جمعه ۳۰ شهریور ۰۳ | ۱۸:۳۹ ۷ بازديد
pointless jobs, reflected that many of them seem to come about because
employers can’t accept the idea that they’re really paying someone to be on call in
case they’re needed:
Wendy: Example one: as a receptionist for a small trade magazine, I was often
given tasks to perform while I was waiting for the phone to ring. Fair enough
—but the tasks were almost uniformly BS. One I will remember for the rest of
my life: one of the ad sales people came to my desk and dumped thousands of
paper clips on my desk and asked me to sort them by color. I thought she was
joking, but she wasn’t. I did it, only to observe that she then used them
interchangeably without the slightest attention to the color of the clip.
Example two: my grandmother, who lived independently in an apartment
in New York City into her early nineties. She did need help, though, so we
hired a very nice woman to live with her and keep an eye out. Basically, she
was there in case my grandmother fell or needed help, and to help her do
shopping and laundry, but if all went well, there was basically nothing for her
to do. This drove my grandmother crazy. “She’s just sitting there!” she would
complain. We would explain that was the point.
To help my grandmother save face, we asked the woman if she would mind
straightening out cabinets when she wasn’t otherwise occupied. She said no
problem. But the apartment was small, the closets and cabinets were quickly
put in order, and there was nothing to do again. Again, my grandmother was
going crazy that she was just sitting there. Ultimately, the woman quit. When
she did, my mother said to her, “Why? My mother looks great!” To which the
woman responded famously, “Sure, she looks great. I’ve lost fifteen pounds,
and my hair is falling out. I can’t take her anymore.” The job wasn’t BS, but
the need to construct a cover by way of creating so much BS busywork was
deeply demeaning to her. I think this is a com
employers can’t accept the idea that they’re really paying someone to be on call in
case they’re needed:
Wendy: Example one: as a receptionist for a small trade magazine, I was often
given tasks to perform while I was waiting for the phone to ring. Fair enough
—but the tasks were almost uniformly BS. One I will remember for the rest of
my life: one of the ad sales people came to my desk and dumped thousands of
paper clips on my desk and asked me to sort them by color. I thought she was
joking, but she wasn’t. I did it, only to observe that she then used them
interchangeably without the slightest attention to the color of the clip.
Example two: my grandmother, who lived independently in an apartment
in New York City into her early nineties. She did need help, though, so we
hired a very nice woman to live with her and keep an eye out. Basically, she
was there in case my grandmother fell or needed help, and to help her do
shopping and laundry, but if all went well, there was basically nothing for her
to do. This drove my grandmother crazy. “She’s just sitting there!” she would
complain. We would explain that was the point.
To help my grandmother save face, we asked the woman if she would mind
straightening out cabinets when she wasn’t otherwise occupied. She said no
problem. But the apartment was small, the closets and cabinets were quickly
put in order, and there was nothing to do again. Again, my grandmother was
going crazy that she was just sitting there. Ultimately, the woman quit. When
she did, my mother said to her, “Why? My mother looks great!” To which the
woman responded famously, “Sure, she looks great. I’ve lost fifteen pounds,
and my hair is falling out. I can’t take her anymore.” The job wasn’t BS, but
the need to construct a cover by way of creating so much BS busywork was
deeply demeaning to her. I think this is a com
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