Author Topic: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?  (Read 14306 times)

StetsTerhune

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Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« on: October 16, 2015, 06:11:22 AM »
I won't get into details of the meaninglessness of my job. My summary is that I support a team who supports a team who services  external clients who get data from our company, but do absolutely nothing with said data.

So on a day to day scale, I have to do work, because otherwise the team I support will get hassled by the team they support who is getting hassled by the client. But on a large scale, if every single one of the people I just mentioned quit their jobs tomorrow... I don't think the world would be affected in any way. Maybe one day months from now the CFO of one of our clients would have a passing thought wondering where that information he used to glance at once a year went. But probably not even that.

Is anyone else's job like this? Is everyone else's job like this? Or is this just me?

nobodyspecial

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2015, 06:52:56 AM »
I take the specifications from the customers and you bring them down to the software engineers.

I have people skills ......

Last Night

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2015, 06:56:44 AM »
I feel like that at times, not so much in the sense that the job is useless, it's more about the leadership team of the company requesting for analysis of different strategies, which we can't cash flow (so it's completely useless work), but turn a blind eye to the multiple problems that we do face and are constantly ringing the alarm bells on.

So is the information useful, yes, does anyone do anything with it? No.  So technically the job is useless with the wrong people in charge.

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2015, 07:02:34 AM »
My job isn't useless in the same way that yours is - the work that I do is absolutely critical to the function of this company. The problem is that there are two of us who have basically the same responsibilities, and there's one, maybe two days' worth of work to be done between the two of us in any given week. Things get pretty busy in the spring, or randomly for a week throughout the year, but 80% of the time, there simply isn't any work to do.

GuitarStv

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2015, 07:14:11 AM »
I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.

brotatochip

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2015, 07:16:33 AM »
I take the specifications from the customers and you bring them down to the software engineers.

I have people skills ......

I see what you did there!  Good luck with the firings....

StetsTerhune

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2015, 07:26:52 AM »
My job isn't useless in the same way that yours is - the work that I do is absolutely critical to the function of this company. The problem is that there are two of us who have basically the same responsibilities, and there's one, maybe two days' worth of work to be done between the two of us in any given week. Things get pretty busy in the spring, or randomly for a week throughout the year, but 80% of the time, there simply isn't any work to do.

This was my last job. I vastly preferred that, since I don't really have a problem with not having stuff to do (I work remotely). Current job is  quite a bit of work, and it's not like it's busy work either, the actual work itself is reasonably difficult and stimulating. But as far as my effect on the world, I might as well be sitting here doing Sudoku puzzles.

Maybe this is why I'm retiring early, if I don't feel like I'm positively impact the world while being "a productive member of society," I might as well just not be.

I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.

Yeah, in my mind that's worse than useless... I guess one could make the argument that advanced military technology makes the world better and more secure and saves lives in the long run. But that argument was probably easier to believe 16 years ago.

Schaefer Light

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2015, 07:30:58 AM »
I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.
Not useless if the people being killed have it coming (i.e. terrorists or their supporters).

I think a huge swath of management jobs are completely useless.  Think of the jokes about 5 guys on the side of the road watching 1 guy do the work.  From my perspective, a lot of management jobs could be eliminated and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.  And I say this as a manager.

Gone Fishing

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2015, 07:39:27 AM »
Not totally useless, but I've often said that my company has to hire people twice as smart (and twice as expensive) as they really need just to be able to use our terrible systems.  The end result is that most of my talents and abilities are exhausted on navigating a maze of systems vs. more productive/profitable activities.   

GuitarStv

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #9 on: October 16, 2015, 07:47:48 AM »
Yeah, in my mind that's worse than useless... I guess one could make the argument that advanced military technology makes the world better and more secure and saves lives in the long run. But that argument was probably easier to believe 16 years ago.

Doesn't help that I specialized in targeting systems . . .



:P

bobechs

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2015, 07:50:24 AM »
I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.
Not useless if the people being killed have it coming (i.e. terrorists or their supporters).

Or just built a hospital in the wrong spot.

ooeei

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2015, 08:27:23 AM »
I used to have a job in pharmaceutical manufacturing where I wrote reports about changes to the equipment or processes.  The actual report was useful and took about a day to write, the next 3-5 weeks were tracking down the person in charge of every department (around 12) to sign off on the report, even though none of them wanted to be found or even read the report.  The utilities department doesn't care if manufacturing added 3 sentences to their handwashing procedure.  Inevitably the 12th person (compliance group) would want a few small grammatical changes that didn't affect anything, so I'd have to start over tracking everyone down for signatures.  I literally spent ~70% of my working hours trying to find people or adjusting mundane grammar or formatting. 

For one project I finished data acquisition on an old paper feed data recorder, but compliance figured they'd like a graph so I got to manually input 20,000 lines of data into excel to graph it.  Leaving it in raw form and finding min/maxes (all that would really be needed to show it stayed in range) would take ~15 minutes.  Inputting everything took over a week of full time typing.  This was done because they thought the FDA would like a graph more if they ever audited it.  If the FDA was definitely going to look at it I could understand, but they audit way less than 1% of our reports, and their daily mood would've impacted the result more than that graph.  So I spent around 7 weeks full time on a project that should've taken ~1 day, because there's around a 0.25% chance the FDA will look at it and the person won't like the lack of a graph or the grammar I used (think "there was not bacteria in the sample" vs. "there was no bacteria in the sample" that's an actual example of something I had to edit and start over signing for)

I've since moved on and am actually doing mechanical engineering now.  Feelsgood.

Rural

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2015, 09:36:57 AM »
 This one is particularly salient to me because my job is essentially split into two roles.


 In one I make multiple lives better on a daily basis, and when I'm working with beginning students I can see the change day to day.


And in the other half, I get paid (considerably) more money than I do for the first half to push some papers around and write reports that mostly aren't read. Also I make spreadsheets that no one looks at but me.

irishbear99

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2015, 09:58:25 AM »
My very first career was like that. I was a graphic artist for my first 7 years out of college. My last year in this career field, I made a bad job move where there wasn't nearly enough to keep me busy more than a couple of hours per week, and the most challenging thing I was designing was a flyer. Eventually I became bored to tears and I would randomly tell my husband, "You know, if I didn't go into work today, it wouldn't matter. If I never went into work again, other than the fact I would get fired, it wouldn't matter."

A year into that job, I received an opportunity to switch careers to emergency management. I've been doing that for 10 years and love it. More importantly, I KNOW I make a difference in people's and communities' lives and I derive great satisfaction from that.

lauren214

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2015, 10:04:21 AM »
Mine is totally useless. I tell everyone what needs to be done to comply with regulations, they nod then do nothing, rinse and repeat.

AZDude

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #15 on: October 16, 2015, 10:13:10 AM »
My job is totally useless. I'm not even sure why they hired me. They don't need my skills, don't use my skills, and don't want my advice. They hired someone with a decade of experience to do a job a guy right out of high school could do for 1/4th the cost. Previously, I held a job like the one above where what I did was important, but I was only needed a couple times per week and a few times a year in emergency on-call situations.

Once, many years ago I was an intern at a large financial company. I had zero to do, and they would often make up stupid jobs just to keep me busy. One day, while bored, I found this word document on my computer, written by the previous occupant of my position(who quit without notice one day in allegedly spectacular fashion). It started out as some kind of business analysis, but a few pages in, it trailed off into a rambling tirade against the company, how useless his job was, and how much he hated his co-workers. It was very amusing and a little worrying. Mercifully, they ended the internship a few weeks later, but not before I was forced to attend a meeting where the boss just yelled at everyone and talked about how shitty the company was.


windawake

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #16 on: October 16, 2015, 10:17:14 AM »
You might be interested in this thread: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/the-art-of-not-working-at-work/?topicseen

I just re-read the replies on that thread. They're very interesting.

Bearded Man

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #17 on: October 16, 2015, 10:25:05 AM »
I would not care if my position was useless, as long as I'm getting paid good money, have good benefits, and if you have free time to gain new skills or study up on personal finance, start a side business, then even better.

I've had jobs where I worked 80+ hours a week and was doing the work of several people. I've also had jobs where most of the summer I'd have so little to do, I'd leave and go fishing in the afternoon (wfh). Much preferred the latter to the former. In fact, if I could just find jobs like that or keep hoping from job to job until I find one like that and keep doing that, I'd probably keep working into my 40's and maybe 50.

Count your blessings, better to be relaxed and get paid instead of being overworked and stressed out to get paid. Easily 90% of the people where I work have NOTHING to do, and it shows whenever I'm in the office. EVERYONE is on Facebook or just hanging out chatting for hours on end.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2015, 10:27:33 AM by Bearded Man »

galliver

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #18 on: October 16, 2015, 10:26:07 AM »
I used to have a job in pharmaceutical manufacturing where I wrote reports about changes to the equipment or processes.  The actual report was useful and took about a day to write, the next 3-5 weeks were tracking down the person in charge of every department (around 12) to sign off on the report, even though none of them wanted to be found or even read the report.  The utilities department doesn't care if manufacturing added 3 sentences to their handwashing procedure.  Inevitably the 12th person (compliance group) would want a few small grammatical changes that didn't affect anything, so I'd have to start over tracking everyone down for signatures.  I literally spent ~70% of my working hours trying to find people or adjusting mundane grammar or formatting. 

For one project I finished data acquisition on an old paper feed data recorder, but compliance figured they'd like a graph so I got to manually input 20,000 lines of data into excel to graph it.  Leaving it in raw form and finding min/maxes (all that would really be needed to show it stayed in range) would take ~15 minutes.  Inputting everything took over a week of full time typing.  This was done because they thought the FDA would like a graph more if they ever audited it.  If the FDA was definitely going to look at it I could understand, but they audit way less than 1% of our reports, and their daily mood would've impacted the result more than that graph.  So I spent around 7 weeks full time on a project that should've taken ~1 day, because there's around a 0.25% chance the FDA will look at it and the person won't like the lack of a graph or the grammar I used (think "there was not bacteria in the sample" vs. "there was no bacteria in the sample" that's an actual example of something I had to edit and start over signing for)

I've since moved on and am actually doing mechanical engineering now.  Feelsgood.
???-> PDF -> OCR -> text -> XLS (import data)

Or was this before OCR was widely available?

I'm a grad student in engineering. Last week I mopped a floor and practiced my rust removal skills. Sometimes, I go shopping (For nuts and bolts. Or high speed cameras. Or lenses.) Sometimes, I run experiments and get data I don't understand. Sometimes I wonder if we're wasting taxpayer dollars, but my impression I'd that's par for the course in science. Exploration is efficient by nature. Even the cognitive variety.

Bearded Man

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #19 on: October 16, 2015, 12:19:05 PM »
Man, all these people with gravy jobs, getting paid buckets of money. People are out there working like DOGS for minimum wage. I have a gravy job, but I count my blessings and wonder how I can make sure the next job I end up in is similar instead of the meat grinders I worked in the years prior (during the bad economy...).

For one thing, I would say don't work for a consulting outfit doing professional services. You learn a lot, but they run you ragged. I think working as an in house employee is a lot less work, especially in a small to midsized organization. From what I hear, most government jobs, even contract ones are gravy...

I mean I've gotten good at vetting places, assessing turnover, tracking down the person I'm replacing to see why they really left, reading review online, hitting people up on linkedin that work there to see what they think, etc. I have learned to read between the lines in job descriptions, etc. But I'm always looking for that edge, on how to spot the gravy jobs, where the pay is good but he free time is a lot, lol

Jeremy E.

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #20 on: October 16, 2015, 12:57:12 PM »
I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.
Not useless if the people being killed have it coming (i.e. terrorists or their supporters).

Or just built a hospital in the wrong spot.
More accurate, higher trained individuals would potentially make people able to hit their target rather than the untargeted area next to it in some situations.

ooeei

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #21 on: October 16, 2015, 01:12:01 PM »
???-> PDF -> OCR -> text -> XLS (import data)

Or was this before OCR was widely available?

I'm a grad student in engineering. Last week I mopped a floor and practiced my rust removal skills. Sometimes, I go shopping (For nuts and bolts. Or high speed cameras. Or lenses.) Sometimes, I run experiments and get data I don't understand. Sometimes I wonder if we're wasting taxpayer dollars, but my impression I'd that's par for the course in science. Exploration is efficient by nature. Even the cognitive variety.

Yeah I did eventually get AdobePro, but it took awhile.  Figured out that it wasn't actually worth it, as the data was on that strip paper with the little holes punched in the sides, so scanning it was a HUGE pain.  There was also a ton of space and irrelevant data on each page (about 12 lines per page I needed, and 12 more lines were irrelevant).  When we did scan it in, it got 1's and 7's confused, as well as 0's and 8's.  Decimals were hit or miss as well. 

I finished the first round of about 7,000 lines, then finally got my manager to assign the remainder to some lab techs who knocked it out pretty quick.  The best part was at the very end of it we found out there was a 2 minute window where the recorder just blipped out and didn't record anything.  2 minutes out of 24 hours, with temperature of liquids in a fridge being the notable data, and they wouldn't accept it because "theoretically" the liquid could've heated up out of range then cooled back down in 2 minutes.  I suspect MAYBE if someone took a propane torch to it they could've gotten the temperature up out of range, but definitely not back down.

"Well we should really re-do the testing" says the person who doesn't have to do it.

I put in my two weeks notice less than a week later because I got a new job.  Someone else re-did the testing, then they decided to just get a new system anyway and didn't use any of the data.

galliver

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #22 on: October 16, 2015, 01:17:34 PM »


  The best part was at the very end of it we found out there was a 2 minute window where the recorder just blipped out and didn't record anything.  2 minutes out of 24 hours, with temperature of liquids in a fridge being the notable data, and they wouldn't accept it because "theoretically" the liquid could've heated up out of range then cooled back down in 2 minutes.  I suspect MAYBE if someone took a propane torch to it they could've gotten the temperature up out of range, but definitely not back down.

Wowww...glad you got a new job. Clearly they were unqualified to use the term "theoretically" seeing as, you know, there is an actual applicable theory. And it sounds like it would have shown the outcome to be IMpossible....

Kriegsspiel

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #23 on: October 16, 2015, 01:29:11 PM »
I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.
Not useless if the people being killed have it coming (i.e. terrorists or their supporters).

Or just built a hospital in the wrong spot.
More accurate, higher trained individuals would potentially make people able to hit their target rather than the untargeted area next to it in some situations.

Just to break the tie, GuitarStv, I appreciate your software. Good job!

mm1970

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #24 on: October 16, 2015, 01:32:30 PM »
Sometimes I think so yes.  I'm an engineer in semiconductors.  I used to do real engineering, like developing processes and procedures and devices, and managing/ training a group to do the same.

But now, I just bug people.  Or get bugged by people.  Until recently, literally a large % of my time, 25% was "looking for lost wafers."

You know, I'm a mom, I spend WAY too much time at home looking for stuff that other people lose.  I do NOT want to do it at work.  And why?  Because we laid so many people off, and there are a total of 4 or 5 people who AREN'T directors.  So I just stopped looking for wafers.  Let one of the other 4 people do it.

Mostly now I make sure that all data is entered correctly. I sometimes have time to actually analyze new data.  But usually, I just bug people: "have you tested that yet?" "Are the wafers going to go into this chamber tomorrow?" "Will you be able to ship them on X day?" "How do we get these done quickly at vendor A?" "How do we get them done quickly at Vendor B?"  "Has vendor A finished them yet?"

Still more of my day is getting bugged by people.  "Have you uploaded data yet?" No.  "Do you know how to?" No, but I'll figure it out.  "Does Jane know?" No.  "Well, maybe you should call Jim, maybe he knows." I'm working on it. Then person B: "Oh, how it that working, have you uploaded the data yet?  Do you need to call Larry, what about...?"

Get the eff away from me and give us (3 of the 5 non directors) a few minutes to figure out the format of the data to be uploaded.  Sheesh!

I enjoy the long term projects, but I feel like maybe project management, without actual hands-on engineering, is not my thing.

steveo

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #25 on: October 16, 2015, 01:54:46 PM »
Not totally useless, but I've often said that my company has to hire people twice as smart (and twice as expensive) as they really need just to be able to use our terrible systems.  The end result is that most of my talents and abilities are exhausted on navigating a maze of systems vs. more productive/profitable activities.

We are supposedly on the cutting edge within my IT department. Everything is a mess. I've worked so hard this year for so little result.

I've been working less the last month but I used to work as little as what I have the past month and get twice as much done.

Lanthiriel

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #26 on: October 16, 2015, 02:56:12 PM »
I write proposals for civil engineering and related projects to win public agency work for my private company. It's not super useless, but also not the most useful. This is illustrated by some recent goings on with our annual awards. Previously only technical staff (ie, people who are billable) were eligible for awards, essentially alienating about 10% of the company ever year at the Christmas party when we realized we had a 0% chance of our name coming being announced for a $3000 bonus.

Well, the higher ups must have finally figured out this wasn't good for morale, so they made us eligible for our own award... of $1000. So yesterday when the email went out firm-wide letting us know they were taking nominations for end of the year awards, it was simultaneously announced that I am 1/3 as valuable to my company as everyone else. Good to know.

bobechs

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #27 on: October 16, 2015, 03:26:14 PM »
I used to write training software and full cockpit simulations for military aircraft.  We had contracts with the US, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Australia, etc.  My job helped people get better at killing other people . . . not sure if that's worse than useless.
Not useless if the people being killed have it coming (i.e. terrorists or their supporters).

Or just built a hospital in the wrong spot.
More accurate, higher trained individuals would potentially make people able to hit their target rather than the untargeted area next to it in some situations.

Or in other situations, just blaze away until everything in the area is a lot flatter than it used to be.

Then don't answer the phone when complaints start coming in. Or blame it on the training software contractor.  It's usually the godammned  contractors in these situations, y'know.

NorCal

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #28 on: October 16, 2015, 03:32:50 PM »
I dunno, but my company is going to find out whether I'm useful or not.  I gave a long 45 day notice, thinking it would be appreciated, and I did a lot to keep things going on a day to day basis.  My last day is at the end of October.

It turns out they're not going to backfill me, and even after sending lists and reminders of transition items, I don't have anyone to transition my work to.

It is a little annoying, but I guess my job really isn't that important.  I just manage the finances, make sure vendors get paid, our customers get invoiced, and we're performing against budget.

NoraLenderbee

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #29 on: October 16, 2015, 03:42:55 PM »
Not totally useless, but I've often said that my company has to hire people twice as smart (and twice as expensive) as they really need just to be able to use our terrible systems.  The end result is that most of my talents and abilities are exhausted on navigating a maze of systems vs. more productive/profitable activities.

Did we work at the same company? At a previous job, I helped my team do their work more efficiently and with less stress by inventing ingenious workarounds and solutions for problems that would not have existed if upper management hadn't had their heads so far up their asses they could see daylight. It was very interesting and I enjoyed it, but man, what a waste of effort.

bigstack

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #30 on: October 16, 2015, 11:17:46 PM »
a large part of my job is asking people questions.
I take their answers and put it in a report and hand it back to them...I hope they don't catch on....it pays well.

yuka

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #31 on: October 17, 2015, 01:33:28 AM »
a large part of my job is asking people questions.
I take their answers and put it in a report and hand it back to them...I hope they don't catch on....it pays well.

I'll go with management consulting, no?

shelivesthedream

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #32 on: October 17, 2015, 02:56:45 AM »
Interesting question. I do an "artistic" job as a freelancer, and I deliberately did not want a managementy-data-heavy-non-job. I like being able to actually see what I have done at the end of the day - it gives me a profound sense of accomplishment compared to widget analysis or whatever. A few of my friends are management consultants (or bankers or similar) and I don't know how they cope with the thought that they are doing such obvious non-work (and believe me, they are and they know it!) I definitely made a conscious decision to earn a LOT less to do something which I hope profoundly affects some people's lives.

But is it useful? Is it important? One thing I often say when it gets stressful is "Calm down, it doesn't matter, we're not saving lives here." But I do hope we are changing lives. As a freelancer I sort of have to take what is offered but I have worked on a few projects recently that I really do believe have been important both artistically and for the community.

The world wouldn't end if I stopped doing my job. No one would die. But I do think people's lives would be less good and less thoughtful.

bigstack

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #33 on: October 17, 2015, 07:02:47 AM »
a large part of my job is asking people questions.
I take their answers and put it in a report and hand it back to them...I hope they don't catch on....it pays well.

I'll go with management consulting, no?
IT Consulting. But yes it is close.

NorCal

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #34 on: October 17, 2015, 07:11:26 AM »
a large part of my job is asking people questions.
I take their answers and put it in a report and hand it back to them...I hope they don't catch on....it pays well.

I'll go with management consulting, no?
IT Consulting. But yes it is close.

I've always believed asking the right questions is always more important than knowing the right answers.  I'd give that some value.  Although it is a fun way to think about your job description.

nobodyspecial

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #35 on: October 17, 2015, 09:01:26 AM »
a large part of my job is asking people questions.
I take their answers and put it in a report and hand it back to them...I hope they don't catch on....it pays well.

I'll go with management consulting, no?
IT Consulting. But yes it is close.

Management consulting - someone asks you the time, writes it down and charges you to look at it.
IT consulting - the same, but the price is so high you have to sell your watch

bigstack

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #36 on: October 17, 2015, 10:52:17 AM »
a large part of my job is asking people questions.
I take their answers and put it in a report and hand it back to them...I hope they don't catch on....it pays well.

I'll go with management consulting, no?
IT Consulting. But yes it is close.

Management consulting - someone asks you the time, writes it down and charges you to look at it.
IT consulting - the same, but the price is so high you have to sell your watch

nice. :)
I can't help but also realize that once they lost their watch they can't keep track of the hours I actually work/bill.

dodojojo

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #37 on: October 20, 2015, 06:50:15 PM »
Corporate welfare. 

In a nutshell, that's the realm of my worklife.  Useless doesn't begin to describe it. 

I'm too cowardly to give up the paycheck and the flexible work schedule.

YK-Phil

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #38 on: October 20, 2015, 11:17:15 PM »
My job is a real hide-out, in more ways than one. Aside from having practically nothing to do in exchange for a six-figure salary, I have been living at my office secretly for the past two years. It makes it harder to pull the plug...

nobodyspecial

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #39 on: October 21, 2015, 09:28:27 PM »
My job is a real hide-out, in more ways than one. Aside from having practically nothing to do in exchange for a six-figure salary, I have been living at my office secretly for the past two years. It makes it harder to pull the plug...
Hope the election doesn't change things for you senator ....

Daisy

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #40 on: October 21, 2015, 10:11:45 PM »
There are aspects of my job that I find useless (creating charts for upper management), but most of what I do is useful to the company and the products we work on are very useful to society. It gives me a sense of pride to work on important stuff. If I had a totally useless job I am not sure I could last long in it.

Finding my job useful is what keeps me ticking along until FIRE.

Are you sure your job is really useless? Why would someone pay you a high salary of it wasn't of any use to the company or its clients?  Maybe a change in mindset will help you enjoy your job a little more.
« Last Edit: October 22, 2015, 08:56:32 PM by Daisy »

shelivesthedream

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #41 on: October 23, 2015, 04:39:50 PM »

Are you sure your job is really useless? Why would someone pay you a high salary of it wasn't of any use to the company or its clients?  Maybe a change in mindset will help you enjoy your job a little more.

People will pay for what they want, but what if they want something they shouldn't? For example, people spend a lot of money pimping their truck. Just because you own a truck-pimping company and make a lot of money at it doesn't mean your job is useful to the world at large.

mxt0133

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #42 on: October 23, 2015, 05:32:14 PM »
Useless is a relative term, so yes to a person that has to worry about what to eat tomorrow, pimping a truck out is pretty useless. But for someone who doesn't have to worry about food but for some reason thinks that getting a pimped out truck will improve his/her status in society and maybe attract the opposite sex well then that truck is worth the extra shifts at his job.

Unfortunately with automation most jobs today can be considered useless compared to 100 years ago.  If you look at what is spent on advertising vs actually manufacturing a product you would realize home much it takes to convince someone that you need that BMW or extra bathroom.

Alan Watts describes this phenomena in detail in this talk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVjuOG_XJNE, at 21:00

NorCal

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #43 on: October 23, 2015, 05:43:10 PM »
Useless is a relative term, so yes to a person that has to worry about what to eat tomorrow, pimping a truck out is pretty useless. But for someone who doesn't have to worry about food but for some reason thinks that getting a pimped out truck will improve his/her status in society and maybe attract the opposite sex well then that truck is worth the extra shifts at his job.

Unfortunately with automation most jobs today can be considered useless compared to 100 years ago.  If you look at what is spent on advertising vs actually manufacturing a product you would realize home much it takes to convince someone that you need that BMW or extra bathroom.

Alan Watts describes this phenomena in detail in this talk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVjuOG_XJNE, at 21:00

As an interesting side note, I've hears some rumors about a Silicon Valley ad-tech company (I know someone who knows someone, etc.).  They specialize in helping companies figure out how much of their marketing is useful, and how much of it is wasted.  Apparently, this ad-tech company isn't doing so well because CMO's don't actually want to hear that 90%+ of their advertising dollars are wasted.


Daisy

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #44 on: October 25, 2015, 10:43:04 PM »

Are you sure your job is really useless? Why would someone pay you a high salary of it wasn't of any use to the company or its clients?  Maybe a change in mindset will help you enjoy your job a little more.

People will pay for what they want, but what if they want something they shouldn't? For example, people spend a lot of money pimping their truck. Just because you own a truck-pimping company and make a lot of money at it doesn't mean your job is useful to the world at large.

Well if you worked at a truck-pimping company and felt your job was useless I would do one of the following:

1. Close my useless truck-pimping business and do something I found useful.

2. Reframe my perspective and realize I am providing joy to the truck-pimping market. After all, many things such as creating art or music or dance may be considered unnecessary for survival, but they provide a creative outlet for people to express themselves. Many people pay big bucks to be entertained with art, music, dance, fiction, etc.

3. Maybe there are some useful scenarios for truck pimping? Perhaps I could add a line of products that would allow people to pimp their trucks to allow for disabled drivers to more easily use trucks.


I guess the bottom line is you shouldn't spend a large portion of your life doing something you find useless if it makes you end up with a negative attitude over what you spend 40 hours of your week doing.

dude

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #45 on: October 26, 2015, 08:29:12 AM »
This essay was discussed here in another thread back in 2013. Seems apropos here.

http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

zephyr911

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #46 on: October 28, 2015, 12:22:36 PM »

Schaefer Light

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #47 on: October 28, 2015, 12:24:24 PM »
I have people skills!!!

zephyr911

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #48 on: October 28, 2015, 12:27:51 PM »
What the hell is the matter with you! >.<

Northwestie

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Re: Anyone else pretty sure their job is completely useless?
« Reply #49 on: October 28, 2015, 03:58:16 PM »
Wow.  This is a depressing thread.

I feel pretty lucky.  Been working as an ecologist for 30 years, now manage a group of 12, manage large projects - some travel that included around the PNW and south Pacific Islands this year, previously AK, CA, MT, ID, OR, WA.  Get to spend time outside in beautiful places - thought the weather doesn't always cooperate. 

This is one of the reasons I want to work a bit more yet.  Current firm is just full of great, smart, industrious, and creative folks.  That said - I can feel I'm slowing a bit and would like to get out and climb and ski more while I can.