No shit, real work practically stopped at my last job when the owners were in town. Everyone was too busy with the dog and pony show to get anything done.
Have you read Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber by any chance?
I have not, but I’ve heard of it
I highly recommened it! Literally talks about the issues you posted above and more.
Tbh, he’s missing one of the most imporant groups of useless jobs: Work done in useless endeavors.
My work is not useless per se. I build programs that work, they do what they should. The quality of my work isn’t bad, so no issues there. But the whole product and in fact the whole department could just be cut without substitute and nobody would notice.
That’s been what I did in my last three jobs. In fact, the last two jobs I left had an active total team collapse happening when I left, and these teams were just cut without replacement after everyone left voluntarily.
I do think he does talk about that, at least to an extent. Could be wrong, it’s been a year since I’ve read it.
I called a gym to complain about some membership issue (the details are complicated and irrelevant) and the assistant manager told me that he had no way to contact corporate, he also told me the manager couldn’t talk to me because he was having an in person meeting with his boss, you know, corporate.
