## Metadata - Author: [[Shayla Love]] - Full Title:: Why Do So Many People Think They Are in a Bullshit Job? - Category:: #🗞️Articles - Document Tags:: [[📖 Bullshit Jobs]], - URL:: https://psyche.co/ideas/why-do-so-many-people-think-they-are-in-a-bullshit-job?utm_source=rss-feed - Read date:: [[2023-10-10]] ## Highlights > academic researchers began to quantify the actual amount of bullshit [jobs](https://aeon.co/essays/what-if-jobs-are-not-the-solution-but-the-problem), their findings were largely at odds with Graeber’s claims. Empirical data suggested that, in fact, relatively few people appear to consider their jobs as useless – leading to pushback against the real-life applicability of Graeber’s concept. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hccjrrqgnebj3fzekspy0wad)) > in 2021, a [study](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09500170211015067) based on high-quality survey data collected by an EU agency, found that only around 5 per cent of workers considered their jobs useless ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hccjsngjjnjwjvnfgqpsareg)) > wasn’t that certain jobs were, by their nature useless, but that people in many kinds of job can feel alienated and suffer from poor working conditions and relationships. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hccjsxydxx23afxf2fq8wdbc)) > **Published in one of the British Sociological Association’s journals *– Work, Employment and Society* – in July, now another [study](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170231175771) has come along and it suggests that, although factors such as alienation are important, there really do seem to be certain occupations that people report being more useless than others and, what’s more, they align with the categories of bullshit jobs that Graeber proposed. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hccjtjngkmd1zk7ckyy00gh1))** ^90f055 > In Walo’s paper, people were asked if their jobs are useful for their society and for their community, whereas the 2021 paper asked more generally about usefulness but didn’t specify useful to whom. In other words, Walo’s paper might have set a higher standard for usefulness. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hccjw2aj6d1zx8m6hamm99tn)) > Walo says this suggests it’s not always alienation or dissatisfaction alone that leads people to thinking their jobs are useless, but that sometimes there is something inherent to these jobs that makes people see them as ‘bullshit ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hccjwtjpnm4vh04r8kpk5f2z))