Summary of David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669343448

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

A paradigmatic example of a bullshit job is one that is completely pointless, and the person who has to perform it every day cannot convince himself otherwise.

#2

In other countries, similar stories occur of civil servants who decide to just never show up to work. These employees are usually given a pass because of their depression, although their actions still cause major problems for the government.

#3

The main difference between public and private work is not that the former is less or more likely to be pointless, but that in the private sector, pointless work is more likely to be closely supervised.

#4

If you think about it, most jobs involve doing things that no one could possibly consider pointless. If 37 percent to 40 percent of a country’s working population believe their work doesn’t make any difference at all, and another sizable chunk suspects it might not, you can only conclude that any office worker who might suspect they secretly believe their job is pointless actually believes this.

#5

The author considers the Mafia hit man as an example of a bullshit job. The term bullshit job refers to jobs that are useless or pernicious, but that the person holding the job has to pretend are meaningful.

#6

A bullshit job is any job that is completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious. The hit man is a type of job that cannot be considered a bullshit job because it is not entirely clear that it is a job in the first place.

#7

A bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.

#8

The author defines a bullshit job as one that is pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious. He argues that workers can be expected to know what’s going on in an office or on a shop floor, and to understand how their