ReviewAre you in a BS job? Author and anthropologist takes no prisoners in provocative new book

Bulls*** Jobs
by David Graeber
Simon & Schuster

4/5 stars

Are you in a bulls*** job? Read David Graeber’s provocative book and decide if you can defend what you do for a living. A huge number of people, who in 2013 made his essay on the subject go viral, recognised that their vocations were meaningless and contributed zero to society. Someone who fit the category was the Spanish civil servant outed in 2016 for collecting pay for six years despite not going to work (he spent the time becoming an expert on Dutch philosopher Spinoza). Others include the corporate lawyers who told Graeber they had BS jobs.

The author, an anthro­pologist and anarchist, identifies five categories of such positions: flunkeys (assistants and the like); duct tapers (who bridge, rather than fix, mistakes); box tickers; taskmasters (who assign useless jobs); and goons (telemarketers). All adhere to his definition of paid employ­ment so pointless, unnecessary or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence. That means a “s*** job” (cleaning, for example) is not necessarily a BS job; and neither are government positions necessarily any more BS than those in the private sector.

The Feather Thief
by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Viking