Alienation Is Not ‘Bullshit’: An Empirical Critique of Graeber’s Theory of BS Jobs
Abstract
Introduction
Meaningless work and BS jobs
a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.
The rise of ‘managerial feudalism’
Bullshit occupations (low social value): Doormen, receptionists and bailiffs Human resource profession Lobbyists, political consultants and public relations specialists Sales, marketing and advertising profession Administration profession Engineering (including IT) profession Management consultants Legal profession (esp. corporate lawyers and legal consultants) |
Non-bullshit occupations (high social value): Retail, restaurant and other front-line service work Cleaners Manual labourers Agriculture Plumbers, repairmen and mechanics Public services (esp. health, firefighting, teachers, bus drivers, refuse collectors) Creative sector (authors, artists, musicians, journalists, set designers, etc.) |
From social value to the value of work relations
Evidence of BS jobs
Methodology
Findings and discussion
Hypothesis One: 20% to 50% of workers believe their jobs are useless
Hypothesis Two: The number of workers who believe their job is useless is increasing rapidly
2005 – 4th EWCS | 2010 – 5th EWCS | 2015 – 6th EWCS | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | Useless jobs N (%) |
Total | Useless jobs N (%) |
Total | Useless jobs N (%) |
|||||
Gender | ||||||||||
Men | 11,530 | 826 | (7.2) | 15,767 | 913 | (5.8) | 15,003 | 794 | (5.3) | |
Women | 10,006 | 715 | (7.1) | 13,949 | 734 | (5.3) | 14,770 | 647 | (4.4) | |
χ2; df = 13.313; 1, p<.001 | φ = 0.02 | ||||||||||
Age | ||||||||||
29 and younger | 5135 | 601 | (11.7) | 6505 | 582 | (8.9) | 5728 | 413 | (7.2) | |
30–39 | 5777 | 396 | (6.9) | 7915 | 368 | (4.6) | 7211 | 366 | (5.1) | |
40–49 | 5870 | 330 | (5.6) | 7917 | 351 | (4.4) | 7810 | 299 | (3.8) | |
50–59 | 3995 | 186 | (4.7) | 6099 | 311 | (5.1) | 7028 | 300 | (4.3) | |
60+ | 674 | 21 | (3.2) | 1155 | 28 | (2.4) | 1864 | 55 | (2.9) | |
χ2; df = 107.97; 4, p<.001 | Cramer’s V = 0.06 | ||||||||||
Education | ||||||||||
Early childhood or primary | 1136 | 112 | (9.8) | 1046 | 83 | (7.9) | 731 | 65 | (8.9) | |
Lower secondary | 3356 | 313 | (9.3) | 4757 | 398 | (8.4) | 3941 | 254 | (6.4) | |
Upper secondary | 9780 | 755 | (7.7) | 9600 | 572 | (6.0) | 13,486 | 702 | (5.2) | |
Post-secondary | 7183 | 345 | (4.8) | 8625 | 303 | (3.5) | 11,478 | 413 | (3.6) | |
χ2; df = 91.384; 3, p<.001 | Cramer’s V = 0.06 | ||||||||||
Occupation | ||||||||||
Managers & professionals | 4433 | 146 | (3.3) | 6077 | 90 | (1.5) | 6607 | 137 | (2.1) | |
Technicians & associate professionals | 3128 | 98 | (3.1) | 5257 | 190 | (3.6) | 4434 | 128 | (2.9) | |
Clerical support workers | 2961 | 220 | (7.4) | 3753 | 246 | (6.6) | 3862 | 184 | (4.8) | |
Service & sales workers | 2819 | 293 | (10.4) | 4458 | 342 | (7.7) | 4975 | 275 | (5.5) | |
Craft & related trade workers | 2985 | 223 | (7.5) | 3851 | 182 | (4.7) | 3325 | 146 | (4.4) | |
Plant & machine op, and assemblers | 1963 | 207 | (10.5) | 2744 | 237 | (8.6) | 2690 | 192 | (7.1) | |
Elementary occup. and skilled agric. workers | 2918 | 317 | (10.9) | 3356 | 345 | (10.3) | 3511 | 350 | (10.0) | |
χ2; df = 417.84; 6, p<.001 | Cramer’s V = 0.12 | ||||||||||
Sector of economic activity | ||||||||||
Agriculture (A) | 506 | 28 | (5.6) | 637 | 23 | (3.7) | 619 | 42 | (6.8) | |
Industry (B,C,D,E) | 4962 | 481 | (9.7) | 5492 | 412 | (7.5) | 5186 | 283 | (5.5) | |
Construction (F) | 1496 | 83 | (5.6) | 2206 | 79 | (3.6) | 1705 | 65 | (3.8) | |
Commerce (G) | 3172 | 324 | (10.2) | 4164 | 356 | (8.6) | 4299 | 317 | (7.4) | |
Hospitality (H) | 731 | 110 | (15.1) | 1153 | 130 | (11.3) | 1374 | 106 | (7.7) | |
Transport (I) | 1355 | 70 | (5.2) | 2089 | 126 | (6.0) | 2151 | 128 | (6.0) | |
Financial services (J,K) | 2147 | 129 | (6.0) | 3426 | 201 | (5.9) | 4155 | 202 | (4.9) | |
Public administration (L) | 1723 | 105 | (6.1) | 2165 | 100 | (4.6) | 2024 | 60 | (3.0) | |
Education (M) | 1792 | 55 | (3.1) | 2699 | 39 | (1.5) | 2626 | 69 | (2.6) | |
Health and social work (N) | 1631 | 46 | (2.8) | 3311 | 59 | (1.8) | 3729 | 61 | (1.6) | |
Other services (O,P,Q) | 1730 | 89 | (5.1) | 2036 | 103 | (5.1) | 1662 | 72 | (4.3) | |
χ2; df = 276.77; 12, p<.001 | Cramer’s V = 0.10 | ||||||||||
Country group | ||||||||||
Nordic | 1994 | 72 | (3.6) | 2593 | 76 | (2.9) | 2607 | 79 | (3.0) | |
Anglo-Saxon | 3211 | 280 | (8.7) | 4290 | 336 | (7.8) | 4490 | 253 | (5.6) | |
Continental | 7489 | 510 | (6.8) | 10,342 | 560 | (5.4) | 10,837 | 420 | (3.9) | |
Mediterranean | 4724 | 416 | (8.8) | 6814 | 381 | (5.6) | 5871 | 328 | (5.6) | |
Transition-A | 2493 | 169 | (6.8) | 3422 | 191 | (5.6) | 3690 | 218 | (5.9) | |
Transition-B | 1626 | 95 | (5.9) | 2255 | 103 | (4.6) | 2289 | 143 | (6.2) | |
χ2; df = 72.415; 5, p<.001 | Cramer’s V = 0.05 | ||||||||||
All employees in EU28 | 21,536 | 1541 | (7.2) | 29,716 | 1647 | (5.5) | 29,784 | 1441 | (4.8) |
Hypothesis Three: BS jobs are concentrated in particular professions, such as finance, law, administration and marketing, and largely absent in others, such as those linked to public services and manual labour
Rank | Occupation (2008 ISCO, 2-digit) | Total respondents (N) | Percentage feeling their job is not useful (%) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Legal, social, cultural and related associate professionals | 471 | 0.2% |
2 | Chief executives, senior officials and legislators | 93 | 0.8% |
3 | Health professionals | 923 | 1.0% |
4 | Health associate professionals | 1054 | 1.3% |
5 | Legal, social and cultural professionals | 528 | 1.3% |
6 | Science and engineering professionals | 809 | 1.6% |
7 | Teaching professionals | 2094 | 1.7% |
8 | Business and administration professionals | 867 | 1.9% |
9 | Personal care workers | 1316 | 1.9% |
10 | Production and specialised services managers | 447 | 2.0% |
11 | Administrative and commercial managers | 477 | 2.5% |
12 | General and keyboard clerks | 1453 | 2.8% |
13 | Information and communications technology professionals | 432 | 3.2% |
14 | Business and administration associate professionals | 1846 | 3.6% |
15 | Electrical and electronic trades workers | 440 | 3.8% |
16 | Building and related trades workers, excluding electricians | 1109 | 4.1% |
17 | Science and engineering associate professionals | 860 | 4.3% |
18 | Hospitality, retail and other services managers | 242 | 4.3% |
19 | Metal, machinery and related trades workers | 1108 | 4.5% |
20 | Protective services workers | 551 | 5.1% |
21 | Food processing, wood working, garment and other craft and related trades workers | 579 | 5.3% |
22 | Market-oriented skilled agricultural workers | 245 | 6.0% |
23 | Handicraft and printing workers | 154 | 6.0% |
24 | Information and communications technicians | 237 | 6.1% |
25 | Customer services clerks | 681 | 6.1% |
26 | Other clerical support workers | 414 | 6.3% |
27 | Drivers and mobile plant operators | 1357 | 6.3% |
28 | Personal service workers | 1370 | 6.5% |
29 | Numerical and material recording clerks | 919 | 7.2% |
30 | Stationary plant and machine operators | 842 | 7.5% |
31 | Sales workers | 2487 | 7.7% |
32 | Food preparation assistants | 241 | 7.7% |
33 | Cleaners and helpers | 1223 | 8.1% |
34 | Refuse workers and other elementary workers | 434 | 9.7% |
35 | Agricultural, forestry and fishery labourers | 169 | 11.2% |
36 | Assemblers | 199 | 11.8% |
37 | Labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport | 807 | 15.2% |
Hypothesis Four: Young workers with student debt are more likely to be doing BS jobs
Hypothesis Five: BS jobs are associated with low levels of psychological wellbeing
Work relations as an alternative explanation of useless jobs
Spearman’s rho | Job quality measures | ||
---|---|---|---|
Dimension | Item | ||
−0.324 | Management | 1 | Your immediate boss respects you as a person |
−0.319 | Cognitive skills | 2 | You are able to apply your own ideas in your work |
−0.298 | Management | 3 | Your immediate boss encourages and supports your development |
−0.294 | Quant demands | 4 | You have enough time to get the job done |
−0.286 | Management | 5 | Your immediate boss is successful in getting people to work together |
−0.284 | Social support | 6 | Your manager helps and supports you |
−0.276 | Social support | 7 | Your colleagues help and support you |
−0.275 | Management | 8 | Your immediate boss provides useful feedback on your work |
−0.265 | Management | 9 | Your immediate boss gives you praise and recognition when you do a good job |
−0.255 | Participation | 10 | You are involved in improving the work organisation or work processes |
−0.252 | Participation | 11 | You can influence decisions that are important for your work |
−0.228 | Participation | 12 | You are consulted before objectives are set |
−0.225 | Management | 13 | Your immediate boss is helpful in getting the job done |
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