Bullshit Jobs The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It

Spectacular and terrifyingly true Owen Jones'Explosive' John McDonnell New Statesman Books of the Year'Thought-provoking and funny' The TimesFT BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 and CITY AM BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018Be honest if your job didn't exist would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why and what we can do about it.In the early twentieth century people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now across the developed world three-quarters of all jobs are in services finance or admin jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so he looks at how rather than producing anything work has become an end in itself the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital and finally how we can get out of it.This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.|Spectacular and terrifyingly true. David Graeber's theory of the broken capitalist workforce is right - work has become an end in itself. A timely book from the most provocative anthropologist and thinker of our time.|Equally explosive my anarchist friend David Graeber yet again has thrown a hand grenade into the political economy debate with his Bullshit Jobs (Allen Lane) a call to strike out for freedom from meaningless work.|Here's a gift for a friend working in PR or HR. David Graeber's thesis is that they are working inbullshit jobs. A bullshit job he says is one that its holder knows to be pointless or pernicious even though they must pretend otherwise. There are five sorts: flunkies (commissionaires receptionists) goons (lobbyists lawyers) duct tapers (who sort out problems others have created) box tickers and taskmasters (management). It's a provocative case ... but you get the feeling he is on to something; there do seem to be a lot of pointless jobs in the modern economy|Anthropologist David Graeber embarks on a provocative quest to find and explain the existence of countless mindless and pointless roles. He divides them into flunkies goons duct-tapers box-tickers and taskmasters. It is an entertaining if subjective study of a problem and an examination of potential answers including a universal basic income.|Anthropology professor and colourful anarchist David Graeber has opened a Pandora's box of the modern era by questioning the relevance of the swollen ranks of middle management and bullshit jobs that have cropped up across a variety of industries. A controversial but thought-provoking endeavour|An LSE anthropologist with a track record of countering economic myths through a mix of anecdote erudition and political radicalism Graeber is as good an analyst of the increasingly cowpatted field of modern employment as one could wish. And entertaining and thoroughly depressing read... it is extremely thought-provoking|A provocative funny and engaging book... that captures the imagination and deserves our attention|'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones'Explosive' John McDonnell New Statesman Books of the Year'Thought-provoking and funny' The TimesFT BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 and CITY AM BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018Be honest: if your job didn't exist would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why and what we can do about it.In the early twentieth century people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now across the developed world three-quarters of all jobs are in services finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so he looks at how rather than producing anything work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and finally how we can get out of it. This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.|David Graeber was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. He is the author of among others The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity Debt: The First 5000 Years Bullshit Jobs: A Theory and Pirate Enlightenment and was a contributor to Harper's Magazine the Guardian and the Baffler. An iconic thinker and renowned activist his early efforts helped to make Occupy Wall Street an era-defining movement. He died on 2 September 2020.