Are you stuck in a "bullshit job"?

[Anonymous]

The Economist magazine said it is like pushing a boulder up a hill,only to watch it roll down again.
Autor David Graeber define bullshit job as " a job which is just so pointless that even the person doing it can't justify its existence to themselves.Either they think that if it disappeared,it would make no difference,or that it might make the world a slightly better place" and most of these were private-sector jobs.
Please,tell us about your or spouse's "bullshit job".

[Anonymous]

At one point my wife was a production manager, and she used to joke I don’t even know what I am supposed to produce.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure if this counts, but at one point I was a coordinator for a product manufacturing company. I was paid $40k and still feel that was way too much for the complete and total lack of skill required. I also had maybe 5 hours of actual work to do a week. I was bored out of my mind and when I left they did not replace me. I don’t know why the position existed in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure if this counts, but at one point I was a coordinator for a product manufacturing company. I was paid $40k and still feel that was way too much for the complete and total lack of skill required. I also had maybe 5 hours of actual work to do a week. I was bored out of my mind and when I left they did not replace me. I don’t know why the position existed in the first place.

I work in a F100 company, and it's riddled with jobs like this one. There was a period of record earnings, so they started spending like crazy, including buying expensive talent for aspirational roles. It's been a shit show witnessing the fallout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure if this counts, but at one point I was a coordinator for a product manufacturing company. I was paid $40k and still feel that was way too much for the complete and total lack of skill required. I also had maybe 5 hours of actual work to do a week. I was bored out of my mind and when I left they did not replace me. I don’t know why the position existed in the first place.

Yes, that counts.
in college I was working as a hotel door man.

[Anonymous]

Yes - I’m in one now. I manage “aspirational” projects that don’t have widespread support and never get sold. So basically doing work that will be tossed out in 2 years. It’s sole sucking but I’m stuck for another year.

[Anonymous]

New poster - what are tips people have for coping with it? What gets you through the end of each day?

[Anonymous]

I have a great one! My friend was a paralegal in a small D.C. law firm in the mid 90's. The administrative manager of that firm actually hired someone through a head hunter (ie: paid a hefty fee) for someone to (get this) look sh*t up on the internet. I don't know what is more hilarious, the idiot manager or the fact that this girl right out of college was paid about $50k in mid 90's money to do that.

[Anonymous]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7bdqmy/what-is-the-point-of-your-job-389

most jobs are if we are being honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a great one! My friend was a paralegal in a small D.C. law firm in the mid 90's. The administrative manager of that firm actually hired someone through a head hunter (ie: paid a hefty fee) for someone to (get this) look sh*t up on the internet. I don't know what is more hilarious, the idiot manager or the fact that this girl right out of college was paid about $50k in mid 90's money to do that.

I don't know how old you are, but in the mid nineties the Intenet had only just opened for public use. There were no search engines like Google. Yes, firms hired "experts" to help them navigate the Internet. I don't see anything bullshit about such a job. What is bullshit is that you have no sense of how pathetic posting this is. It's like posting that in 1961, your father's firm hired a computer expert to help them with their data punch codes. Har har har, so funny!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a great one! My friend was a paralegal in a small D.C. law firm in the mid 90's. The administrative manager of that firm actually hired someone through a head hunter (ie: paid a hefty fee) for someone to (get this) look sh*t up on the internet. I don't know what is more hilarious, the idiot manager or the fact that this girl right out of college was paid about $50k in mid 90's money to do that.

I don't know how old you are, but in the mid nineties the Intenet had only just opened for public use. There were no search engines like Google. Yes, firms hired "experts" to help them navigate the Internet. I don't see anything bullshit about such a job. What is bullshit is that you have no sense of how pathetic posting this is. It's like posting that in 1961, your father's firm hired a computer expert to help them with their data punch codes. Har har har, so funny!

+1. Google wasn’t founded until 1998 and didn’t catch on right away. I remember helping people navigate the internet in law school in the mid 90s. It wasn’t like it is now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a great one! My friend was a paralegal in a small D.C. law firm in the mid 90's. The administrative manager of that firm actually hired someone through a head hunter (ie: paid a hefty fee) for someone to (get this) look sh*t up on the internet. I don't know what is more hilarious, the idiot manager or the fact that this girl right out of college was paid about $50k in mid 90's money to do that.

I don't know how old you are, but in the mid nineties the Intenet had only just opened for public use. There were no search engines like Google. Yes, firms hired "experts" to help them navigate the Internet. I don't see anything bullshit about such a job. What is bullshit is that you have no sense of how pathetic posting this is. It's like posting that in 1961, your father's firm hired a computer expert to help them with their data punch codes. Har har har, so funny!

+1. Google wasn’t founded until 1998 and didn’t catch on right away. I remember helping people navigate the internet in law school in the mid 90s. It wasn’t like it is now.

I was 15 in 1996. Had just immigrated to the US and barely spoke English. Learned how to use a computer and navigate the web in 2 weeks, at the school library, with a 30 min training from the librarian and then on my own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a great one! My friend was a paralegal in a small D.C. law firm in the mid 90's. The administrative manager of that firm actually hired someone through a head hunter (ie: paid a hefty fee) for someone to (get this) look sh*t up on the internet. I don't know what is more hilarious, the idiot manager or the fact that this girl right out of college was paid about $50k in mid 90's money to do that.

I don't know how old you are, but in the mid nineties the Intenet had only just opened for public use. There were no search engines like Google. Yes, firms hired "experts" to help them navigate the Internet. I don't see anything bullshit about such a job. What is bullshit is that you have no sense of how pathetic posting this is. It's like posting that in 1961, your father's firm hired a computer expert to help them with their data punch codes. Har har har, so funny!

+1. Google wasn’t founded until 1998 and didn’t catch on right away. I remember helping people navigate the internet in law school in the mid 90s. It wasn’t like it is now.

I was 15 in 1996. Had just immigrated to the US and barely spoke English. Learned how to use a computer and navigate the web in 2 weeks, at the school library, with a 30 min training from the librarian and then on my own.

Are you a firm needing specialized research? Probably, 20 years from now people will guffaw at the notion that there’s such a thing now as a paid e-discovery expert.

[Anonymous]

^^Specialized research requires a skill set that takes more than two weeks to acquire and a computer is just one of the tools used.

[Anonymous]

I am an RN and once was the "nurses help line" for a single practioner who really was so adored and personally connected with his patients they almost always just called him directly. I got paid for all his "after hours" and maybe got 4 calls a week. It was a job that dropped out of heaven. It was starting to weigh on me because I felt like I was robbing his practice of 60k. I finally asked to do some billing and other things when my kids went to school.