IS YOUR JOB POINTLESS?

Researchers at the University of Zurich have done a study that finds a significant portion of employees perceive their work as being pointless. Researchers analyzed a collection of survey data encompassing 1,811 respondents in the U.S. working 21 different types of jobs. Respondents were asked if their work gave them “a feeling of making a positive impact on community and society” and “the feeling of doing useful work.” 19 percent of respondents spread across a wide variety of occupations answered “never” or “rarely” to those inquiries. Those working in business, finance, and sales were more than twice as likely to say their jobs were socially useless compared to other workers. Office assistants and managers were also more likely to say their job was pointless. However, the study notes other factors influence employees’ perceptions of their own work, such as alienation, unfavorable working conditions, and social interactions.
(full study here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170231175771)
* Another group that mostly thought their jobs were useless was researchers at the University of Zurich.
* Look at the Oakland A’s. Their jobs are generally pointless. Although in baseball that’s called ‘scoreless.’
* Not to worry. All those useless jobs will be sucked up by AI in about three years.
* I go by the belief that every job has value. Except people who make the robocalls.