Rise of bullshit

Recruiter, Staffing Specialist, Occupational Analyst, HR Consultant, HR Specialist and Generalist, HR Manager, HR Professional, HR Representative, Training & Development Specialist, Talent Acquisition Manager, Employee Relations Manager, Chief HR Officer

HR Rockstar, Guru or Overlord, HR Demigod, HR Marketing Ninja, Innovation Sherpa or Wizard, HR Brand Evangelist

The perception of work has been changing since its ever first emerging. We know from the old times, that the dignity in labor was appreciated above all. Either a farmer or nobleman was deemed as a decent man because of the dignity of doing something which was benefiting other people. Later, every worker was firmly convinced that “there is no bad work, so far it brings money”. Every chance to make some money was warmly welcomed. Today we have countless chances and unlimited principles. But since humanity has its drive for complication and challenging itself, this millennium raised a new issue – is a work meaningful?

Once the workforce all over the world thought that their jobs did not contribute meaningfully, the working world started to argue the pointlessness of many contemporary jobs, particularly those in fields of finance, law, public relations, consultancy, and, in addition to that, human resources.

The hotbed of tension is a general dissatisfaction, that there are people doing nothing at work. In “Bullshit Jobs” David Graeber, an anthropologist now at the London School of Economics, pointed out five types for what he calls “the entirely pointless jobs no one wants to talk about”.

Flunkies are hanging out and making their superiors feel important. For example, typical flunkies are  receptionists, administrative assistants, and managers with mute phones.

Goons are aggressively convincing the public, but actually are unnecessary membranes in the race against time. This category includes lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, and public relations specialists.

These are hired to rectify or remedy major flaws like programmers repairing shoddy code or airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags don’t arrive.

They use paperwork with a straight face to give the appearance of action. Typical box tickers are performance managers, in-house magazine journalists, and leisure coordinators.

Are unneeded chiefs who control employees that don’t need any control and bullshit generators that create and prescribe extra bullshit to others: middle management and leadership professionals.

Bullshit jobs in HR turn out to hide behind all bizarre job titles. Let’s think, what’s the difference between an HR Specialist and an HR Rockstar posting by Amazon? No, the latter doesn’t play the guitar and is no former solo artist. No again, he is not necessarily the best specialist in HR. And no again, his functions do not differ from those of a usual HR-er. Actually, this stardom is only a prefix that means, in reality, the same as the normal HR Executive. The other specialist helps to keep track of the employee information, documentation concerning grievances, terminations, absences and performance reports. He is also typically involved in recruiting, hiring or training new employees. In addition to that, he is posting job openings, gathering information from applicants, verifying prior employment, contacting references and letting applicants know whether they got the job. Well, you would probably position this person as an HR assistant or manager, wouldn’t you? But Facebook talent acquisition department is calling it HR Demigod.

Did you know that one needs only the “University Degree and three to five years strong professional, progressive experience” to become… Whatever Sensei! Quasi, you don’t need to be born in a Chinese respectable family and learn life-long, but only provide the HR expertise and consulting. Your “sensei-focus” is to achieve business objectives through the development and implementation of practical, cost-effective, and proactive HR strategy, policies and practices. Seems similar? That’s how YouTube calls its HR Consultant.

Either a Talent Acquisition Manager or a Talent Guru, an Occupational Analyst or a Working Guru, a Chief HR Officer or an Innovation Wizard, a Manager or a Kindle Evangelist: it is caused both by the demand of modern employees and the supply of seeking for modernization enterprises. Such differentiation looks not only weird but, in some way, immoral and offending.

Work has to be independent, impartial, and appropriate to common ideology. Let’s call a spade a spade —bullshittization is a gaining momentum phenomenon. But we live in a real digital world, not in “Game of Thrones”. We don’t need HR Lords who perform the same functions, hiding behind bizarre titles.

What HR really needs are not new fancy job titles. The skills of the employees and their tasks – this is what should change. New roles instead of new names are needed. The whole working world is changing, and the HR department won’t be an exception. Data analytics, knowledge of Business Intelligence tool, process automation – just a few examples of the new skillset that is emerging in the HR area.