I read an article a while back about the death of the "career". It was quite a while back though, I don't know where to begin looking for it. It basically outlined the notion that unless you're a successful entrepreneur, work in high finance or other certain fields like PhD level education, the aspects of career longevity are diminishing. Menial labor isn't as rewarding as it used to be with the introduction of outsourcing to cheaper labor sources and technological advancement. University students with grand dreams of long and fruitful careers may be looking at decades of going through several disappointing jobs instead before retiring if they do retire.
To a conflict theorist though, this might be interesting.
I know this is an old post, but to those currently reading who are curious perhaps the article was
one of the many articles relating to "The Coming Jobs War" (with respect to inevitable globalization)?
Of the 7 billion people on Earth, there are 5 billion adults aged 15 and older. Of these 5 billion, 3 billion tell Gallup they work or want to work. Most of these people need a full-time formal job. The problem is that there are currently only 1.2 billion full-time, formal jobs in the world. This is a potentially devastating global shortfall of about 1.8 billion good jobs. It means that global unemployment for those seeking a formal good job with a paycheck and 30+ hours of steady work approaches a staggering 50%, with another 10% wanting part-time work.
I'm surprised so many posters have indicated their jobs aren't "bullshit" in one sense or another. I've always agreed with the now famous Christopher McCandless quote (already posted above): "Careers are a 20th century invention". Of course they're an invention, born of economic contrivance and the need of advanced societies to provide their people with a means of self-sufficiency. What are the chances that any but a very small percentage of the positions created of such a need would offer anything but the vaguest sense of meaning or of working towards self-actualization?
I know
70 percent of Americans don't "like" their jobs, which is a strong indication they believe their jobs are "bullshit" in the sense the OP's article uses it. When I consider the inevitability of the further encroachment of globalization on careers in the first world, the prospect of a severe reduction in jobs that offer decent wages at 30+ hours per week, and what it means for bullshit jobs in our globalized future that
worldwide a mere 13% like their jobs -- with 24 percent "actively disengaged," or truly unhappy and unproductive -- I'm further confused by career-focused people.
It may be true that good work is more available to those who focus, work hard, develop unique and valuable skills etc., but that doesn't change the fact that if everybody altered their behavior in an attempt to achieve these ends simultaneously and in equal measure there would be essentially the same number working bullshit jobs that made them miserable. Careers are finite and the nature of feasible work is determined by economic demand, not by what provides people with a sense of joy or meaning. The only way for the total workforce to be less miserable on average is to work less.
I'd find a lot more meaning in doing shit work that was required as a civic duty to support some sort of sociopolitical system that ensured all a basic living wage, sought to automate menial labor, and supported middle-class incomes on around 30 hours per week -- that is, shit work that afforded the majority time for work they want to do. If we don't figure out something like that the future looks pretty bleak. Long before anything like that can happen we need to stop judging others and ourselves based more on what we get paid for than what we choose to do with our free time.
