I just started working at a fast food restaurant and am really just blown away by how much rewarding it is that my last job working at a social welfare agency “helping people.” There is almost ALWAYS something to do AND my work can be objectively measured, two things untrue of my last job.

I’m trying to figure out what I want out of life, and work, and career, and I think this is really important to me: I actually need to be DOING something, something that I have direct control over, and something that I don’t NEED to say, “Look what a good job I did” because it is transparent.

Part of the reason I think this is important to me is if these requirements are NOT met, then the job is essentially convincing OTHERS that you are good at your job and/or that they like you. If what you do is opaque, unclear, or hard to measure, you have to constantly be policing the social narrative around yourself and your work–two things I have absolutely no interest (or ability?) in doing.

What’s been your experience?

  • Arcanepotato@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
    2·
    14 days ago

    I can relate to this. I have my dream career but I’m the one person with my job so I don’t have a useful job description or metrics. I’m dyyyyyying for concrete evidence that I am doing a good job. Not because I need to prove it, but because I need it to be satisfied.

    There were times in my life when I could say “Boss man is happy, I’m happy” but now that I am depended on for a level of expertise my bosses don’t have I’m struggling with believing them when they tell me they are happy with my work.

    Personally I don’t consider a fast food job as a bullshit job because it is a job with concrete impact. For me bullshit jobs are more for jobs that are non productive or not strictly required to support productive work. An example would be someone who tracks KPI and reports on them but they aren’t directly used to make business decisions, just to sound nice to the higher ups.

    I make that distinction because even though I long for the simplicity of being a line cook or supermarket cashier, I would not go back voluntarily. The nonsense hits different when you are kept in poverty with poverty wages and you can’t call in sick. The power dynamics are so different so I don’t need to panic about a misunderstanding meaning I lose my job.

    (All this is why I am an anarchist: there is so much bullshit hierarchy that is the root of injustice. There is no unskilled labour, and any job worth doing deserves respect.)

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOP
      1·
      14 days ago

      Just to clarify: I don’t think fast food is a bullshit job; I was referring to my last job in a social service agency.

      The guy who termed “bullshit jobs” actually says that the lowest paid jobs are actually NOT bullshit jobs, because they would be eliminated if there were not necessary. It is the corporate sinecures that go to well-placed people who play The Game that are rife with bullshit jobs.