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I wonder how many people spend less time working but don't spend less time at work, though. I'm sure it depends on the role/company, but there must be some cohort it's enabled to slack harder for now. Probably not engineers.

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Japan leads the world in this phenomenon, but no doubt much of IT/STEM is similar.

lot of performative but in practice half of the job is looking busy.

Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs covers this at length. There is a lot of employment that just needs a butt in the seat when or even just in case they are needed. It’s really a bit tragic how many man/woman-hours are wasted due to lack of creativity.

I call bullshit on that book. I've never worked anywhere that kept people on just for the sake of it. Sure there might have been people who probably should have been fired, but the job they performed wasn't fake.

So his thoroughly-researched book, that he spent years working on, and based on thousands of individuals submitting their experiences, is completely bogus because.... you haven't had the experience that millions of others absolutely have?

Sure pal. All jobs are totally important and not at all pointless, wasteful make-work.

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