Conversation

Culture war wrangling has unfortunately become a key element in my consulting. It is now the 4th, and youngest manifestation of bullshit jobs. Bullshit jobs evolve in one of 4 ways: automation, outsourcing, trumpification, and now: wokification. Only the first 2 are survivable
14
366
Automation: job becomes automatable, human incumbents desperately add “ineffable human” bullshit, get laid off anyway. Trust me: this is the best outcome. If you’re an executive, try your best to solve management problems this way. Especially with middle managers.
1
73
Outsourcing: the main benefit of a cheaper location may not be obvious to you. It’s the ability to strip away bullshit added to justify high first-world salaries. Hungrier people willing to work for less tend to cut away performative bullshit. Low cost is justification enough.
2
86
Trumpification: When an ethnic group consolidates labor power and “captures” a labor market so strongly it can induce protectionism. Bullshit signifiers get added as “essential” to the bullshit job. Example: people around the world deal with cattle. Cowboy hats are not essential.
3
68
Wokification: the newest kid on the block. Arcane academic theories get operationalized as inscrutable HR it us impossible to not be in violation of, and nobody can dislodge it because the jobs in question are bullshit and lack grounded ways of measuring performance.
5
98