Graeber writes about these in Bullshit Jobs and I’ve lived it. These jobs suck ass. It’s not enough to do your work, it’s that you need to do the performance of work. These jobs often exist at the pleasure of some middle manager’s little fiefdom, and so while on paper it’s a trivial desk job, in reality it’s an unending, highly stressful process of being court jester to some asshole. You have to constantly tab back into work in case the manager is nearby and patrolling. You can’t let anyone know how idle you are for fear of losing your job, and at the same time you can’t do anything interesting because your job is a very specific performance. They’re exhausting on a psychic level. At least when I was working at a garage and getting oil burns I was doing something. The human animal needs enrichment in a way where bullshit jobs become a slow and subtle torture.

I had a job kind of like this. I spent my time training myself in my hobby, so that I could get a job that I liked if I got fired.

Now I’m privileged enough to have a job that I enjoy.