I was thinking about the job that I got laid off from (really, fired) back in June. I'm kind of laughing about how ridiculous it all was. I worked there as an accountant in the corporate offices. This is a company that all they do is take care of cleaning services for large apartment complexes and a few office buildings. They don't even do the work themselves! They just subcontract out the work to local cleaning companies. And yet, everyone took the job so damn seriously and acted like they were all a bunch of Very Serious Business Leaders who loved the smell of their own farts. There's the CEO with a net worth in the 8 figures who would get into passionate speeches about how "we're lifting people out of poverty" (by picking companies that paid their employees like $9.50 an hour). The COO who had this "vision" of turning this boring ass unimportant company into a tech leader. Then there's everyone I worked with on the finance and accounting teams who took their work so seriously, as if this was some important thing they were doing. My boss was all about "going the extra mile" and showing initiative and being a "thought leader". The CFO valued above all else, people who could get aggressive and "make things happen". And I remember just a week or so before being laid off, being on the phone with a peer and getting chewed out because someone who I managed wasn't working up to HIS standards and would go offline for like 2 hours even though he got the work done. This asshole in particular, god I wish I could show you his LinkedIn page. Of course all these assholes are active on LinkedIn. Oh and the annual conferences. Those were great. Just all-day bullshit about how "dynamic" and amazing our company was and all our strategies for being awesome over the next year. I hated every single one of the dozens of people in that room and I only survived by going into the bathroom and listening to The Internationale at every break.
Again, all of this for a company that is so insignificant and unimportant. All this time and anger and stress over something so meaningless. It's fucking hilarious to me. Fuck capitalism.
Yeah I got fired from my job yesterday and they were making it out like it was a big deal. It was fucking RETAIL do you think I gaf about that place? IDK how these mega corporations manage to brainwash their management into actually believing the bullshit they parrot. The person who fired me was AP and it wasn't even for stealing. I spent 3 hours a day in the bathroom daily, stole several thousands of dollars worth of electronics/video games and managed to cop a ps5 before I got fired lol. Great Asset Protection!
I worked there for five years so I know the vulnerabilities in their shit
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber is a great read on the absurdity of this, and why it's unavoidable under capitalism
My immediate thought is that people desire meaningful work, and since theres literally no point to their company they just construct som fanciful cappie dreamscape in which their lives have meaning. Pretty sad actually
I agree with this, and I'd also add that if people in these situations get to have a fancy title and make a lot of money and manage a team, it makes them feel important. Even more sad.
Lifting people out of poverty by hiring subcons that can't get enough hours to qualify for any benefits or Healthcare and if they could legally pay them less they would.
The whole subcon scam is such a perfect representation of capitalism. Pay them nothing, no job security, treat them like garbage if you even ever meet them... While the 'thought leaders' do FUCKING NOTHING. NOTHING. They occasionally work and by work of course I mean yell at subordinates to make them 'inspired' by tyranny, then they sit back read the economist and dream about Elon Musk.
100% with you OP
"leader" is the dumbest thing to base an entire job on. Leader of what? What are you a leader in, you can't be a leader in leading you dumbass, if you don't know shit about the jobs people are doing then you shouldn't be leading them.
So many jobs where my boss or the people bossing me around have known less then me on the subject they're directing me in. So many of these leadership jobs are completely pointless and just get in the way of people doing their jobs.
I was working in the warehouse for a company that supplied care equipment for the elderly and disabled, they had me do odd jobs for a few other departments and I realised the extent to which the company was just a scam on the government and worse the elderly and disabled. A lot of the items weren't even really care equipment so much as regular furniture and beds that were "care equipment" so it could be paid for through benefits at a ridiculous markup, our main customers were elderly people who didn't have anyone who could or would help them move things. Everyone was pretty aware it was scam to some extent. A lot of the products were incredibly shoddy I replaced the battery on a mobility scooter 3 times over the course of like 2 weeks the guy had barely been able to leave his house the whole time.
I'm not saying the nonprofit industrial complex would be any less soul crushing, but don't political organizations have finances too?
Fucking love how I got fired because my boss didn't remember my phone number
And I got alerted via my email which they did remember.
:snom: :crab-party: :floppy-parrot:
Seriously this is what every job I've had is like. So much wasted energy over something so pointless and unnecessary.
I honestly feel these types of work environments end up being very unproductive because of the stress and high turnover involved with hounding your employees that much with quotas and 110% bullshit.
If you can't inspire your employees to work to your standard without pushing them, then either your standard is too high or the work is uninspiring. If you can't motivate your employees without harassing them then that's your failure and your management position is probably meaningless.
Seriously stop hiring middle management and just let people do their damn jobs without being watched and evaluated 24/7.
Imagine how much we could afford to pay the people doing the cleaning without all that extra fucking overhead...
Capitalists think of marketing and subcontracting the same way we think of constructing high speed rail and public housing
