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Bullshit Jobs

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Re: Bullshit Jobs

#41

Post by snaky »

Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

> The number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25 years, vastly outpacing the growth in the number of students or faculty.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/higher-ed-administ...

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#42

Post by emptyfile »

stirlo wrote: post #31
Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

I was like WTF at this and had to google it. From Wikipedia... "Academic staff: 2,219 Administrative staff: 12,508 excluding SHC Students: 16,430" Oh how far western civilisation as fallen to end up with the statistics above. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University

How in the hell???

Is this considered extreme even in america?

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#43

Post by snaky »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #15
avip wrote: post #13

I think the spontaneous emergence of such procedures is straightforward: 1. Wu appears in work with a chair 2. Said chair creates mild inconvenience to X 3. X asks Wu to remove the chair 4. Wu replies his chair violates no company code 5. X launches the creation of a chair bringing policy, designed mainly to make Wu's chair a clear violation of it

If you are in a large company then it will accrete these rules until it is almost impossible to get anything done.

To get anything done large companies hire contractors.

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#44

Post by kissickas »

nikanj wrote: post #27
Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

"In 2017–18, Stanford is a $6.3 billion enterprise." http://facts.stanford.edu/administration/finances Takes a lot of people to manage that much money.

That's nonsense, and taking one look at basically any fund manager will tell you otherwise. Just to give the most outrageous counterexample, the sovereign wealth fund of Norway employs 550 people and manages $1 trillion in assets, including 1.3% of all global stocks.

https://www.nbim.no/en/organisation/about-us/

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#45

Post by baxtr »

Let me take the opposing view (not just for fun’s sake): I think one reason why BS jobs exist is to keep everybody busy. if there were no bullshit jobs, what would we do with all the people? Maybe we end up with many more people unemployed, maybe watching TV all day?

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#46

Post by mergejoin »

nikanj wrote: post #27
Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

"In 2017–18, Stanford is a $6.3 billion enterprise." http://facts.stanford.edu/administration/finances Takes a lot of people to manage that much money.

Berkshire Hathaway has 25 office staff: http://www.businessinsider.fr/us/berkshire-hathaway-omaha-of...

"It's well-known that Berkshire Hathaway keeps a small headquarters with these 25 staffers, who manage some of the most important affairs of this $329 billion company."

I don't think you need that many people to manage $6.3 billions.

Also, I worked at a hedge fund managing $12 billions and we were ~150 (but this is a completely different job than what staffers at Stanford or Berkshire Hathaway are doing)

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#47

Post by snaky »

nikanj wrote: post #27
Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

"In 2017–18, Stanford is a $6.3 billion enterprise." http://facts.stanford.edu/administration/finances Takes a lot of people to manage that much money.

> Endowment: $24.785 billion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universit...

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#48

Post by mergejoin »

baxtr wrote: post #45

Let me take the opposing view (not just for fun’s sake): I think one reason why BS jobs exist is to keep everybody busy. if there were no bullshit jobs, what would we do with all the people? Maybe we end up with many more people unemployed, maybe watching TV all day?

I'd rather see those people using their time hiking mountains, watching tv shows, doing arts... than go spend their day at a useless job that will make them feel unhappy because of the lack of accomplishment.

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#49

Post by [deleted] »

nikanj wrote: post #27
Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

"In 2017–18, Stanford is a $6.3 billion enterprise." http://facts.stanford.edu/administration/finances Takes a lot of people to manage that much money.

[deleted]

Re: Bullshit Jobs

#50

Post by nameisu »

stirlo wrote: post #31
Animats wrote: post #18

University administrators.[1] Stanford is busily building their new Redwood City "campus". It's all administrators . No students. No faculty. No research. 13 office buildings. 2700 staff. Initially, the campus will be home to Stanford employees working in such critical areas as the School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land,…

I was like WTF at this and had to google it. From Wikipedia... "Academic staff: 2,219 Administrative staff: 12,508 excluding SHC Students: 16,430" Oh how far western civilisation as fallen to end up with the statistics above. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University

admin to student ratio is critical
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