Oh, the places you shouldn’t go!
On selling out, settling for bullshit, and getting your share of the spoils.
As graduation season approaches, the university’s graduating class is faced with figuring out what to do with their newly minted diplomas. Those looking to join the workforce face a tough job market and the spectre of increasing unemployment rates. With job opportunities scarce, “honestly, at this point I’ll take anything” seems to be the go-to response when asked how the job search is going.
But should you take just anything?
‘Selling out’ when it comes to finding a job on the other side of graduation can mean different things. For some, it might means working in an industry that goes against your personal values and ethics. Last summer, I met a University of Toronto (U of T) Environmental Science alumni who went on to work for a gold mine who considered herself to be a sellout. For others, the term refers to following certain cliché paths that lead to money and prestige over genuine fulfilment. Today, these paths might look like working at a Big 4 consulting firm or doing software engineering at a tech company that somehow exploits workers in the Global South.
However, to be a sellout, one has to hold some latent disdain for the industry or the career path. This isn’t the case for many people. It’s not uncommon for people to pursue their degrees for the express purpose of landing a ethically dubious or even reprehensible job. For example, working at hedge funds and weapons manufacturing companies are the end goal for many finance and aerospace engineering students.
Most of the time, though, our graduates don’t end up in blatantly unethical industries. Many will end up in what anthropologist David Graeber called ‘bullshit jobs’. These are jobs that are “primarily or entirely made up of tasks that the person doing that job considers to be pointless, unnecessary, or even pernicious.” Mouse jigglers have gained attention for their role in helping remote workers pretend to work. By periodically moving the computer mouse, mouse jigglers make it look like remote workers are actively working even if they are away from their computer. While some people, including federal employees, have been caught using mouse jigglers, it’s likely that there are many other workers who are flying under the radar. If people can get away with not doing any work, then their jobs must be bullshit jobs.
Many of the jobs that Graeber describes as ‘bullshit,’ based on worker testimonies, are jobs that typically require undergraduate degrees, such as administrators or marketers. These are precisely the jobs that some U of T graduates-to-be are furiously applying to.
But money and value don’t appear out of nowhere; they come from labour. Getting paid for doing pointless work ⎯ or, in the case of the mouse jigglers, not working ⎯ simply means that someone else is performing that labour. Moreover, this means that those who indirectly perform the labour that pads these so-called bullshit job paycheques are not fully compensated: this is exploitation.
The exploitation of people is, of course, the hallmark of capitalism. This exploitation often occurs overseas in the Global South, and the ‘spoils’ are funnelled over to the Global North. Working bullshit, sellout, or unethical jobs, although it is sometimes indirect, offers you the opportunity to claim “your share of the spoils”. In his book Blood In My Eye, American revolutionary George Jackson writes that “the breakdown of establishment-conditioning usually occurs at the university level,” where “students refuse to accept the lie that our exploitation of the world’s peoples is actually beneficial to them.”
Accepting your share of the spoils can ultimately align you with the interests of the ruling class as you see the benefits of exploiting the world’s peoples, something that Jackson argues is detrimental.
The point I’m trying to make is not that we should condemn those who choose to sell out or to work a bullshit job (although we should definitely condemn people enthusiastically going on to work at weapons companies!). Grocery prices and rents are rising to extortionate levels, and the income that these kinds of jobs offer can be life-changing for many people. Additionally, your job doesn’t define your life, and I think that you can be a committed and engaged member of your community, even if your job doesn’t reflect the same values. I can also see how having these kinds of jobs can leave you with more time and energy to pursue fulfilling things outside of work.
But I also believe that, especially in a time when many people are applying to their new-grad jobs, it’s crucial for students to consider the ethical implications of these jobs. More importantly, I want students to at least attempt to find a job that serves their community. Or, at the very least, one that doesn’t hinge on the exploitation and misery of others.
