狗屁工作 (2018)

《狗屁工作》（英语：Bullshit Jobs: A Theory）是人类学家大卫·格雷伯于2018年出版的一本书籍，该书提到社会上存在无意义的工作并分析它们的社会危害。他认为，社会上超过一半的工作是毫无意义的，当人们与将这些工作与自我价值联系起来时，就会对心理造成冲击。大卫·格雷伯提到了五种毫无意义的工作，分别为马屁型，这些人使得上级自以为很重要，如接待员、行政助理、门卫；打手型，代表雇主伤害或欺骗他人，如游说集团、公司律师、电话销售、公共关系； 补丁型，比如程序员修补劣质代码、航空公司前台工作人员安抚行李遗失的乘客；报价机型：专门写书面文件、做些放空炮的报告，例如绩效分析师、公司内部宣传员；监工型：不必要的上级，他们管理那些不需要管理就能顺利工作的人，例如中层管理人员、领导力专员。

出版

2013年，格雷伯在《罢工》杂志上发表了一篇文章《论狗屁工作的现象》，论证了当代许多工作的无意义性，尤其是金融、法律、人力资源、公共关系和顾问等领域的工作。其受欢迎程度超过一百万次点击，造成激进杂志《罢工！》的网站崩溃。该文后来被翻译成12种语言。

YouGov进行了一次相关的民意调查，其中37%的受访英国人认为他们的工作对世界没有 "有意义 "的贡献。

格雷伯随后收集了征集了数百份关于狗屁工作的证词，并将他的案例修改为一本书《狗屁工作：一种理论》 。

到2018年底，该书被翻译成法语、德语、意大利语、西班牙语、波兰语、和中文。

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by the American anthropologist David Graeber that postulates the existence of meaningless jobs which cause psychological harm. He contends that over half of societal work is pointless and becomes psychologically destructive (when paired with a work ethic that associates work with self-worth) because workers are required to pretend their role is not as pointless or harmful as they know it to be. Graeber classifies a job as bullshit if society would be no worse off (or even notice) if such job(s) disappeared, and names five classes of meaningless jobs: flunkies, goons, duct tapers, box tickers, and taskmasters. He argues that the association of labor with virtuous suffering is recent in human history and proposes universal basic income as a potential solution which would allow individuals to choose how they would like to contribute to humanity.

The book is an extension of Graeber's popular 2013 essay, which was later translated into 12 languages and whose underlying premise became the subject of a YouGov poll. Graeber solicited hundreds of testimonials from workers with jobs they felt were meaningless and revised his essay's case into book form; Simon & Schuster published the book in May 2018.

Most reviewers and two studies agreed with the thesis that many people do not feel like their job makes "a meaningful contribution to the world," but did not agree with the reasons Graeber gave. He contends that bullshit jobs are the reason people are not working 15-hour weeks, as predicted in 1930 by John Maynard Keynes, but he did not acknowledge that working hours have declined and quality of life has improved vastly since then. While he stated that both political parties support the idea of "more jobs" (whether or not they are good jobs) and that citizens are less likely to revolt against a government if they are employed, he never directly proposed that bullshit jobs may exist as a form of workfare, to provide employment as social welfare to otherwise un-employable people. Two studies found that while Graeber claimed that an increasing number (from 20-60%) of all jobs are useless, less than 8% of European workers reported feeling that their job is useless, and those numbers are declining rather than growing. Additionally, European essential workers like garbage collectors or janitors more often felt like their jobs were useless than people in jobs classified by Graeber as useless. The studies concluded that Graeber's theories are insufficient to explain why workers feel their jobs are not socially useful and that toxic work culture and bad management were better explanations for those feelings.

History

In 2013, Graeber published an essay in the radical magazine Strike! named "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs", which argued the pointlessness of many contemporary jobs, particularly those in fields of finance, law, human resources, public relations, and consultancy. It received over one million views and was subsequently translated into 12 languages.

YouGov undertook a related poll, in which 37% of surveyed Britons thought that their jobs did not contribute 'meaningfully' to the world. In opposition to Graeber's claim that "most people hate their job," the same survey also found that 63% of respondents said that their jobs were "personally fulfilling" and a 2016 Ipsos study found that 71% of Britons reported positive feelings towards their job.

Graeber subsequently solicited hundreds of job testimonials and expanded his essay into a book which includes many of those anecdotes, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.

The book was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Chinese.