Let's spice it up and say that Megabureaucracy is in the business of buying plain t-shirts to print obscene jokes on them. My perception as an employee of the v

Let's spice it up and say that Megabureaucracy is in the business of buying plain t-shirts to print obscene jokes on them. My perception as an employee of the value of my work hinges how much value I believe that it creates for society as a whole, not only on my contribution to my employer or the people that buy the t-shirts. In that sense it really isn't a misunderstanding, just a perspective like any other on what is ultimately a subjective question. Looking at Megabureaucracy only as a closed system in which I can be valuable or not is a rather limited perspective. You could go even further and say that Megabureaucracy is in the business of producing landmines. It generates a lot of value for employees, owners and customers, and my job is to optimize the body of the mine for fragmentation, so my work is absolutely crucial to Megabureaucracy, yet there is an obvious sense here in which I could perceive my work not to be a meaningful contribution to society.