This week there’s a small change in the infrastructure that I wanted to tell you about.

Since the start of this site back in the halcyon days of 07, there have been two parallel blogs that were linked into it. Those who went to the Crazy Bosses site and the Bulls**t Jobs site at the top of the page got a chance to do a lot of stuff – take quizzes, look at galleries of crazy people who have run big enterprises, bask in examples of jobs even more weird, bent and twisted than their own, that sort of thing.

Those links will continue. They live on. I exhort you to try them, if you haven’t already. You will think you died and went to heaven. Sure, they’ve been there for a little while, but as an old ad campaign for a television network once said about their reruns, If you’ve never seen it, it’s new to you.

The meat of those blogs, however, were not the incredibly entertaining and instructive things I whipped up for your amusement and professional delectation. Of even greater interest was the input that came in from you, dear reader.

On the Crazy Boss blog, there was a satisfying and ever-growing assemblage of horrendous senior officers offered by those who suffered under them.

On the Bulls**t Jobs blog, you lobbed in a very interesting group of them, some of which I had, quite honestly, never heard of before.

In virtually all cases, some more than others, reader contributions elicited reader comments, and those were there too.

As of today, both of these entries are now incorporated into this main site. Click on the links to your right – where Reader Crazy Bosses and Reader Bulls**t Jobs are Boldfaced and in Bigger Type–and you will find nicely aggregated the entire corpus. Hope you delecti.

And if you have an interesting stories, by the way, to add to the trove, please don’t hesitate to contact me at bingblog@gmail.com. I’m there, 24/7, Googling myself. Oh, and don’t forget those asterisks when you’re search out those bulls**t jobs. We don’t want to be a bad moral influence on you or anything.

A reader from Syracuse writes…  

When I was in the Air Force I had a job manning the O.R. desk.  We were a combat F-4 fighter squadron based in Thailand in 1973. O.R. stood for ‘Operationally Ready’ and referred to the maintenance status of an aircraft.

My boss noticed that as the flight crews stood in line in the maintenance debriefing room after a mission they would listen to other pilots ahead of them describe problems they had with their aircraft and then when their turn came they would relate some of the same problems or having had time in line to think about it, come up with something else to complain about.

So he made me the ‘O.R. Debriefer’ with a separate desk and a sign to that effect. If a pilot had an O.R. aircraft he could bypass the line, sign a form I had already filled out and pop out the door headed for the O-Club. Our O.R. rate skyrocketed! Most of the time I wasn’t doing anything so I would bring two books from the library every day so that when I finished one I had another to start on.

What do you think? Is a person in charge of taking forms that state that everything is okay engaged in a BS activity?  

A reader from Pennsylvania writes…  

Analyze and interpret other peoples’ work in order to pass on requirements in order for other people to continue doing said work. You get to tell people what they already know and tell them what they already expect. You get to attend “”Meetings”" that are not much more than stating problems and pawning off the responsibility of fixing said problems to someone who actually knows something and gets paid far more because they actually have a skill/trade.

The Business Analyst is the facilitator of time consuming numbness. As simple as a monkey opening a banana.

What do you think? Is it simple for a monkey to open a banana? Or is it just that it has a lot of practice?

A reader from Washington, D.C. writes…

This is not my job, but I have been the trapped innocent victim of the “”strategic planning consultant”" who has held captive scores of us in meetings that go for hours and it’s ALL BULLSHIT! Hours in planning that results only in more BS meetings to talk about “”next steps, mission, vision and goals”" …that means they can invoice for thousands of dollars to inflict miindnumbing pain that morphs one into a coma-like state despite coffee, peanut m&m’s and “”break out groups”" – your only chance for brief respite to vent if you have any sane people in your group.

But no – you only have the true believers that barf out all of the buzz words, phrases and acronyms that have been droned on about the first part of the day from hell. So, in the small breakout group, emerge the “”leaders and visionaries”" of this group and Oh shit..another strategic POD professional has been cloned.

Like a cult, another true believer is born and ready to be part of this BS industry!

Me? I’m the one with a mental block about how any of the verbage means productive outcome for anyone other than paying for a new beach house and a vacation in Tuscany. So, after 8 hours you leave with a presentation folder full of charts, color coded “planning sheets”, “technique tips”, “” tools”" and the “”notes”" area that is blank except for doodled “”HELP ME”" and “”UGH!”" entries. Coffee-logged but desperate for freedom you stumble out of hell and do all you can to avoid the follow up conference call in six weeks to report progress on …BS.

Living in Washington DC there is an endless amount of BS jobs – it’s the absolute BS mecca of the world! Here all BS who BS are highly regarded. The political hacks, the government agency bureaurcrats on local and federal levels, the corporates that pour in and out and their PACS, the endless nonprofit, international and academic realms – all full of BS jobs that go on without limits. From what I can tell only sanatation workers and Starbuck’s baristas work.

What do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Massachusetts writes…

Duties: Oversell limited back pain treatments as a fountain of youth.

$$: New graduates work as associates for very low pay, around $60k per year which isn’t much considering that you are $100k in debt before you start. Opening your own shop is more lucrative but risky, 50% of them close in five years. If you survive you’ll probably make 90k. Hire some underpaid associates of your own and you could make 140k/yr. Little wonder why the highest paid people in the field are seminar vendors or run schools.

The upside: Making your own hours. Successful high volume clinics often work about 30 hours per week.

The downside: High pressure to succeed, sleazy sales tactics, high student loans and quacks for colleagues.

The dark side: If you fail you’ll be stuck with those loans for life.

What do you think? Some people swear by these guys. Others just swear at them.

A reader from Ohio writes…

In college, I worked for a consultant studying the impact of strip mining in Louisiana (My supervisor was later offed by vigilante mobs who poured anti-freeze down his throat). My job was to water and fertilize the grass in the test beds. The test beds measured 10 x 10 feet. There were five test beds. I got paid $15/hour in 1981 dollars. I had all day to water and fertilize. I did my job in about 30 minutes, 15 min in the a.m. and 15 min in the p.m. I worked 10 hours a day and got paid 2 hours of overtime each day. Love it!

What do you think? Is the job bulls**t? Or the title? Or both?

A reader from Boston writes:

Upside:  Ride the bureaucracy wave, take more time than necessary to do everything, because nothing truly important is given to you to do because only real engineers are allowed to do actual engineering work.  Copy data from one form of spreadsheet into another.   Repeat.  Gain immense entertainment from people who’ve decided to dedicate their adult life to having meetings about the size, shape and color of stupid things like electrical connectors or wires and spend hours brooding over such things.  More $$  than any other intern or college student, and most entry-level teachers as well.

Downside:  Learn nothing, dread coming to work, immense boredom, stare at a computer monitor all day.

Darkside: Depression over career choice, occasion casual pressure from higher-ups.

Where you go from here:  Anywhere.  No one knows you’ve done nothing, both at this company and any other company that views your resume.  Continue earning massive $$ for doing nothing, at least until you graduate.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from San Francisco writes:

Good job … make sure everyone else is doing their job up to some standard using some methodology employing some practices that only you know of and can decide whether are appropriate for ‘this project’ or not.

Reviews how other resources are performing their job vis-à-vis methodology they are following and picking fault with an appropriate number of things they do and can ‘improve’. 

Guru of methodology; guru of some internationally recognized operational standard (to which everyone seems to aspire to and eventually gain some of the benefits everyone else apparently has gained); guru of management practices.

Comfortable existence; low stress; $125k + per year.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Washington writes:

Get paid to write estimates for repairs, not actually perform the work. If you miss something, the shop will call, it’s actually quite common.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Colorado writes:

Bull## Job description:  If working in major agency: get up at crack of nine, cruise into work post rush hour, fiddle with files at your desk, think about making calls, spend 3-4 hours per day drinking coffee and going out to lunch.  Hang out with other agents and talk about the one that got away.  My advice to new agents back when I was a decorated agency trainer, paraphrasing John Savage:  “Next Monday when you tell your wife/spouse/partner/significant-other you’re going to work, try it.  Before you know it you’ll be working 3 or 4 hours per day!”

Upside:  Better than BO or Multilevel marketing for getting undesirable seatmates to shut up on crowded airplanes.

Downside (if single):  Better babe repellant than BO or Multilevel marketing.

Dark side:  Professional meetings same average age as a mainline denomination.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Savannah writes:

A buddy of mine helped me get a job as a maintenance assistant at an apartment complex.  Easiest money ever.  I was hired with zero experience, paid 12 an hour to basically touch up the walls with paint whenever people ditched the apartment. One apartment would take me, at my leisurely pace, 1 hour.  Of course I’d drag the hour out to 4.

What did I do in between?  Cruised the complexes (there were two) in my really cool golf cart, ran laps around the complex for exercise, practiced my karate with my buddy, chilled at the pool on hot days, and take extended trips on my golf cart to the store for strawberry shortcake ice cream bars.  Normally I’d take 3 to 4 of these extended trips which would take about 30 mins each.  Lunch was 90 mins or more, which were spent playing guitar at my buddy’s place or watching his extensive collection of dvd’s.

Our boss was super cool and she hardly ever bothered us except to tell me what room I had to do next.  She’d even track us down on our way to the ice cream to put in a request for smoothies and stuff.

My favorite time of the day?  When my buddy would ask me “WHAT TIME IS TI?!”
“IT’S STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE ICE CREAM BAR TIME!!!!!”

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader writes:

I have an offering for the ‘BS Job’ title that I am not sure I have seen listed on the site before (it’s my bro’s job, not mine.. I swear!):
 
Title: User Interface Design
 
Be artistic w/o being an artist; be psychological w/o being a psychologist; make cool virtual stuff w/o being an programmer.
 
Pay: Variant.. though if it’s affiliated w/ Google (and what isn’t these days?), you’re set!
 
Good: Get to act pretentious and be around pretentious people. Transition between work, computer games, and on-line chat is seamless.
 
Bad: May require some prestige – such as entry in to CMU or the like - and luck to get into. Also may have to learn everything you can about Adobe Illustrator.
 
Ugly: Seeing what happens to your designs when the coders try to actualize them.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from California writes:

Person who tells the bank what your house is worth

$$: $50-$75K working for a bank as a staff appraiser; but $150K+ if you open up your own shop and hire lots of trainees to do all the grunt work

The upside: A month of online schooling and a 125 question multiple choice test set you on your way to making $$$; once you have the trainees trained you can sit on your ass all day checking emails and making phone calls to get more business. The sky is the limit if you know how to run an office and organize schedules well.

The downside: 50,000+ miles of driving PER YEAR if you do all the work yourself, lots of alone time spent in said car, government organization OREA breathing down your neck every time a bank disagrees with your opinion of the house value, carpel tunnel syndrome by 30

The dark side: Getting yelled at and/or threatened by retarded, inbred, incredibly rude loan officers for having a property’s value cut by a bank when you as the appraiser have ABSOLUTELY no control over what a bank does to a property’s value; also the potential to accidentally get sucked into a “gray area” financial scam is out of your control

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Dallas writes:

This involves “taking the initiative” to investigate IT system outages and to identify their root causes. This sounds like a necessary position, but it’s more like the fifth – or sixth – wheel. You are the middle-man in a situation where the actual analyst could do the work himself. This is all talk, conference calls, paper, audit-talk, beauracracy, and general nonsense. We are told to use “tools” to do problem solving, such as “the five whys”, and other mystical approaches which appear more like a trip to Oz than to real problem solving, which requires just some basic and rock-steady detective work. I miss the days when I did some real work

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in San Francisco writes:

Provide in-depth technical analysis for decisionmakers to base their decisions on. Their decisions rarely if ever match the recommendations of your analysis and if there is a way to squeeze efficiency and save taxpayers tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars a year, you will watch the government decisionmakers go in the exact opposite direction to justify inflated budgets and to protect their turf.

The good: You get to watch government in action and get paid a buttload of money and world class retirement benefits.

The bad: You get to watch government in action burning your tax dollars under the guise of a competent management decision when you know in your gut it should land them in jail for fraud, waste and abuse.

The dark: Take ownership of anything and you will be politically tossed under the bus as it will be your decision. Try to make all decisions as a group so that no one person can be held accountable.

The future: Pina Colada and Margarita sipping in Belize, Panama or Costa Rica just about as far away as anything technical as one can get.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Jacksonville writes:

My job while in the USAF was to sit in the weightroom and watch men sweat. I assisted new members on how to use some of the equipment, made sure there were enough towels to mop up the sweat and try not to drool on the guys as they are pumping iron.

Downside – Late night sweat smells yucky.

Upside – Watching all the hot military guys work out. My military uniform was a pair of shorts and golf shirt. Plenty of time to study college courses.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Florida writes:

Basically, what I do is find the easiest classes on my college’s campus and enroll my student-athletes in them. Then, if one of my students stops going to class, I call up the professor and beg him/her to give Star Jock the benefit of the doubt and pass them with a ‘C’. If the prof isn’t immediately cooperative, I happen to notice we have some decent seats to a couple home football/basketball games available for the upcoming season.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in California writes:

Salary: Low Six Figures plus Great Bonus and Bene’s

Job: Manage cost, schedule and ensure quality on IT projects.

The Real Job: Set up meetings, sit on calls, say as little as possible.

Upside: Great Pay for basic clerical work.  Free Office Space, plenty of time to manage, explore outside interests

Downside: Have to share free office space with extremely incompetent people some of which have borderline personality disorder.

Darkside: reports directly to someone with borderline personality disorder

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Ft. Lauderdale writes:

Analyze past data to tell people in the present, in terms they cannot understand, what WRONG decisions they already made and why, and get paid, a lot, to do it.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in California writes:

I had a job that paid $8/hr for 8 hours a day and 5 days a week where I had to lock myself into a small room with a desk and phone.  My job was to answer the phone if some unseen person left their desk because the phone needed to be answered during business days.  They made helicopter parts for the federal government.  I worked there for 6 months, answered the phone 3 times (“Hello, can I send you to voice mail? Thank you”), and read a small library of books.  This was before the internet.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Nashville writes:

The money is 30-40k/yr and I only have to wake up before 3pm once or twice a week.  We’re not allowed to deliver any food or alcohol so all we have to do is refill water, clear plates from table, fold napkins in to weird shapes, and reset the table.  All for $150-300 a night. 

Upside-I get first dibs on messed up orders, good exercise from walking around trying to look busy, free drinks, discounts at downtown bars, and bragging rights when I get to hang out with rockstars, celebs, and millionaires.

Downside- Base pay is still $2.13/hr, I really am just a glorified busser, no respect, takes me one step closer to being an alcoholic haha.

Overall, a nice job if you’re a natural charmer and schmoozer since the regular customers are the movers and shakers in the city.  Impress them and you’ll become their assistant, one step closer to a job that actually uses the degree you went to school for.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Los Angeles writes:

When an organization goes through a major transition they need professionals to consult with leadership regarding change management, strategic planning, team development, management development, 360 degree feedback, and culture and climate assessment. . . or do they?

When you spend all day stating the obvious repeatedly, frightening leadership into complying with your will by consistent reminders that “staff will have a negative reaction to this change” and playing babysitter during meetings by asking “What are we all going to take away from this meeting?” it’s hard to justify your existence. An effective Organizational Development Consultant’s goal is to give you a permanent case of “the Mondays” while taking control. Think “the Bobs” from Office Space . . . but less useful.

Pardon, I have to resume my report regarding who’s filling out their TPS report in octuplicate, and then finish my projections about the staffs’ inevitable mutiny after the transition from pink to blue urinal cakes.

Pay: Enough to buy a house in Los Angeles.

Perks: Undue respect.

Drawbacks: Constant fear that they’ll find out.

How to get this job: You can’t make the change . . . go back to your cube. Nice stapler.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Chicago writes:

Play Solitaire and Minesweeper.  Often interrupted by calls from incompetent vendors and customers.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Los Angeles writes:

Work from home, approximately 5 hours per day, resolving customer issues. Company operates on east coast time, so I knock off everyday at 2 and have been earning a 6-figure income for the last 8 years. My day begins at 9, I never have to get dressed, seldom am on the road. I’m bored outta my mind, but nothing else compares. Oh, throw in a 90 minute lunch too.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Memphis writes:

Relay is supposed to be a service for the deaf, hard of hearing, and speech disabled where a person using the internet, cell phone, or text telephone reaches an operator, I dial a number for them and relay conversation between a text and voice user. 90% of the calls we get are from people who are not deaf, most of them are scam calls or prank calls, so for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week I relay bogus conversations. The benefits are good though. The turnover rate is extraordinary. A few weeks of Nigerian scam calls and teenagers with nothing else to do can take a toll on some people.

Pay: 10.00-10.50 starting with the availability of a promotion after 6 months.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in California writes:

I manage a team of unexperienced rookies who create 100’s of faulty drawings that show underpaid Contractors where to put an equipment cabinet on a concrete slab.

 Of course the contractor uses the drawings as toilet paper, places the cabinet in the wrong place and blames you’re company for designing it wrong. You’re boss blames you for managing the project wrong, and you blame your rookies for drawing it wrong, who say that in order to do it right, they need more time that you don’t have. And that’s if they speak English.

Pay 60-100k

Upside – You get to correct drawings with a red pen

Downside – If you’re not busy enough managing..you have to do some of the drawings yourself.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Austin writes:

I work part time in a management job for UPS.  I basically make sure packages are correct to the right zip code, address, etc to ensure delivery at the correct time.  The salary, yes salary,  I make is right at $1400 a month, but I work 4 1/2 hours a night, usually sitting around almost 2 of those hours.  It’s the perfect job for a full time college student who doesn’t want to make minimum wage working at some random dive in a college town.  Friday – Sunday off and about 3/4 of my tuition is reimbursed.  A great way not to starve through college and even better career opportunities where the real money is after graduation.  And no you don’t have to wear a brown uniform.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Washington DC writes:

In this Job all you have to do is set up a Email forwarder to your managers for all your email. A co-worker sent this director a email for an outside of work activity and got instantly a OUT of office reply for the director’s managers. Then all you have to do is have your group cause issues and figure out ways to fix those issues and just write up how your group fixed all these issues.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Illinois writes:

I resell loads of freight without getting up from my chair. Then take 25% of the money for my boss. and I get .001%.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in San Diego writes:

Monitor Medical Research Budget. If the Researcher spends more money than budgeted, notify the NIH grant manager to get more money for said budget. If the Researcher doesn’t spend enough notify the researcher to spend more money or risk loosing future money to said budget.

Pay: $60,000/year

work: 1 hour a day the rest surfing web and ocean.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Washington writes:

The perfect job for someone who has never truly dealt with their inability to understand algebra and trigonometry but wants to keep trying.

Also great for those who like to see concrete and steel turned into things but understand lost fingers, toes and occasionally death can result from actually doing the work.

The upside a retirement plan, with more days off per year than you can shake a stick at. wow!

The downside, a sunny morning sitting in your cubicle processing a new form that means absolutely nothing.

The darkside, the insane policies and directives you follow and implement originally were created to address a real need which invariably will get lost, but heh, keep that promotion in mind.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in New Hampshire writes:

Work for a car dealership that specializes in fast turn around of auction cars they have next to nothing into. Make $12k to $20k a year tops and get ridden like a wet pony for every little thing wrong with a car that someone else did to it like you did it yourself. If they have $3k in a car they will sell it for $9k on the front line and be mad that they had to pay you $50 to make it happen, while everyone else easily makes over $500 for saying “sign here”.

Average detail time is 6 to 12 hours depending on the cars age, mileage, and the reason they traded it in. Most are severely wrecked rental cars with 4 different shades of the original color on it and has so many imperfections in the paint you can cut yourself on it by rubbing your hand over it, let alone the 30 pounds of beach sand in the carpets and seats from the accident that put it there.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Florida writes:

I am a mortgage broker but I help a friend out in her FLOWER SHOP.  The bulls**t job part of the flower shop is making the funeral arrangements.  Most people do not care what type of flowers go into the arrangements so we use the nearly dead ones that can not be used in any other type of arrangement and then charge a BUNDLE for them.  The arrangements go to the funeral home then the grave site.  With the scorching sun and high temperatures and no expects the flowers to last.  Perfect, dead flowers for dead people.

You don’t even want to know what goes on in the funeral homes, some don’t have coolers.  But that is another story.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Illinois writes:

Basically check out books to people in a library and shelve them when the books come back in.  Plus answer any and all questions people have and occasionally deal with societal problems such as homeless people and latchkey children. 

Upside:  You get to know what secret fetishes people research about.

Downside:  You get to know what secret fetishes people research about.

The Real Ugly:  Pay is only between $20-30 grand a year.  Plus Library Circulation Techs do 99% of the real work in a library while the “Librarians” (Believe it or not you do need a Masters in Library Science to be a Librarian) are sitting in their offices making $50 grand and over while thinking about such intellectually lofty things as the Dewey Decimal System. 

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader in Paris writes:

Exports Manager at a “small” French Software company (oui-oui)

Figures = as much as a bullet-train driver about to retire…

Good sides = Exports State Sponsored plans will fund you until you die (if it doesn’t work, throw more money at it). Make most of high-end french MBA holders (stuck into french multinationals) envy your freedom of choice for working-vacation destinations.

Down sides = have you heard about french software?

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

 A reader in San Diego writes:

I am an auto insurance field appraiser for a major American insurance company. It’s kind of like the dude’s job in Fight Club except that I don’t participate in underground boxing matches and I don’t beat myself up in front of my boss. I actually don’t really have a boss. I work out of my house, set my own schedule, and do my own thing. I drive around San Diego and I take pictures of cars that get into crashes. Some of them get caught on fire, sometimes they get stolen, sometimes an angry girlfriend carves hate-filled messages into the paint…. But regardless – I typically work a 5-hour day. Note that 3 of these 5 hours are spent driving to and from various locations, so it’s like I really only work a 2 hour day. I photograph 4 (maybe 5 or 6 on a busy day) vehicles and am typically home by 2 o’clock.

When the car actually goes to a body shop for repair, I just negotiate with them over the phone and have them send me a bill when the repairs are done. No hassle for me or for them. I am usually at home eating almonds, kicking back a cold one, and playing XBOX around 2 or 3pm. Either that or I’m calling my buddies asking what they’re up to…and then interrupting their responses with, “Oh yeah!!! You’re at work! My bad! Call me at 5, working man!”
The best $50k I ever made.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Colorado writes:

This isn’t my job, but it’s the job of my ex-sister-in-law.  She is (and maybe was) an etiquette consultant in and around New York City.  She taught high school English for one year and was a stay-at-home mom several years before deciding upon this job that entails her advising people in business how to act toward each other, all the while never having been in business herself.  It seems that those high up in business know how to bulls**t already by being there, and don’t need instruction on etiquette/aka bulls**t!

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Utah writes:

55-60k babysitting 18-65 year olds pimping Balance Transfers and other wonderful credit card products.  Roughest part of the gig, is finding an exit without having to badge out.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Phoenix writes:

Pick up people who are too important to ride a shuttle bus or taxi, and forget car rental – that involves work.  It’s a great system.  The customer arrives at the airport, pays $5 to the baggage porter.  Then there is the $100 trip fee plus another $20 tip to the driver.  The driver calls ahead to the bell boy at the resort who then unloads baggage -you guessed it, another $5 tip.  $130 changes hands in 35 minutes and this goes on 24/7.  When the airlines run late, the biz. booms.  I love my job!

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from California writes:

Okay, are you seated?  High School and Middle School Teacher is now  a BS job.  We have to look like we’re teaching the kids something…as long as we please parents, kids and administrators…while doing the ‘testing, the SOB, (Standards, Outcomes and Benchmarks)…duh!   Give the kids some fun learning…cover the material (about 3 years worth for each grade level now..but coverage is the enemy of education, remember)…get a T.A. to enter all your bogus grades…give the grades the parents and kids ‘want’…rather than what  really is.  Move them along…don’t flunk them…(it will depress them, and they’ll be on prozac, etc.)…Make sure the ADHD’s are medicated well…(right dose)…and looking like they are learning…Well, there’s more …but it’s become an unethical, overthetop…BS job…

Also, the salary at my level is about $65K per year!!  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, dude….

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from South Carolina writes:

All I do is greet the rich people as the come to dinner and make sure the important rich people get the best tables. They slip me $100.00 bills all the time to move themselves up the social ladder and get better tables. If they sow up without making a reservation they know that $200.00 in my hand will get them sat right away at a great table. I also make about $30,000 a year salary to stand around doing nothing all night. I eat a free $80.00 Dinner each night and get all the free Top Shelf liquor I can drink after my shift and all the hot rich women love me and secretly want to hook up with me if they can ditch their millionaire husbands.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from New York writes:

Well, I’m from Rochester but I’m in the navy right now. I say being a sailor on a forward deployed ship is the biggest bulls**t job ever! we’re at sea 275 days of the year, no time for vacation, education or family. Most sailors I’ve know have been through divorces like it was nothing, because their wives cheated on them, or the actual job itself is stressful as hell, enough to where statistics show (navy statistics) that 20-40 percent of navy sailors die at a younger age because they are not used to not having stress in their lives after twenty or more years in the navy, they just die. it’s sad and it’s bulls**t, but somebody’s gotta do it.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Phoenix writes:

You stand (or sit) around and push buttons while you drink for free, collect money, and generally d**k around while drunken morons scream their horribly off-key rendition of “Black Velvet” into the microphone.

Upside: Free drinks, easy money, opportunity to meet lots of interesting people.

Downside: It’s karaoke.

Note: I’m actually reading this article and sending you this from my job as a karaoke D.J., if that says anything about how bulls**t this job is.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Nebraska writes:

Duties: Sit or stand in front of dressing room door or other backstage areas and make sure everyone has a backstage pass. Demoralize those who don’t and let Radiohead have free reign even if you don’t recognize them.

The Upside: Getting to hear cool concerts, befriend the bassist who flirts with you as he moves to and from rehearsal and performance, get fed by a personal chef, getting hugs from CarrotTop, keeping half crazed fans away from N*Sync, contact highs, cool backstage souvenirs that are being thrown away after the show, getting to tell big-name promoters that not even they are allowed to have glassware backstage.

The Downside: Having to go to the front of the house during a Phish concert and having stoned people paw at you, being told that “security girls” cannot respond to incidents at the front gate, trying to get backstage after a break and listening to some woman crying because Willie Nelson played at her parent’s wedding 40 years ago and she wants to thank him personally, Occasionally having to work the front gate, parking lot or in the venue, going deaf.

The Dark Side: Going on a date with a male security co-worker just to get stoned and later having to pry him off of you; realizing that despite the band’s friendliness before and during the show, you are completely invisible to all levels of society except the server at Denny’s after every show; watching N*Sync’s concert promoter jumping over the threshold to their dressing room and shouting, “My world! Your world! My world! Your world!”

Where you go from here: If you do a really good job, you might get to work security at the Super Bowl or other major sporting event … IN ANOTHER CITY! With all expenses paid! whoo hoo, partay.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from California writes:

I am a “System Engineer” on a project for a major defense contractor.  Although my scope of responsibility has yet to be defined, I can say one thing for certain: I’m paid a very nice salary, most of which comes from your tax dollars.

As a former military officer with a graduate degree in computer science from a top-notch school, I was supposedly hired for my software engineering background, project management skills, and overall technical domain knowledge.  To date, however, I have yet to participate in any form of system or software design; my daily tasks consist mostly of attending directionless meetings, typing up the resulting “meeting minutes,” and sending them out via e-mail.  For the remaining 95% of my time, I take long lunch breaks and surf the web (as I’m doing now).

Of course, this should not be trivialized.  I would not be able to perform these tasks without having achieved the ability to log into a PC, type a Microsoft Word document, and send an e-mail to multiple recipients.  These critical functions require essential cognitive and motor skills that could otherwise be overlooked.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from New York writes:

Essentially you’re getting paid well–in the six figures + up to 50% of your base for bonus– to write emails, memos and articles for senior management, that their employees have no interest in reading. Oh, and through these written communications we’re supposed to inform & engage employees so that they’re proud of the company they work for.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Maryland writes:

You do ten-twenty minutes of work for each hour and the rest of your time you spend “getting ready.” It sucks when you’re the first person to arrive before the hockey starts and you have to deal with the idiots who cannot tell time. Salary ranges form $25k to $60k. It’s plenty of fun especially when you have hot hockey moms. You get to drive a huge truck-like machine on ice and are expected to not miss any spots. You get to watch all the hockey you can handle and get to play when everyone is off the ice. It can get cold in the winter, but in the summer its a great escape from the heat, if you have a job in the summer.

 Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Dallas writes:

I am a runner for a large production company that organizes the live music shows around here. Simply called a “runner”, my job is to cater to the every need of any band that is playing a show in our venues, be it getting their laundry done, to finding them primo grade cocaine.  I usually make $700 a week if i work every weekend.

Upside: You get to meet a lot of famous band members that will normally remember you next time they come to town.

Downside: You never get to see the show/ never get anything signed/your friends only like you if you can get them passes/the dirty laundry…EWW! darkside: youre always required to know how to get your hands on  hydro/ a vaporizer/ coke/ morphine/ heroin/ ecstacy/ smack, or some other crap at a moments notice.

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from New York writes:

Shuffle paper between aircraft mechanics and the real engineers who are somewhere far away.

Main skill required: talking on the phone.

Pros: Some days there’s nothing to do.
Cons: Lots of pressure to get the airplane fixed even though you have no power over when that happens.

 Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?

A reader from Missouri writes:

When somebody leaves their laundry in the washer/dryer for more than 2 hours, she takes it out, dries it and sells it to the local resale shop.  Also trolls lost-and-founds around campus to sell items on eBay or back to the college bookstore.

She makes about $900 a month, more in the winter.  Laughs uncontrollably at the sight of student cafeteria workers and work-study students.

She’s always fun to go out and party with, because she always has beer money. Usually will give dibs to her roommates and suite-mates.’

Readers, what do you think? Is this a bulls**t job?