Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber

Staff review by Chris Saliba

Anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber argues that automation has already created mass unemployment, but the economy has filled the gap with dummy jobs. 

Have you ever worked a job that didn’t seem necessary at all? In fact, it was a complete mystery as to why the job was created in the first place? Or has your workplace laboured under an immense weight of pointless bureaucracy – box ticking and form filling? Have you ever found it affecting your mental health, driving you positively mad? Then David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs is just for you.

The book had its genesis in an earlier article Graeber wrote, speculating that a high percentage of jobs in the modern economy were essentially dummy jobs made up of useless busywork. The article was published widely and garnered a wealth of interesting responses and testimonials from readers who had done jobs they deemed pointless. Generous portions of the book are made up of frustrated employees explaining their mind numbing jobs that involve, for the most part, pretending to be busy while actually having nothing to do. Ironically, these easygoing “dream” jobs end up being quite stressful and people quit for lower paid, more meaningful work.

To test the hypothesis that a large portion of jobs are fake, a British pollster ran a question from Graeber’s original article, asking respondents if they thought their jobs contributed anything worthwhile to society or had any use. A staggering 37 per cent said they felt their jobs were pointless.

A book about useless jobs sounds like a bit of a dummy spit, but Graeber expands this single theme into an overwhelmingly fascinating thesis. British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in the 1930s that automation would kill off the need to work long hours, and that in the future people would only work 15-20 hours per week. Graeber maintains that this is exactly what has happened. Automation and productivity gains have produced so much wealth we simply don’t need to work long hours. Writes Graeber:

“Automation did, in fact, lead to mass unemployment. We have simply stopped the gap by adding dummy jobs that are effectively made up.”

Bullshit Jobs discusses many other interesting facets of work, such as the value we give particular kinds of work (why are the useful professions, such as childcare and nursing, underpaid?), the mental health aspects of performing useless tasks and our general attitude to work (we see it as punitive and yet something everyone must be made to endure).

This is a totally liberating book that will make you rethink how the economy works and how it could be re-configured to serve us better. Graeber has a fine, incisive mind; every page offers original ideas and a unique perspective.

I wish everyone would read this book.

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, by David Graeber. Published by Allen Lane. ISBN: 9780241263884  RRP: $49.99

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The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, by David Graeber

Staff review by Chris Saliba

Mercurial cultural and economic writer David Graeber presents five challenging essays on bureaucracy and its tendency towards violence. 

The title of this book by anthropologist David Graeber sounds mighty appealing. All of us, every day, comes up against some set of stupid bureaucratic rules that we must deal with. Why can’t simple common sense prevail? Hence I approached this book with a fair bit of excitement, hoping it would provide a lucid explanation of why we all must suffer so much complex form filling, none of which ever runs particularly smoothly. What I got was something quite different.

The Utopia of Rules is essentially five loosely related essays (an introduction, three main pieces in the middle and an appendix, which is really a final essay) on such themes as technology, literature, pop culture, politics, cultural theory and so on. Graeber has a wide ranging intelligence; he’s clearly a smart cookie, and he likes to riff on whatever he finds interesting. This means it’s hard to really get a handle on what the overall point is that he’s trying to make. It’s like listening to a very intelligent person ramble on to themselves. Graeber cites freely from a broad range - authors, political theorists, historical events, comics and movies - without giving too much backgrounding to his references, which leaves you struggling to connect all the dots. Reading the book was like being stuck in a room full of brilliant university students, everyone feverishly quoting Focault and Baudrillard. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea.

The only really strong thread that runs through the book is the idea that bureaucracies are backed up by the threat of violence. They’re coercive. That doesn’t sound like a particularly new idea, but Graeber does tease out many interesting new strands to the argument.

This doesn’t sound like a very glowing review. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed. On the upside, Graeber clearly is a very interesting fellow. The Utopia of Rules is an odd book, written by an anthropologist who is also an anarchist (he was active in the Occupy movement). It provides many fascinating insights and makes you think outside of the box, but won’t suit those who want something that provides a clear narrative and explanation.

The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, by David Graeber. Published by Melville House. ISBN:9781612194486 RRP: $32.99

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