5 Types of Bullshit Jobs, with David Graeber

DAVID GRAEBER: I’ve
been doing a sort of research project where I made up a Gmail account
called doihaveabsjoborwhat@gmail.com. I’d been advertising on Twitter.
I’ve got about 250 testimonies now. I have broken them down into five
basic types. There are flunky jobs, which are basically people who just
are there to make someone else look good. A lot of people sitting around
offices say they basically don’t do anything except pass emails to
someone and say, “No, that’s spam.” They’re just there because if you
don’t have someone sitting in your desk you’re not actually a real
executive. Similar to receptionists at publishing companies where nobody
ever calls, they have to be there anyway. Okay, so I have millions of
flunky jobs like that.