We subconsciously endure a ton of bullshit in our jobs, consoling ourselves with the narrative that 'it's all part of the work'. When will we challenge this belief?
By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57348232
Damn this was a good book. Seriously. I had an epiphany after reading it. Go borrow it from any library, or just download Libby (a totally free ebook app). You won't regret it.
Why am I advocating for this book so aggresively? Because it brings to light a problem that is so prevalent yet is barely ever talked about. If you haven't guessed yet, it's the occurrence of bullshit jobs. Jobs that are absolutely useless, or as Graeber defines more explicitly,
"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 the case".
Throughout the book, Graeber cites examples of bullshit jobs across private and public sectors, and even in supposedly meaningful fields like charities. The problem is so severe that as many as 40% of British employees feel that their jobs are meaningless.* That's over one-third of the workforce! This phenomenon is definitely not exclusive to just Britain, but can be observed globally in most highly-developed countries of which Singapore is no exception; yet, I don't ever recall the government ever talking about this issue, nor can I find any information online (let me know if they did).
It's a tacit consensus that most jobs have lots of bullshit involved - especially administrative work - but we just accept it as part and parcel of the work without questioning whether it adds any value. This perception is strengthened due to the prevailing societal belief that one's social status is based on their work, even if their job contributes nothing to society. This has resulted in the huge swathes of people chasing ostensibly prestigious and high-paying jobs that offer nothing more than an ego boost. While I don't have any personal working experience in the private sector, NS has provided me with a first-hand taste of the working world and the sheer amount of bullshit jobs and procedures present. What I'm about to write below might seem a tad too biased against NS, but their my own opinions and I don't want to sugarcoat the reality. A second caveat is that the phenomenon of bullshit jobs is not exclusive to the SAF, but I think that whatever I've seen in the SAF is merely a microcosm of the wider workforce of both private and public sectors.
The first example of a bullshit process that comes to mind from my NS experiences is one that was created probably in the name of 'security': there are two sets of keys for a specific vehicle that I use, yet the two keys have to be obtained from different locations. As such, every time we change a vehicle (which is very common because of compulsory maintenance), we have to go to the 2 different locations just to change the keys as well. The only plausible explanation - to reduce the risk of security breaches - is rather flawed too. I've had to deal with many foreign contractors (evident from their accent, such as mainland Chinese or Malaysian workers) coming to fix the systems. Surely, this speaks volumes that the system isn't that secretive at all, otherwise, why would non-Singaporean contrcators be allowed to see and use the system? Perhaps I'm being overly critical of the SAF's reasoning, but splitting the location of the two keys poses a bigger problem: communication becomes extremely difficult. Instead of just liaising with one party, I now have to liaise with two parties between which they could have their own miscommunication too. It's common knowledge that two-way communication is miles easier than three-way communication. I really don't see the necessity behind this decentralisation of the management of the vehicles; in fact, nothing much, not even its ostensible purpose to increase security, is achieved. All that it does is make an already arduous process even more arduous.
It is always harder to get your message across to a group than to just a single person.
Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash
Countries need armies only because other countries have armies. If no one had an army, armies would not be needed. - Graeber in Bullshit Jobs
Armies can be seen as a form of bullshit job on a country level, because no country wants to lose out to other countries; thus, they need to put on an aggressive image to compete for pride. If we concur with this argument, then every job within the SAF is simply a meaningless part of a larger, meaningless organisation. A fellow NSF friend who read the book complained to me one day saying, "God I hate being here. And yet also feeling like I'm not allowed to hate
it! Because it's my duty to endure shitty stuff or something." This elucidates why so many NSFs hate NS so much - there is absolutely no meaning in serving the country to most of us. Constantly being fed the narrative that enlisting is a 'patriotic act which we should be proud of' makes it worse because we no longer live in the 20th century where patriotism was seen as a source of meaning in life. What I think really makes NSFs unwilling to put in effort is the very expectations of regulars who want NSFs to work hard without reward. The only visible benefit I can see is to the regulars themselves, who get better KPIs and earlier promotions should the unit perform better. Yet, they insist that 'serving the country is part of our duty and a meaningful deed'.
Doesn't this just seem to fit perfectly into the definition of a bullshit job, especially the part on employees pretending to justify its existence? I respect the regulars who can truly find meaning in their jobs, but please don't insist that every NSF treat it as a meaningful job. I know, because I've tried convincing myself for over a year.
This brings us back to my point on the SAF merely being a microcosm of the society at-large: governments and large corporations adopt bureaucratic rules, resulting in the amount of administrative work (the vast majority of it being sheer bullshit) increasing exponentially to a point where bullshit jobs are created, mainly to fix problems that should not even exist (duct-tapers as Graeber calls them). A quick search through Careers@Gov and Linkedin reveals a plethora of job titles that sound like flunkies - jobs created just to boost the egos of the superiors - and taskmasters: usually managers whose only job is to assign tasks to subordinates who could function perfectly well without them.
Screenshot from Careers@gov. Do they really need so many managers? And what's the difference in the job scopes of assistant managers/managers/senior managers?
Perhaps, employers have to keep promoting their employees every couple of years to keep the latter happy; after all, no one really wants to stay in a job where there is little prospects of promotion. This has likely resulted in the proliferation of bullshit jobs, with titles like assistant managers, managers, senior managers (and some companies even having managers 1/2 before moving up the hierarchy). I'm not saying that all of these job holders do absolutely nothing productive, rather, what I'm saying is that I don't see any point in having so many managers within any given department. According to my mum's experience in the private sector in four multi-national companies, each department has between 10 to 25 percent of staff being in managerial positions. The higher number seems really absurd - it means one manager to three staff in non-managerial roles! Imagine having a supervisor for a team of three: what does the supervisor even do? Monitor the three underlings round the clock? Assign tasks? I'll be open to hear arguments as to why there's a need for so many managers.
The Singapore government has only ever talked about job opportunities and employment rates, but never about the meaninfulness of the jobs. It's not wrong, because the government's primary responsibility is to improve the welfare of the citizens - which includes, but is not limited to, providing jobs. It's an institutional issue caused by a whole host of factors over centuries, fuelled by capitalism (read the book if you really want to understand the causes). Our current global society, shaped by capitalism's focus on profits, places work on a pedestal: an individual's self-worth is determined by the kind of job we have. Working in a white-collar job guarantees the prestiege that many desire, even if the job itself is meaningless, vis-a-vis holding a blue-collar job which is likely to be looked down upon, despite these jobs likely being more beneficial to society than white-collar jobs. This creates a moral dilemma - Graeber asserts - that many people hate their jobs but don't want to leave them because it will be an insult to their dignity.
Moreover, bullshit jobs tend to be white-collar jobs that offer good salaries, further trapping those who are unhappy in their jobs. When someone wants to leave their meaningless but high-paying job for a meaningful but low-paying job, they will have to sacrifice their life of comfort for a much more frugal life. And that just doesn't happen 90% of the time when the person has a family. The change from rich to poor is just too much to handle. This presents a double whammy: one loses both their social status and financial wealth if they are to quit their meaningless white-collar job. You might ask, why not find a meaningful white-collar job then? Such good jobs definitely aren't easy to find, and some professions just have more bullshit jobs (the one that comes off my head is human resource).
As Orwell noted, a population busy working, even at completely useless occupations, doesn't have time to do much else. At the very least, this is further incentive not to do anything about the situation. - Graeber in Bullshit Jobs
What can we do about this then? I don't know, I'm just a 20 year old who
hasn't even graduated form university. But one thing is for sure: more
public discourse is needed; if we don't even acknowledge the problem exists,
how can we do anything about it?
To sum up this piece, I just want to draw your attention to how messed up our workplace really is. I'm certain we all wish to find a job which we enjoy, yet pay us well enough to have financial security. But if the phenomenon of Bullshit remains, chances are that a large number of us will end up slogging our youth away in an utterly meaningless job that has no impact on society whatsoever. Bullshit Jobs has been an amazing read, and I sincerely recommend all of you to read it. It will blow your mind away.
Let's all challenge the Bullshit together to create a happier and more productive society.
Photo by Mark Adriane on Unsplash
*Graeber uses the results from this YouGov poll as the key premise for his argument for the book: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2015/08/12/british-jobs-meaningless
P.S. There are way too many ideas that Graeber raises in his book so I couldn't cover most of them. So the ideas might be a little bit choppy but do forgive me I don't want to write an article that is overly long. Perhaps I might write a few more articles related to the phenomenon of bullshit jobs. :) Thank you for reading till here!
interesting read! I think many jobs do not have clear terms of responsibilities, leading to repeated roles. many companies can have leaner structure but choose not to.
ReplyDeleteYep! They reach a point where there's too many employees and they need to promote some to give the employees the sense that there is 'corporate mobility'. I guess in some ways as humans we all want to be recognised, thus, demanding promotions. It's perfectly fine but just happens that in this case it might have resulted in getting promoted to an unnecessary job...
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