37% of British workers think their jobs are meaningless

[GennGreymane]

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/12...s-meaningless/

More than a third of British workers say their job is making no meaningful contribution to the world – but most of them aren't looking for another one

Earlier this year workers in London were greeted on their morning commute by signs bemoaning the meaninglessness of much of modern employment. One read: "It's as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs for the sake of keeping us all working." Another: "Huge swathes of people spend their days performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed." No one knows who put the signs up, but the quotes were taken from a 2013 article in STRIKE! magazine that did well at the time.

New YouGov research has sought to verify if the attitude expressed in the article is as prevalent as it says.

37% of working British adults say their job is not making a meaningful contribution to the world. Half of British workers (50%) say their job is meaningful, and 13% are unsure. Men (42%) are more likely to say their jobs are meaningless than women (32%).

Despite this, most people with 'meaningless' jobs say it's unlikely they will change jobs in the next 12 months (53%, compared to 35% who say they might change jobs).

The survey also asked if British workers find their jobs personally fulfilling, and a similar portion (33%) say they do not. 63% say their job is fulfilling, although only 18% say it is very fulfilling.

Londoners are the most likely regional grouping to say their jobs are unfulfilling (41%), while the Midlands and Wales have the highest levels of job fulfilment (67% fulfilled, 26% not). Working class people are slightly more likely than middle class people to say their jobs are unfulfilling (39% compared to 30%).

So many introductions at social occasions begin with a conversation about work, but only 49% of British workers say they’d be proud to tell someone about what they do when meeting for the first time. 8% say they’d even be embarrassed, 41% say neither.

David Graeber, author of the STRIKE! article, calls the phenomena of meaningless work “bullshit jobs”. He argues that by now we were supposed to be working fewer hours on fewer days of the week, as technology automates production. But this hasn’t happened – instead, he says, there are new industries that are in themselves not very socially useful, and more jobs designed merely to administer, support and secure them.

In 2014, YouGov found that 57% of British people supported the introduction of a four day working week.

[Schuetze]

Most work is meaningless unless you are working for your own company or business.

There's no feeling of reward when you work in an office crushing numbers and doing accounting. The most rewarding jobs are those where you can see something that you created yourself and you see the end result of your product.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Lots of jobs make no meaningful contribution to the world.

Hell there's entire industries that can be accused of such, the video game industry for example.

Take DOTA2 and the recent TI5 for example.

Dozens of 5 player teams spent months hunched over monitors, almost a hundred different vendors trying to brand everything in sight, scores of commentators whipped into a frenzy trying to sell hype that what's occuring is a battle royale of refined player skill and not the sad display of design imbalance it truly is, and for what?

No lasting contribution to humanity, just hundred million in revenue and nothing more.

But is there anything wrong with that?

If you think your job is bullshit then you're either due for a new job or, more likely these days, you're just a pissant crying about the fact you have to work at all.

[Hotto Pantsu]

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/12...s-meaningless/

Meaningful for the world? Lol delusional ppl or what. Then again I guess these are public sector workers aka leeches to the taxmoney the private sector produces. Fkers should be happy to even have a job.

[Kalis]

In 2014, YouGov found that 57% of British people supported the introduction of a four day working week.

We're a bunch of wannabe skivers.

[Grym]

Most work is meaningless unless you are working for your own company or business.

There's no feeling of reward when you work in an office crushing numbers and doing accounting. The most rewarding jobs are those where you can see something that you created yourself and you see the end result of your product.

Speak for yourself!!!!

I am a Commercial Management Accountant, and I don't find accounting meaningless. The performance analysis you do greatly help management to track their performance against Budget and make commercial decisions, hence management accounting is not reuired by law (financial accounting is), many larger companies would still have their own management account team because of how important it is.

[Deleted]

We're a bunch of wannabe skivers.

There's quite a lot of data to suggest productivity is much higher for a 4 day / 10 hour working week over the current 5 day / 8 hour.

I try to keep to 4 day working weeks myself wherever possible and getting 3 days a week where you literally do pretty much fuck all (or at least just things you really want to do) feels amazing.

[Austilias]

We're a bunch of wannabe skivers.

Someone has to pick up where the Greeks left off.

[Independent voter]

In government work, civil service, a lot of times the administration the directors will hire as many employees as they can. One it makes them look more important to have 650 employees under them instead of 600. Two, maybe 2% of people in civil service actually do the work so that 650 turns into an actual 13 people doing the work.

[Doctor Amadeus]

That 37% seem to be pretty bright, typically takes most a lifetime to figure that out if ever.

[Ryme]

I'd say about 1/3 of people are doing meaningless jobs.

[Kujako]

What about the person whose job it was to ask all these other people what they think of their job?

[Elegiac]

There's quite a lot of data to suggest productivity is much higher for a 4 day / 10 hour working week over the current 5 day / 8 hour.

I try to keep to 4 day working weeks myself wherever possible and getting 3 days a week where you literally do pretty much fuck all (or at least just things you really want to do) feels amazing.

Not to mention that our continued insistence upon retaining the industrial-era work week ensures unemployment remains a persistent problem.

[Deleted]

If you're paid for your work then you're doing a job worth doing.
You dont need to shake the world in its foundations to feel like you're making a difference.
Even a lowly warehouse picker has some degree value as he is actively making sure that we all have our food to pick up in our stores.

[Stormdash]

I have it on good authority that hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

[Elegiac]

If you're paid for your work then you're doing a job worth doing.

Arguable. See futures and derivative speculators.

[tehealadin]

I can say that I am not one of them, I am a teacher, I inspire kids to better themselves and teach them valuable skills that will help them when they grow up. I get a lot of satisfaction from my job.

[Itisamuh]

I'd say about 1/3 of people are doing meaningless jobs.

Depending on how a person defines meaningful, I would say way more than a third probably feel that way. The only jobs that strike me as meaningful would be things like military, police, firefighters, paramedics, nurses, doctors, teachers, etc. Those are at least important in a tangible way and give a sense of purpose. Factories, retail stores, fast food businesses, etc might be necessary, but the jobs hardly feel important on an individual level, even discounting the often crappy pay.

[Deleted]

Depending on how a person defines meaningful, I would say way more than a third probably feel that way. The only jobs that strike me as meaningful would be things like military...

Woah, I would say the military tops the list of jobs the world does not need. The justification to have military is because other nations have it.

[Kalis]

Woah, I would say the military tops the list of jobs the world does not need. The justification to have military is because other nations have it.

It keeps loads of Geordies off the streets, so there is that.