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Many people feel they work in pointless, meaningless jobs, research confirms (phys.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's worth pointing out that feeling like you work in a pointless, meaningless job doesn't necessarily make it true. This paper is solely about people's perceptions, not facts.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The opposite of that is also true - feeling like you're doing something useful doesn't make it so

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes. I wonder why they chose the wording they did. It seems like it would be more useful to know if people think their jobs actually are bullshit. Even if office assistants feel like crap about their job I imagine a lot of them would be missed. Likewise, I imagine there's plenty of teachers that would criticise the way they're being utilised.

For referance:

He analyzed survey data on 1,811 respondents in the U.S. working in 21 types of jobs, who were asked if their work gave them "a feeling of making a positive impact on community and society" and "the feeling of doing useful work."

Edit: Ah!

To test the hypotheses derived from Graeber’s theory, binary logistic regression models are estimated with perceived job-uselessness as the dependent variable, using data from the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey (AWCS) (Maestas et al., 2017). The AWCS is based on the RAND American Life Panel, which is a nationally representative sample of individuals living in the US who agreed to participate in regular online surveys.2 From this panel, a probability-based sample was drawn for the AWCS and 3131 responses were registered in total, which accounts to a response rate of 64%. This dataset was chosen mainly for two reasons: on the one hand, it includes a wide range of work-related variables. To the author’s knowledge, it is in fact the only dataset available that allows to control for all factors mentioned above, which is a crucial part of the analyses in this article. On the other hand, it provides data from the US, which is especially interesting since Graeber’s theory may only apply to heavily financialized Anglo-Saxon countries and the US has not yet been analysed individually to date.

Data collected for another purpose was being used. That's why.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why does the purpose the data was collected for matter? Either the data is suitable or not. The motive of the pollsters who gathered it is irrelevant, isn't it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

To be clear, that wasn't a criticism, just an explanation. Collecting a bespoke survey would have been better but almost certainly was beyond the abilities of this researcher. This is the next best approach.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

yes but ultimately perception is reality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this.

People have all sorts of beliefs that can qualitatively be proven as right or wrong. For example, all the wingnuts who believe that the COVID vaccine has trackers from Microsoft. Their beliefs are 100% bereft of reality.

Now, can they go ahead and act on those mistaken beliefs? Sure. But that doesn't make their beliefs correct in any way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh no, it's a philosopher. /s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Had the bolsheviks ensconced themselves within the flames of Jesus H Christ they would still be here today. It was right in front of them, but alas they were too short sighted to understand the power of emotion.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great so if I think my job is pointless and meaningless and hate it, I should just keep doing it? Because reasons?

Obviously most jobs are not pointless or meaningless. They exist because we need them to exist for things to function. Perception in this case is ultimately a much more useful metric for nearly any question you may want to answer about jobs.

Job satisfaction? Perception matters more. Job demand? Definitely perception. Mental health of workers? Perception.

What questions do you think are better answered by some kind of more 'objective' measure of job meaning?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

A person's perception is highly informed by how well or poorly they understand the subject or situation in question.

Let's say you got stood up by a first date because they got hit by a car on their way to you. Your perception of them is going to vary wildly depending on whether or not you know the facts behind why they didn't show up.

Similarly, knowing how you actually fit into things at your job - i.e. your importance to your working group, the company, it's customers, society itself, allows you to have a more accurate set of facts to base your perception on.

So yes, the truth matters.