[Book Review] "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory" - Can We Be Freed from Labor and Become Free?

● A vast number of people spend their entire working hours performing tasks they secretly believe are unnecessary.
● It is as if someone is inventing meaningless jobs just to keep us all working.
● The moral and spiritual damage caused by this situation is profound. It is a wound that is damaging our collective soul. Yet, virtually no one is talking about it.
● How can one even speak of the dignity of labor when one secretly feels that it would be better if their job did not exist?
(From p. 12)

The new book "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory" by cultural anthropologist David Graeber, which was translated into Japanese in July, is a hot topic.

This book sounds an alarm about our nihilistic labor society by pointing out the prevalence of "bullshit jobs"—that is, "forms of paid employment that are so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify their existence, yet they feel obliged to pretend that they are not."

It was a very interesting and inspiring book.

I believe this book has significant social importance as it re-examines the questions: "Why are we still working such long hours when productivity should have increased due to technological advancements?" and, by extension, "What is a free society?"

Coincidentally, the author, Mr. Graeber, passed away just the other day. It is truly regrettable to hear the sudden news of his death just as I was deeply moved by reading this book with great interest.

With a sense of mourning, I would like to briefly introduce the overview and key points of the book for those who are curious about what it is about.

A thick book that requires determination to finish

The book proceeds roughly in the following flow: "Definition and classification of bullshit jobs," "The spiritual violence of bullshit jobs," "Causes and background of bullshit jobs," and "What should we do in the future?"

It is quite a thick book and can be a bit difficult to read, so it takes some determination to finish it.

However, the depth of the content and the precision of the analysis are impressive, and the book is filled with "workplace realities" that anyone can relate to, often making you laugh. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in its theme or anyone who feels even a slight sense of discomfort regarding the significance of their own work.

The definition of "bullshit jobs"

The definition of "bullshit jobs" is the most important part of reading this book. The author carefully presents the reasons and ultimately defines it as follows:

A bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence, yet they feel obliged to pretend that it is not as part of the conditions of their employment. (p. 27-28)

The key point is that it emphasizes what individuals themselves feel is wrong, rather than the evaluations of others, and highlights the deceptive elements that require one to keep up appearances.

Regarding "bullshit jobs," some occasionally argue that "others shouldn't arbitrarily decide that a job is meaningless," but since the author defines them as "jobs that the person themselves feels are meaningless," this is a misguided criticism. (Furthermore, the author carefully refutes the criticism that "the person just doesn't realize the significance of their work.")

The deceptive element of having to keep up appearances even when the person feels the work is meaningless is also important. This internal and external contradiction is the source of the toxicity of "bullshit jobs," which causes individuals to suffer from mental illness because they cannot endure it.

Presentation of a characteristic large number of concrete examples

A characteristic of this book is that it presents the prevalence and harmful nature of "bullshit jobs" based on a large number of concrete examples collected through interviews and personal accounts.

Eric's experience starting on page 101 is particularly impressive.

After graduating from university and finally getting a job, Eric was assigned a meaningless role as an "interface manager," which was entirely for show.

This was a job managing a system designed to make it appear as though feuding groups within the company were properly collaborating, even though the system didn't function and wasn't wanted; yet, the role of managing it was deemed necessary.

The book describes the mental anguish Eric suffered due to the contradiction between his desire to do meaningful work and a joke-like situation where he couldn't quit even when he intentionally slacked off—in fact, his salary was even increased.

Although the book uses some statistics, it seems that many people criticize it for being based only on such individual voices and lacking empirical evidence.

However, that is not a valid criticism.

Judgments of value, such as "Is this meaningful work?", cannot be expressed through objective numerical data and must inevitably be subjective, so it is natural that the book has strong elements of qualitative research that collects case studies.

As for me (Egusa), I feel that the frequent occurrence of such subjective discomfort, which does not appear in objective figures, actually suggests the blind spots and problems of logical positivism and numerical management in modern society.

One cannot say, "It is not a problem because it does not appear in the numbers." There are, of course, "problems that do not appear in the numbers" in this world.

"Bullshit jobs" are not a problem of people with low ability.

Some people say regarding "bullshit jobs" that "it can't be helped because you have to assign menial tasks to people with low ability," but this is also a common misunderstanding (though I am sure such cases exist).

As with the previous example of Eric, this book points out many instances where highly educated and capable people are trapped in bullshit jobs. The author even goes so far as to say that the financial industry, which attracts highly educated individuals, is a prime example of a "bullshit job."

The author also emphasizes that this is a different concept from "shit jobs," which are simply poorly paid and demanding, and we must be careful not to confuse the two.

"Bullshit jobs" are not a problem of "bureaucracy"

This is another point that is often misunderstood: "bullshit jobs" are not a problem of public institutions, which are often called "bureaucratic," but also occur in private companies that pride themselves on being efficient in accordance with capitalism. The author devotes considerable space to examining this point by citing numerous real-life examples.

It is a shocking observation that if one assumes such wasteful work could not exist because capitalism pursues efficiency, in reality, it is full of waste, and we have been blind to what is right under our noses.

This is the most complex part of the book's analysis, and while it is difficult to summarize in a single word, the author seems to believe that the reason the ideal of capitalism, which should be efficient, is not being realized is that "bullshit jobs" are not purely an economic problem, but one that has political aspects and depends on our values.

High pay for "bullshit jobs," low pay for "essential workers"

It is also important that the book points out that while "bullshit jobs" tend to have good financial compensation, "essential workers" such as nurses and teachers, who do meaningful work, are treated worse.

The author attributes this to "moral envy," noting that people who do meaningful work are easily resented for demanding money as compensation.

The criticism from "people doing work that is not particularly meaningful" is, "How dare you demand money on top of doing such meaningful work!"

The trade-off between "compensation" and "meaningfulness" is an interesting perspective.

Indeed, as the problem of exploitative labor among medical professionals and teachers has been pointed out in Japan as well, I think there is a contradiction in that the more meaningful the work, the more it is treated as a "vocation," making it impossible to take time off even when overworked, or to demand strikes or pay raises.

Background and countermeasures for the spread of "bullshit jobs"

The author points to managerialism and the work ethic, which views labor itself as a virtue, as the background to the spread of "bullshit jobs."

To obtain grants, scientists are forced to spend more energy on competing to appeal to managers and supervisors than on their actual research.

People despise the unemployed, fear losing their jobs, and support politicians who secure employment (regardless of the significance of the content).

Now that you mention it, there is certainly such a tendency in our society.

The author also touches on countermeasures for "bullshit jobs." While maintaining that "this book is a work of raising issues" and offering only modest solutions, he suggests a reconsideration of the value of care and the implementation of a universal basic income.

In other words, it is necessary to fundamentally reform our view of labor by breaking free from the "productive" obsession that we must create some kind of value through work, by re-evaluating the importance of care-based activities that arise between people, such as child-rearing, and by separating life from labor.

However, as the author points out, there is no doubt that this is a problem that will not be easily solved.

[Summary] A meaningful book that leads to our "work-style revolution"

As introduced at the beginning of this book, the famous 20th-century economist Keynes predicted that as productivity improved, an era would come where a 15-hour workweek would be sufficient.

However, in the 21st century, even though times have progressed and productivity should have increased, our quantitative and qualitative dependence on labor is only growing—with people saying things like "we have to have two incomes to get by" or "we have to graduate from a good university to get a job"—while at the same time, it even feels like empty paperwork and meetings with no apparent meaning are on the rise.

It seems our way of working is not what we thought it would be.

In this context, by deconstructing "bullshit jobs," this book details the contradictions of the modern labor system. It can be called a meaningful book that gives concrete form to the sense of discomfort toward labor that we have been vaguely feeling, and raises our awareness of the issue.

The fact that the momentum for "work-style reform" and "basic income" is rising in parallel is not unrelated to this "bullshit jobs" problem; I believe the root is the same: "the fraying of the modern labor system."

Since productivity has increased, we should at least be able to be more liberated and free from labor than in the past.

The hurdles to overcome are high, such as the work ethic represented by "he who does not work, neither shall he eat," and the de-differentiation of self-perception where one's occupation has become one's identity. However, with the help of this book, I hope that by fundamentally rethinking "labor," which consumes so much of so many people's time, we can lead to the realization of a society where everyone can truly live freely and with dignity.

That concludes my brief review and thoughts.

There may be parts where I have misinterpreted things due to a shallow reading, but I hope you can get a sense of the atmosphere. If you are interested, please pick up a copy of the book.

Personally, there are many points I would like to explore further based on the contents of this book, so I would like to revisit it when I have the chance.

In closing, I would like to once again pray for the soul of Mr. Graeber, who wrote such a wonderful book.

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If you are interested in this book, I think you will find it deeply resonant to read Bob Black's essay, "The Abolition of Work."

Everyone should stop working.
Work is the source of almost all the misery in the world.
Almost everything that can be called evil in this world arises from work, or from living in a world built on the premise of work.
If we want to end suffering, we must stop working.