A recent study has provided empirical support to the notion that many individuals harbor a sense of futility in their professional endeavors, considering their jobs to be “bullshit” or devoid of meaningful impact.
The study, conducted by Zurich University, marks the first attempt to quantify and substantiate a theory previously proposed by American anthropologist David Graeber in 2018. According to Graeber, numerous jobs across various sectors lack social utility and significance.
Happiness at work
Prior to this study, some experts argued that individuals perceived their work as pointless due to routine tasks, limited autonomy, or inadequate management rather than inherent features of their occupations.
However, the latest investigation unveils a more nuanced perspective. By analyzing survey responses from 1,811 American workers spanning 21 different job categories, participants were asked about their sense of positive impact on the community and society and the perceived usefulness of their work.
The findings, derived from the American Working Conditions Survey conducted in 2015, reveal that 19% of respondents expressed feelings of negligible impact and utility in their work, irrespective of their profession. The author further analyzed the data by accounting for factors like job routine, autonomy, and management quality, aiming to compare workers with similar circumstances.
Nature of work
Remarkably, the study indicates that in the occupational domains that Graeber deemed unproductive, the nature of the job still exerted a considerable influence beyond the aforementioned factors. Notably, individuals employed in finance, sales, and managerial roles were markedly more prone to perceive their work as socially useless when contrasted with other professions.
Specifically, those in business and finance, sales, and managerial positions were more than twice as likely to consider their jobs socially insignificant. Similarly, managers were 1.9 times more likely to hold this view, and office assistants were 1.6 times more inclined to feel the same way.
These insights offer valuable implications for comprehending the subjective nature of work satisfaction and the perceived societal value associated with various occupations.
“David Graeber’s ‘bullshit jobs’ theory claims that some jobs are in fact objectively useless, and that these are found more often in certain occupations than in others,” the author explains. “However, the original evidence presented by Graeber was mainly qualitative, which made it difficult to assess the magnitude of the problem.
In essence, the research underscores a striking correlation between certain occupations singled out by Graeber and the heightened likelihood of workers perceiving their roles as socially unproductive. Notably, compared to all other professions, individuals employed in these specific domains exhibit a significantly higher propensity to consider their work as lacking in societal relevance.
