshit job?

Re:Why do so many people think they are in a bullshit job? by dingnuts on Friday October 13, 2023 @12:15PM (#37872206)

The app you built was a hedge against the scenario where the deal with the other company fell through. It may have not been used in the end, but it might have been used as a bargaining chip in the deal, and it definitely provided security to the business in the case that the purchase had fallen through.

I've worked on several projects that were experimental and built to validate business theories that turned out not to be true, and the projects were scrapped. Does that mean they were bullshit? No, it means the business learned something about the market with the experimental project that was never certain to begin with.

People think they have bullshit jobs because they can't see the forest for the trees, and because of that viral book & thinkpieces surrounding it -- "Bullshit Jobs" -- that went around a few years ago (and that crops up again from time to time) and has convinced them that all labor without an immediate tangible effect is pointless.

That's a dangerous thing to believe in a highly developed economy, frankly. And it's just wrong.

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Re:Why do so many people think they are in a bullshit job? by hotnfresh on Friday October 13, 2023 @12:20PM (#37872260)

The perception matters for the worker, economy be damned, and sure, this may have had some value as you suggest—or it may have been an accident of poor coordination or internal politics and power games in the company. Tons of these things companies do aren’t for some good, rational reason. They’re just mistakes, or results of games run amok.

> Bullshit Jobs" -- that went around a few years ago (and that crops up again from time to time) and has convinced them that all labor without an immediate tangible effect is pointless.

The book version, at least, isn’t so simplistic or stupid.

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