Bullshit job or self-exploitation?

The dangers of meaningless and meaningful work

During an Erasmus semester at a Polish university, one thing surprised me above all at the beginning: the cloakroom at the entrance of the main building. It was the workplace of a man in his forties who lived with his wife and little daughter in the halls of residence on the same floor as me. When he was at the cloakroom, you could exchange your jacket for a number. Free of charge, of course. When he wasn't working, you could hang your jacket on the cloakroom yourself. Without a number and without any guarantee of picking it up again later. So most people kept their things with them on those days. I never really understood the rhythm by which he worked there. Often he was there, but often he wasn't. If my Polish had been better, I could have asked him, but it wasn't. So our communication remained at the level of dzień dobry and friendly nodding, and I remained convinced that I recognised in this job a work creation scheme. 

From an outside perspective, this activity did not seem particularly meaningful to me. On the contrary: it seemed unnecessary to me and the job as what the anthropologist David Gaebler calls "bullshit jobs": professions and activities that are superfluous and are also secretly regarded by those who practise them as unnecessary. The psychologist Tatjana Schnell writes in her book "The Psychology of Life's Meaning" about the relationship between work and meaning, that you don't have to save the world with every job. Fair enough. But is the man's lifetime not too precious to spend twiddling his thumbs at the cloakroom waiting for tomorrow's academics? Should it not be possible in the 21st century to find reasonably meaningful activities for everyone between bullshit jobs and boundless self-sacrifice, activities that don't drive people psychologically mad in one direction or the other? And if so, how can meaningful be defined or even measured? 

The first two questions can be clearly answered with "yes". The utopia of economist John Maynard Keynes's 15-hour working week has not been realised since 1930, even though technological progress would make it possible for us. In 2019, the weekly working hours of German employees were 34.8 hours and were thus below the European average of 37 hours (Statista), but still worlds away from 15 hours. (And here we are only looking at figures for stated and thus measurable working time. The increasing blurring of boundaries between work and private life has not even been touched upon.) So if we are going to work a lot anyway, then at least let it be reasonably meaningful. 

Prof. Dr. Schnell provides four criteria in her empirically grounded theory of life's meaning for defining professional fulfilment (Schnell 2020: 239): 1) Individual experience of significance, 2) Orientation, 3) Coherence and 4) Belonging within the context of current work activity. This also allows personal career choice or a possible change of study subject to be accompanied and illuminated to some extent by scientific criteria. 

1) Significance – Is my activity important or irrelevant?
Significance refers to one's own perception and assessment of the activity being performed in relation to other people. The individual experience of significance is based on what effects and benefits one's own actions have for other people. 

2) Orientation or purpose – what goals does the job pursue? 
Orientation means the general evaluation and consideration of the activity. On the one hand, the underlying values, mission and vision play a role, and on the other hand, the strategies and goals that the activity pursues. 

3) Coherence – does the activity fit my personality?
Coherence means fit and consistency; a distinction is made between horizontal and vertical coherence. Horizontal coherence refers to one level: professional activities complement each other meaningfully and work objectives are free of contradiction. Vertical coherence refers to meaning construction across levels: professional action contributes to the achievement of work objectives and work objectives harmonise with personal life meanings. 

4) Belonging – am I part of the team?
Belonging refers to identification with the workplace, with the institution, the business or the organisation. It is about the feeling of being part of a whole and of being needed or feeling needed and integrated. And it is also about having responsibility and experiencing recognition from others. 

The study makes clear that disturbingly often person and job do not match in terms of training, skills, interests and personality, which of course results in either overwhelm or underutilisation. Job fit is enormously important for high fulfilment in professional life. It really does seem to be a narrow line that separates one extreme from the other. Because as soon as the hoped-for professional fulfilment occurs, there is a danger of self-exploitation. The term over-commitment describes exactly this behaviour: people who are so absorbed in their job that they give themselves over to it completely. This usually happens in areas that do not pursue economic and primarily monetary goals, but where other people, cultural or scientific goals motivate them (Schnell 2020: 246-251). Care workers who do not take their breaks because the work needs to be done or social workers who are privately available day and night to support clients are just two examples.  

In the individual search for suitable employment or self-employment, and in the hope of making the quarterlife crisis as bearable as possible, it certainly doesn't hurt to keep these four criteria in mind. Also, because Corona-related circumstances currently mean there are a third fewer job offers for career starters, internships are falling away, etc., it is equally important to know that a job can also just be a job and doesn't have to be an identifying feature: "However important the meaningfulness of professional activity may be – the concept should not be overstretched. Not everyone seeks the meaning of their life in work, and not every job has qualities that would make it a suitable life centre." (Schnell 2020: 254). Especially the latter should give us pause as a society when we reflect on the opportunities and possibilities for shaping the future world of work. And on which jobs we take with us into that future.

By Sarah Schmittinger

Bibliography
Schnell, Tatjana (2020): Die Psychologie des Lebenssinns, 2nd edn. Berlin: Springer.