I am NYT bestselling author, have written 6 well reviewed books, but traded my part time job in academia for a part time job in construction management. I grew up in the construction industry and made more money at 18 as a union laborer than I did as a professor with an Ivy League doctorate. Best of all, in construction the work is honest. Unlike academia if you are a snitch, liar or suck at your job, you get ridiculed and are the punch line of off color jokes. I published another book in November, am now directing my first film, but have no plans to quit my job in construction.
Congrats (though it's a bit of a humble-brag you've done). I daresay your "blue collar" (though white helmet?) job will make you a better writer than lecturing ever did. The blow there is always to one's ego, and the judgment of feckless "colleagues."
I'm not humble, I'm 60 and have seen and done a lot. I was fortunate to have an artist as a step dad who kept a day until he won a MacArthur Genius Grant. His day job was playing the ponies with great discipline. The blow to my ego was being a lowly adjunct professor in a C grade institution where students were treated like customers.
I am reminded of the difference my husband (a nuclear chemist) has experienced between his postdoc at a fully-funded research position at a National Lab vs. where he is now in the private corporate sector. In the former position, he noticed after a year or so that shitty and lackluster work would be put up with in the group (from even PhD contributors) because there is no real incentive in the national lab research model to do good work. It's like academia, in that as long as some rich person or government is keeping the paychecks coming and a minimal effort is put forth to keep the thing churning..... no one really cared about doing better. Where he's at now--for all people rant about the greed of private companies, capitalism, etc etc etc—there is an actual fire under everyone's bottoms to do good work. If they don't, the cancer patients aren't helped and more to their own interests, they could be out of a job if the product doesn't materialize from an idea to a workable therapy and make money for everyone. Case in point, 40% of the company was laid off last year abruptly... and while that was a collective failure, it sure makes it much more real that excellent work on the part of all = keeping your jobs! Something I think about in regards to places concerned with profit whenever I hear about the BS nature of academia/universities/some nonprofits, honestly (I've worked at one, he he).
*Not that private companies don't have their own BS jobs! Surely there's plenty of HR and administrative jobs to keep the bureaucracy happy... but I think it's mostly contained to those areas in much of the for-profit sphere.
This was a great read with very apt descriptions of our options in bullshit jobs. But it left me wanting for more. Surely Wally, Dilbert, and The World's Smartest Garbageman aren't the only options available to those of us with bullshit jobs. Like you said, there is only so long someone can keep up the Dilbert posture.
The only thing I can think of is to get a real good nose for sniffing out BS when you're on the job market, so you can find a workplace that rewards excellence. I'm still a young and stupid Dilbert, so I don't know how to do this. Someone with more work experience should write a "BS red flags" guide for the rest of us.
Funny and a with many truths in it. The choices we face in a BS job are just as you say, and you can see the sad results strewn around the office floor. When I joined a university, as you did as staff, I was able to write 1.5 bad novels in the 6 months it took them to "get me up to speed." Around me I saw people who had operated this way for decades: they had carved little kingdoms up for themselves, where no one knew what they did, and in fact they did little to nothing. I scoffed at them at first, and (when able) tried my best, as you did. But good work is actually punished in highly bureaucratic, BS environments: it makes other people look bad, or fails to generate sufficiently flattering results to leadership. The only long-term option is to become a Wally (though there are different varieties of Wally): no one can keep up the Dilbert options for very long.
Congratulations to you on a baby, and exit from BS-land. For those of us still in the thick of it, the choice is, as you say, not easy. The Garbage Man has some dignity, perhaps, but is not using his skill for anyone else's benefit; is that waste noble? The idealistic part of me insists there must be other options -- and a society made to give people real things to do.
As an aside, it seems AI will be to office work what industrial robots was to manufacturing. Is this a loss, or not? Automating the BS will surely, in the short-term, make it worse: I will pretend to write a memo, you will pretend to read it, and our "prompt engineering" duties can take even less of our workday. Where will it end?
I like this phrase: "they had carved little kingdoms up for themselves, where no one knew what they did, and in fact they did little to nothing." Sounds very Kafka-esque.
I do think that Matthew Crawford makes a good case in "Shop Class as Soulcraft" for the trades more naturally incentivizing and rewarding excellence—just due to the objectivity of "it either works, or it doesn't." Even if the World's Smartest Garbageman's job doesn't require the skill of a tradesman, he's still got that objective kind of satisfaction. At the end of the day, he's done something to take care of other people's most basic needs. Momming is sometimes like that with diaper changes etc. although it leaves a lot of room to express creativity.
I am very grateful for this write up and particularly for being introduced to The World's Smartest Garbageman. He's going on the fridge.
Had the exact same reaction to the piece and desire to display the character.
I am NYT bestselling author, have written 6 well reviewed books, but traded my part time job in academia for a part time job in construction management. I grew up in the construction industry and made more money at 18 as a union laborer than I did as a professor with an Ivy League doctorate. Best of all, in construction the work is honest. Unlike academia if you are a snitch, liar or suck at your job, you get ridiculed and are the punch line of off color jokes. I published another book in November, am now directing my first film, but have no plans to quit my job in construction.
Congrats (though it's a bit of a humble-brag you've done). I daresay your "blue collar" (though white helmet?) job will make you a better writer than lecturing ever did. The blow there is always to one's ego, and the judgment of feckless "colleagues."
I'm not humble, I'm 60 and have seen and done a lot. I was fortunate to have an artist as a step dad who kept a day until he won a MacArthur Genius Grant. His day job was playing the ponies with great discipline. The blow to my ego was being a lowly adjunct professor in a C grade institution where students were treated like customers.
Excellent.
I am reminded of the difference my husband (a nuclear chemist) has experienced between his postdoc at a fully-funded research position at a National Lab vs. where he is now in the private corporate sector. In the former position, he noticed after a year or so that shitty and lackluster work would be put up with in the group (from even PhD contributors) because there is no real incentive in the national lab research model to do good work. It's like academia, in that as long as some rich person or government is keeping the paychecks coming and a minimal effort is put forth to keep the thing churning..... no one really cared about doing better. Where he's at now--for all people rant about the greed of private companies, capitalism, etc etc etc—there is an actual fire under everyone's bottoms to do good work. If they don't, the cancer patients aren't helped and more to their own interests, they could be out of a job if the product doesn't materialize from an idea to a workable therapy and make money for everyone. Case in point, 40% of the company was laid off last year abruptly... and while that was a collective failure, it sure makes it much more real that excellent work on the part of all = keeping your jobs! Something I think about in regards to places concerned with profit whenever I hear about the BS nature of academia/universities/some nonprofits, honestly (I've worked at one, he he).
*Not that private companies don't have their own BS jobs! Surely there's plenty of HR and administrative jobs to keep the bureaucracy happy... but I think it's mostly contained to those areas in much of the for-profit sphere.
You’ve done it again, Amelia. Really nicely done.
Thanks, Nate!
This was a great read with very apt descriptions of our options in bullshit jobs. But it left me wanting for more. Surely Wally, Dilbert, and The World's Smartest Garbageman aren't the only options available to those of us with bullshit jobs. Like you said, there is only so long someone can keep up the Dilbert posture.
The only thing I can think of is to get a real good nose for sniffing out BS when you're on the job market, so you can find a workplace that rewards excellence. I'm still a young and stupid Dilbert, so I don't know how to do this. Someone with more work experience should write a "BS red flags" guide for the rest of us.
Funny and a with many truths in it. The choices we face in a BS job are just as you say, and you can see the sad results strewn around the office floor. When I joined a university, as you did as staff, I was able to write 1.5 bad novels in the 6 months it took them to "get me up to speed." Around me I saw people who had operated this way for decades: they had carved little kingdoms up for themselves, where no one knew what they did, and in fact they did little to nothing. I scoffed at them at first, and (when able) tried my best, as you did. But good work is actually punished in highly bureaucratic, BS environments: it makes other people look bad, or fails to generate sufficiently flattering results to leadership. The only long-term option is to become a Wally (though there are different varieties of Wally): no one can keep up the Dilbert options for very long.
Congratulations to you on a baby, and exit from BS-land. For those of us still in the thick of it, the choice is, as you say, not easy. The Garbage Man has some dignity, perhaps, but is not using his skill for anyone else's benefit; is that waste noble? The idealistic part of me insists there must be other options -- and a society made to give people real things to do.
As an aside, it seems AI will be to office work what industrial robots was to manufacturing. Is this a loss, or not? Automating the BS will surely, in the short-term, make it worse: I will pretend to write a memo, you will pretend to read it, and our "prompt engineering" duties can take even less of our workday. Where will it end?
I like this phrase: "they had carved little kingdoms up for themselves, where no one knew what they did, and in fact they did little to nothing." Sounds very Kafka-esque.
I do think that Matthew Crawford makes a good case in "Shop Class as Soulcraft" for the trades more naturally incentivizing and rewarding excellence—just due to the objectivity of "it either works, or it doesn't." Even if the World's Smartest Garbageman's job doesn't require the skill of a tradesman, he's still got that objective kind of satisfaction. At the end of the day, he's done something to take care of other people's most basic needs. Momming is sometimes like that with diaper changes etc. although it leaves a lot of room to express creativity.