Mastodawn

so anyway,Jul 25, 2023

I would like to compare and contrast two #jobs here in the UK. They happen to be my job and my wife's job.

My job first. I work on a small part of a global manufacturing giant's website. I basically tweak it to add tiny improvements in style or the display of data. I can honestly say I have not done any work in the last 6 months that would generate income for my employers equal to what I am paid. I am literally wasting money for them. I get paid very handsomely to do this.

My job adds precisely fuck all to society as a whole. It only "benefits" the company I work for. I guess a proportion of the tax I pay goes to making the world better through funding the NHS etc.

My wife works in a council run day centre for people with all kinds of disabilities and additional needs. They play games, do arts and crafts, sing, go out for trips, provide access to the internet and more. My wife's job is basically to make people happy. To give them meaning in their lives and to give them something to look forward to. In doing that she takes pressure off the NHS, the police and more. She makes the world a better place.

The council had to wait for the governments last update to minimum wage as they worried that if they set their pay rate it would wind up being below minimum wage.

The whole system is crazy.

Essjay (she / her) 🏳️‍🌈Jul 25, 2023

I believe that this whole 'technology for technology's sake' approach is a big part of why, as a planet, we are where we are now.

Of course the motivation for that approach is the old stand-by: profit and greed.

Jane Fanghanel Jul 25, 2023

@essjay @robcornelius
Profit & greed from constant unsustainable growth.

Albert Cardona Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius Wait till you find out the UK’s world leading universities are critically supported by … the institution of marriage.

jamil Jul 25, 2023

@albertcardona @robcornelius I'm not doubting you, but I'd like more details about that connection, if you have some info handy

Albert Cardona Jul 25, 2023

@jamil @robcornelius

No statistics in hand, only anecdotally a large number of colleagues have spouses outside academia earning far higher salaries, effectively subsidising their lifestyle profession.

Consider an entry-level assistant professor at Cambridge University earns £45,000 in 2023. A first-year postdoc at Microsoft Research, also in Cambridge, earns £90,000. Research positions in AstraZeneca (large footprint in Cambridge) pay well above the assistant professor level. Lawyers, doctors, etc. earn way more too. Even a college porter earns easily 10 to 20k more than an assistant professor.

Major Denis Bloodnok Jul 26, 2023

@albertcardona @jamil @robcornelius ... entry-level assistant _professor_? The word seems to have changed meaning.

Albert Cardona Jul 26, 2023

@denisbloodnok @jamil @robcornelius

Used to be called lecturer, still is informally. Now it’s Assistant Professor like in US universities.

Dave Jackson Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius
Bullshit Jobs by the late ,great David Graeber is a brilliantly readable exploration of this seriously unreported topic. Worth a read if you haven't already.

RobCornelius Jul 25, 2023

Its of my favourite essays. I used to have the screaming ape in a suit smashing up and office picture that came with the article on my office wall when I worked in an office

Cat! has moved Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius My mum had two jobs: gardening and palliative care. No surprises which one paid twice what the other one did.

They'll pay more to look after petunias than to look after people.

FoolishOwl Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius The pattern where there's a married heterosexual couple, he works in IT, she does something actually socially useful but doesn't earn a living wage doing it, seems very common. That's the situation my partner and I are in.

I don't know whether I hate the IT industry more for the institutionalized sexism or for the colossal waste of resources.

RobCornelius Jul 25, 2023

There are two reasons that keep me in my job. The mortgage on our house and enabling my wife to make people happy for a job.

When / if we can pay off most of the mortgage I intend to get a hospital porters job and do some good myself.

Actionreplay Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius part of this is that you are doing a job traditionally done by men, and your wife a "female" job.

RobCornelius Jul 25, 2023

Of course that is a huge part of it. It shouldn't be but it just is.

All the women on my current team are in testing jobs... not coding or management. All the junior devs are in India. All the senior devs / team leads are in the UK

Its not as bad as one place I worked where the CTO/MD congratulated me one the day I started as I was "The only white guy who applied". They had 400 or so people in the offices. Not one black or brown person there. True story.

Actionreplay Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius wow. I was used to being the only woman on tech teams before I retired. There were quite a few female project managers though as there were many female business analysts and that was a promotion stream.

I went back to being a contractor when I realised I was being judged on how amenable I was and the men were not in assessment for promotion. (I am nice at work, unless you play silly buggers, in which case I am not.)

RobCornelius Jul 25, 2023

We used to have a female PM but she was a headless chicken type. To be fair she personally got a lot of work done but she made such a fuss about it she negatively impacted everyone else on the team.

I am 53 now. I simply do not give a fuck any more. I can't take work seriously. I just take the piss out of anyone who does, to their faces too.

Actionreplay Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius I am retired. I don't have to care any more.

Rob Landley Jul 25, 2023

@robcornelius Anthropologist David Graeber wrote a whole book about this. It's called "Bullshit Jobs". It's quite good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIctCDYv7Yg

David Graeber on Bullshit Jobs

YouTube