Post by wearwolf on Aug 18, 2015 19:06:07 GMT
A survey has found that more than a third of British workers say their job is making no meaningful contribution to the world.
Earlier this year workers in London were greeted on their morning commute by signs bemoaning the meaninglessness of much of modern employment.
One read: “It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs for the sake of keeping us all working.” Another: “Huge swathes of people spend their days performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed.”
No one knows who put the signs up, but the quotes were taken from a 2013 article in STRIKE! magazine that did well at the time.
New YouGov research has sought to verify if the attitude expressed in the article is as prevalent as it says.
Survey findings:
37 per cent of working British adults say their job is not making a meaningful contribution to the world.
50 per cent say their job is meaningful, and 13 per cent are unsure.
Men (42 per cent) are more likely to say their jobs are meaningless than women (32 per cent).
Most people with ‘meaningless’ jobs say it’s unlikely they will change jobs in the next 12 months (53 per cent, compared to 35 per cent who say they might change jobs).
33 per cent say they find their jobs personally fulfilling, although only 18% say it is very fulfilling.
Regional views:
Londoners are the most likely regional grouping to say their jobs are unfulfilling (41 per cent), while the Midlands and Wales have the highest levels of job fulfilment (67 per cent fulfilled, 26 per cent not).
Working class people are slightly more likely than middle class people to say their jobs are unfulfilling (39 per cent compared to 30 per cent).
So many introductions at social occasions begin with a conversation about work, but only 49% of British workers say they’d be proud to tell someone about what they do when meeting for the first time.
8 per cent say they’d even be embarrassed, 41 per cent say neither.
David Graeber, author of the STRIKE! article, calls the phenomena of meaningless work “BS jobs”. He argues that by now we were supposed to be working fewer hours on fewer days of the week, as technology automates production. But this hasn’t happened – instead, he says, there are new industries that are in themselves not very socially useful, and more jobs designed merely to administer, support and secure them.
Source : Shields Gazette, 18 Aug 2015
Earlier this year workers in London were greeted on their morning commute by signs bemoaning the meaninglessness of much of modern employment.
One read: “It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs for the sake of keeping us all working.” Another: “Huge swathes of people spend their days performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed.”
No one knows who put the signs up, but the quotes were taken from a 2013 article in STRIKE! magazine that did well at the time.
New YouGov research has sought to verify if the attitude expressed in the article is as prevalent as it says.
Survey findings:
37 per cent of working British adults say their job is not making a meaningful contribution to the world.
50 per cent say their job is meaningful, and 13 per cent are unsure.
Men (42 per cent) are more likely to say their jobs are meaningless than women (32 per cent).
Most people with ‘meaningless’ jobs say it’s unlikely they will change jobs in the next 12 months (53 per cent, compared to 35 per cent who say they might change jobs).
33 per cent say they find their jobs personally fulfilling, although only 18% say it is very fulfilling.
Regional views:
Londoners are the most likely regional grouping to say their jobs are unfulfilling (41 per cent), while the Midlands and Wales have the highest levels of job fulfilment (67 per cent fulfilled, 26 per cent not).
Working class people are slightly more likely than middle class people to say their jobs are unfulfilling (39 per cent compared to 30 per cent).
So many introductions at social occasions begin with a conversation about work, but only 49% of British workers say they’d be proud to tell someone about what they do when meeting for the first time.
8 per cent say they’d even be embarrassed, 41 per cent say neither.
David Graeber, author of the STRIKE! article, calls the phenomena of meaningless work “BS jobs”. He argues that by now we were supposed to be working fewer hours on fewer days of the week, as technology automates production. But this hasn’t happened – instead, he says, there are new industries that are in themselves not very socially useful, and more jobs designed merely to administer, support and secure them.
Source : Shields Gazette, 18 Aug 2015
