Alienation is not an "exaggeration": An empirical critique of Graver's theory of BS jobs

Soffia M, Wood AJ, Burchell B. Alienation is not 'bullshit': an empirical critique of Graeber's Theory of BS Jobs. Work, Employment, and Society. June 2021. doi: 10.1177/09500170211015067

Commentary

Have you ever heard of David Graeber's Theory of Bollocks Jobs?

Although the author was not aware of it, the theory has generated a great deal of academic and public interest.

The theory explains that a rapidly growing number of workers are engaged in work that they perceive to be useless and of no social value. And despite generating clear testable hypotheses, the theory is not based on solid empirical research, so the study used representative EU data to test five main hypotheses

This perception of doing useless work has been found to be strongly associated with poor well-being, which according to the findings contradicts the main proposition of Greber's theory. This explains the low and declining percentage of employees who describe their jobs as useless, which has little to do with Greber's prediction.

Learn more.

This study used the EWCS to investigate four hypotheses derived from Graeber's (2018) BS job theory. The conclusion, also stated above, is that the BS Job Theory must be rejected because the empirical data do not support any of Graeber's hypotheses. Not only do the findings not support Graeber's theory, they are often diametrically opposed to this prediction. As an example, while the theory explained that the percentage of workers who believe that paid work is useless is rapidly increasing, the survey results show a decrease, and workers with finance-related professions and college degrees are decreasing. 

But it explains that millions of European workers are suffering because they feel useless. In fact, these hardships may be what made this theory so sympathetic and popular, but the research shows that it is on the decline, which highlights the suffering associated with jobs that make people feel useless and the importance of policies to eradicate the conditions that cause such feelings in the future.

One of the factors that may cause individuals to feel that their work is useless is their work environment, so they may need to reflect on what causes them to feel this way, such as their relationship with their supervisor or appropriate job feedback.