Communications of the ACM
Many People Feel Their Jobs Are Pointless
Nineteen percent of workers say they rarely or never feel they make a positive impact on community and society.
Credit: iStock
A study by sociology postdoc Simon Walo at the University of Zurich confirms that a considerable proportion of employees perceive their work as socially useless. Workers in computer and mathematical occupations have a high predicted probability of seeing their jobs as socially useless, the study says.
Various explanations have been proposed for the phenomenon. The "bull**it jobs theory" by the American anthropologist David Graeber, for example, states that some jobs are objectively useless and that this occurs more frequently in certain occupations than others.
Other researchers suggest that the reason people felt their jobs were useless was solely because they were routine and lacked autonomy or good management rather than anything intrinsic to their work.
Walo's study finds "quantitative evidence supporting the argument that the occupation can be decisive for the perceived pointlessness." He also found that the share of workers who consider their jobs socially useless is higher in the private sector than in the non-profit or the public sector.
From University of Zurich
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