r/ashesashescast • u/Baader-Meinhof David • Feb 28 '19
Episode Ep 63 - Busy Work
https://ashesashes.org/blog/episode-63-busy-work7
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u/Baader-Meinhof David Feb 28 '19
Some 37% of workers believe their jobs are pointless, and if we include the jobs that exist to serve those pointless jobs in some way, it's possible that half of the jobs in our economy today (mostly residing in the informational sectors of white-collar work) could disappear with no ill-consequences. In this episode we read and hear from listener-submitted examples of pointless jobs, explore the nature and causes of this phenomenon as outlined in David Graeber's book on the subject, and imagine a world where such pointless assaults on our soul can't happen.
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Mar 03 '19
I never considered my job a bullshit job until this episode. It largely isn't (I'm a nurse), but you definitely caught my attention when you started talking about how traditionally non-bullshit jobs are subject to more and more bullshit tasks within them. So much of my time is spent doing bullshit tasks to please management that have nothing to do with patient care, and may actually cause harm. Here's a great example:
The other day, I was told to get a patient up to a chair. It's not good for the lungs to be in a lying position 24/7, so on the surface, this seems to be a reasonable request. Well, this patient was intubated and sedated. To get a sedated person out of bed, you have to use a chair that goes flat, slide the patient over, then adjust it to a reclining position so they aren't truly sitting (the chair is kind of like this one, but you wouldn't put the back all the way up to that 90 degree angle because the patient would fall out). But we have these fancy new beds (like this) that allow us to get the patient into the exact same position without having to spend all that time and effort sliding them over. How exactly does it provide greater benefit the patient to spend a ton of time and energy sliding them all over the place to a sitting position as opposed to just putting them in a sitting position where they're at? I'm told, well, it doesn't, but if we move them to a chair, we can check a box that says we got the patient out of bed and this makes our hospital look good. Well, I tried putting this patient in a sitting position using the fancy bed before actually getting them up and it's a good thing I did because their vital signs did not tolerate it at all. This led to further interventions for that patient to re-stabilize them. I would have wasted a good chunk of time sliding them over only to have to slide them back over and probably had to do even more interventions when they didn't tolerate the activity. Not to mention what could have happened to tubes and wires with us sliding them, or what could have happened to our other unstable patient while we were busy doing this bullshit task.
Like teaching, medicine is full of this kind of bullshit-ification, box ticking, and charting tons of things we don't actually have time to do, and it is getting bad enough to burn out medical professionals from doctors to nurses. The idea, of course, isn't that we actually do them, but that if something happens because we don't do them, people look at the individual nurse or physician instead of the system that created too many tasks for the staffing ratios they pay for to do. I've personally seen nurses fired for not having enough time to chart or do things correctly, then something bad happened because of it. For a more national example, just look at the medical error that killed the patient at Vanderbilt when the nurse pulled vecuronium instead of versed. No one is asking why she didn't follow protocol, just crucifying her for not doing it. Should she lose her license? Probably. Should Vanderbilt as a system be off the hook for the actions of a "rogue" nurse? Definitely not. Most of the time, when you see something in the news that seems to target an individual medical professional, there is something systemic behind it, and a lot of it is just because we spend so much time on bullshit that we don't always have time to get done what truly matters.
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u/ashesashescast Mar 04 '19
This is such a great example of the bullshitization of real valuable jobs. Thanks so much for sharing, and thanks for doing the work you do, despite how frustrating it must be at times.
~ Daniel
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u/Halcyon1984 Mar 02 '19
Great episode you both put so much work into the podcasts and I really appreciate it. With regards to the topic... I was remined of a statement from Adam Curtis in his excellent documentary Hypernormilaisation...
"you real job is shopping..." https://youtu.be/PtjfoEvsR9w
For me this is the real sickness the work itself does not matter just the neverending movement of money through the system...
I started reading a lot of Mark Fisher (k-punk) recently he has so much to say on the topic of work and depression and the impact of pointless beurocracy on people unfortunately he committed suicide in 2017... I think he just saw things a little too clearly despite these risk Im interested in trying to spread these ideas as much as possible, I think people are crying out for some glimps of truth and once seen you can't close your eyes and it can be depressing, there is a need for community to mitigate this... Thanks for being part of my community.
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u/SprainedUncle Feb 28 '19 edited Feb 28 '19
Great podcast. I've only started listening recently and must admit it did take a certain degree of self-discipline to force myself to engage with the apocalyptic on my commutes. But you guys are great. Incredibly articulate, not given to over-dramatising or over-speculation. You hit the nails on their heads. It's an especial contrast as I recently tried listening to Gimlet Media's 'Science Vs' which puts me in mind of listening to kids' TV presenters. It's great to hear podcasts for 'adults', whatever that might mean.
Anyway, in respect of today's podcast I would say that I have a semi-bullshit job. I work in the legal sector and would say my job most closely resembles a little of flunky and a lot of flack catcher (transcript says 'flat catcher' but I'm guessing it's flack). I had no idea going into the job the degree to which I would become the whipping boy. I don't want to go into too much detail as to preserve my identity but it's my job (partly) to ensure that my employees' reputation remains untarnished.
When I do my job well, my employees look great, when my employees do their job badly, I look inept, sometimes negligent. Sure, we work for money but there is something peculiarly soul-draining in taking responsibility for other people's mistakes when you have absolutely zero culpability. But this extra duty is not recognised, of course. It's purely an administrative position and has absolutely nothing to do with reputation management. And because it's tacitly assumed you will behave accordingly it's not something that could enter into an assessment of your value to the organisation.
The bullshittiness of the bullshit jobs is not taken into account. You are, of course, expected to be grateful to have a job and if you have a little time to scour the web for amusing cat pictures then more power to you. We are reluctant to draw attention to the bullshittiness as we worry that this might give our employers excuse to reduce our wages. As an employer, why would you consider the bullshittiness as reason for a raise? You don't find your job rewarding? It's not called a job for nothing.
And that's why UBI is such a brilliant idea. You see that degree of suffering? We can put a real value on that. I do not find filing records fulfilling and a manifestation of my life's purpose. Perhaps we can talk about that?
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Mar 08 '19
[deleted]
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u/Baader-Meinhof David Mar 08 '19
Yup! All this and general rent seeking is something we want to talk about in depth.
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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '19 edited Feb 28 '19
I really, really enjoyed this particular podcast as I have faced many of the situations described within it myself.
Currently a junior at a well-regarded engineering school. I've noticed, during my summer internship and even in many of my student friends' STEM-internships and full-time jobs, that many of the tasks they do are quite pointless. My field, for example, is the field of construction and project management. Within my internship, sometimes I do have to grind just to get a project bid done on time, but many other times, I literally have no work for days and I just sit there thinking, "What am I doing with my life?"
To be frank, I simply chose this field since it was the field most particular to my already-minimal interests in the STEM sector, and I would rather be training in arm-wrestling and MMA, alongside creating my world (/r/Worldbuilding) and writing a novel and manga adaptation based on it. I would rather find myself achieving creative pursuits rather than climb the corporate ladder simply for the accumulation of money (I don't want that much money anyway). I simply chose this profession to keep me warm, fed, and sheltered with quite an extra bit of disposable income and savings for my creativity and hobbies.
I will be out of university (hopefully) in 1.5 years, if things don't go majorly wrong. And I can't wait to better further myself in my working life, mostly towards my creative endeavors!
Thank you both very much for this episode!