Do you work at a so-called "BS" job?

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My workplace is full of BS jobs, mostly filled by people who make outrageously high salaries (over $100,000/yr). I would even say that half my job is pure BS: I have written reports that have never been read, I have given countless brilliant suggestions that have fallen on deaf ears and most of what I do will just be undone by a manager. Heck I am even typing this at work and this is one of my busy days!

But the important thing is that you get paid, no?

Yes, but I make a lot less than $100,000. I am actually well paid for the job I do, the problem is that it is practically entry level, I am highly ambitious and WANT to work a challenging job but all the promotions have gone to far less qualified, external candidates. I have come to realize my manager couldn't recognize talent or efficiency if it bit him in the face.

Or is it that the mgr can get away with it? I am in a similar position: current mgr putting me down to keep me in "my place" --- does he really believe that or is he knowingly gaslighting me? BTW - In my company, it's occurring in other groups also (similar thinking mgrs and similarly thinking/conditioned oppressed employees).

Let me just say that my workplace is full of nepotism and I later found out the only reason I got hired was not my superior skills but the person they picked (another manager's son) got drunk and told off my then boss weeks before the selection process.

My manager is a literal drinking buddy to his boss and when I say that I literally mean that they both have a severe alcohol problem. He already has two DWI's (one time he was 5 TIMES the legal limit which would kill most adults of alcohol poisoning) and they quietly removed the requirement for a criminal record check and driver's license for his position only instead of, you know, firing him for drinking on the job. He is a nice guy but is a horrible manager and it is hard to believe the many months and tens of thousands of dollars head hunting and he was the best candidate. I am convinced he deliberately keeps me down because I could easily overtake him but in reality I don't even want his job as the stress isn't worth it. That's not even getting into the thousands of dollars he wastes monthly.

To prove my point, he recently hired a lower level manager and the educational requirements were X,Y and Z. They interviewed 4 people, didn't like any of them and interviewed 4 more only to hire someone who met none of those three requirements and literally told me I could easily do that job. I have worked with him over a decade, he knows all my qualifications (they are highly specialized for that role) and yet he still never interviewed me. If that isn't a giant F-U I don't know what is.

THIS! Exactly this. Over here we had a team that was half-Aspie like or otherwise inclusive folks and half social clique. The first half went away and the second half brought in more ---- so now I am "stranded". My former peer, now boss was telling me how he drove drunk, hungover, to pick up his dog the morning after a holiday weekend. So when he says to me on some occasions "you sure think a lot" and I could say to him "you sure drink a lot". In my case, I was doing his job (he "manages" just me and the new hire -that I trained. I am so confused when folks are "nice" but put me (and others) down. There is a charming fellow elsewhere in the company who is known as ruthless (by all) and he'll put someone down so fast with a big smile like he's doing that person a favor. So confusing for me: rhetorically (a) why would a person have these values (b) why wouldn't they revise them?

I have to believe there is a better "safer" place for us. And yet the job is a really good fit - the culture isn't. Phooey.

That sums it up right there and why I lost out on a $85,000/yr job. I would have (very likely) been the perfect candidate but they went with someone more outgoing and social even though its mostly a SOLITARY JOB!! Unfortunately, Aspies generally don't do the hiring so unless its specifically in Engineering, Computer Science or possibly Science in general, we miss out on opportunities all the time.

That is so creepy!

Everyone could have jobs they like doing that matches their aptitudes and potential.

It's a moral crime to have people doing work they do not enjoy. Tell me how this is not in the same category as slavery? Your society imparts it is necessary, but it's not. There have existed societies both old and recent which prove this.

Ultimately it's your choice for being in this position, because you've opted to be part of your society's expectations and rules.

Ha! I've been a technical support analyst before. And... honestly, it's one of those jobs where half the work that comes over the desk is utter BS which should never have made it into the building in the first place. A chunk of the rest of it is stuff which people should have already have been trained to do as part of their actual jobs. A not-insignificant segment is people getting repeatedly tripped up by a thing which should have been fixed years ago.

That isn't to say that there isn't actual, genuine work involved now and then. Stuff for which you honestly really do need a tech who knows what they're doing. But it never seems to be an actual majority of the work that comes in.

On the flip side, there are far, far too many people in that job role who are only in it because they're trying to get promoted into something better-paid and sexier-sounding in IT, and even then only because they were told years ago that IT was a well-paid profession. Well yeah, it can be... but if you don't have the aptitude out of the gate you're not going to get promoted up the technical track, and the IT management track doesn't get paid any more than any other kind of management, so it would have been better for those people to study business or management than computer science or anything IT related. Meanwhile, it means that particularly large commercial companies with public-facing IT departments are stuffed with people who can barely tell a computer from a banana best out of five. I've had to work with some of them.

Yep! Or at least I did until recently. I worked for a government agency, and the position I found myself dumped into (long story, maybe I'll get to it sometime) was that of a driver. Now, driving vehicles isn't BS per se of course. Delivering cargo and important documents is a useful job.

However, much of what we did on a daily basis was indeed BS. Our department was in a separate building and had a loading dock, so all cargo had to come there first, and then we would load it onto our truck and deliver it (usually without even taking it off the pallet) to the next building's dock. Kinda BS, but I suppose they didn't want random trucking companies just driving around everywhere, since that could be a security issue.

The biggest BS part of the job was driving other staff around. The very narrow minded individuals I worked with insisted that it was extremely important for them to pick up staff, drive downtown, and then wait for an hour or two until they're done, then drive back. It's just a van they were driving, and there's no legal or policy reason they have to do it. They just do it because it's buried in their job description (which isn't been updated in 15 years). Even though nobody else in the country does this, these guys think it's ultra vital so that everybody keeps their job. In their minds, if they're always out on the road, nobody can get laid off. Yeah... it's the government. I've never seen anybody get laid off in the 12 years i've been there.

It's frustrating as hell to work with those kind of people.

I say we try and sneak someone into HR at GiantHockeyFan's job; then they can employ the rest of us.

I agree with you that those jobs are ridiculous and are quacks but astrologers are not professionals. They are scammers. And chiropractic is quackery also.

All you have to do is lose half your brain cells and change your last name to that of a director or executive. It would help if you have almost no experience just like our last two HR hires.

I knew and liked our last HR manager and she did the job well for two years. When they finally made it a permanent position she had to interview and lost to someone who was in their early 20s, straight out of university and strangely enough just like her coworker had the same last name as the director of that area. What an amazing coincidence!

Sorry ... I focused on the obvious "BS" aspect more than on the so-called "professional" aspect.

On another note, here is an up-dated list of "BS" jobs (e.g., most people would not miss these jobs if they went away forever):

Actuary, Art Critic, Astrologer, Binding Arbitrator, Blogger, Business Executive, Business Journalist, Change Catalyst, Chauffeur, Chief Ethics Officer, Chiropractor, Commentator, Critic, Disc Jockey, Dog-Washer, Door Attendants, Elevator Operator, Fashion Designer (not "Clothing Designer"), Ghostbuster, Gossip Columnist, Hair Stylist (not "Hairdresser"), Industry Analyst, Journalist (not "Reporter"), Junior Executive, Legal Consultant, Leisure Coordinators, Life Coach, Lobbyist, Mall Santa, Management Consultant, Mascot, Master of Ceremonies, Motivational Speaker, Op-Ed Writer, Organizational Psychologist, Paparazzi, Paranormal Investigator, Performance Managers, Personnel Officer, Pet Psychologist, Political Campaign Worker, Pollster, Product Evangelist, Psychic, Public Relations, Sales Representative, Sign-Spinner, Social-Media Influencer, Sociologist, Sportscaster (i.e., "Color Commentator", "Play-by-Play Analyst", et cetera), Strategist, System Architect, Tarot Reader, Technical Support Analyst, Telemarketer, Telephone Sanitizer, Televangelist, Toll-Booth Attendant, Valet Car-Parker, and the people who hand out free samples of food in big-box stores.

I'm a dishwasher/janitor.

Doesn't get more "bullsh_t" than that.