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This refutation is really weak. The prompt provided in the refutation is: > “I have the feeling of doing useful work” Doing useful work is not a feeling, so
by ErikVandeWater 5y ago
This refutation is really weak. The prompt provided in the refutation is:
> “I have the feeling of doing useful work”
Doing useful work is not a feeling, so people probably choose the middle-of-the-road answer (sometimes), or the socially desirable answer (often/always).
It's better to ask how useful they think their work is overall. Even better to ask them about their job 5 years previous. Think about all the people who joined the US military in the early 2000's. If you asked them about their work at the time they would say it was extremely meaningful. With hindsight the number would go down drastically. Same thing with all the people who see their work tossed asunder when a new CEO takes the company in a new direction.
Or even better^2, analyze how much bullshit work is actually being done regardless of whether people feel they're useful. People rarely glimpse the big picture so they are unlikely to see if their job is a strategic blunder, even years later.
- jillesvangurp 5y agoYes, this is not a great article. Makes for a catchy headline though. Perhaps a better notion of bullshit jobs is in terms of what happens when people stop doing them. We had some nice recent examples of that in the past year when people stopped going to work because they couldn't. This happened on an extremely large scale and it was mostly fine. Record economic growth in some countries even.
- dantheman 5y agoNot all work is a success, and when people fail it's definitely not bullshit work.
- MaxBarraclough 5y agoI don't think the possibility of failure informs whether it's bullshit work. Someone might be assigned the task of writing a report that no one will ever read, and they still might fail to even submit the file.
- raverbashing 5y ago> “I have the feeling of doing useful work” I'm sure the paper-pushers, the process guardians, the SAFe certified ninjas, the box tickers are convinced their job is of utmost importance. Not that it always isn't. Sometimes you need people like that. But only sometimes.