Anyone with an account LinkedIn could not escape this striking reality: the first professional social network on a global scale is teeming with job titles, each more ludicrous than the last. The typology of “bullshit jobs” extends from the classics “ Business developer » and its start-up version « Growth hacker » – which mean practically nothing as they encompass different functions – to the most exuberant semantic eccentricities: “ Thought leadership officer » or other « Key account manager » which makes us wonder what their day at the office might look like.
We can obviously have fun with its high-sounding titles and – it must be admitted – quite meaningless for the most part. Nevertheless, the evolution of job titles is interesting in more than one way: it is emblematic of the structural changes in our economy and, more broadly, in our entire society.
LinkedIn, altar of megalomania
The recent advent of social networks in our society has had as a corollary a widespread habit of valuing oneself more than is reasonable. LinkedIn is of course no exception to the rule, especially because it concerns the professional world where overvaluing oneself is already the norm. This results in “CEO & Founder” who correspond in 80% of cases to “boss of myself”. The use of English, which has established itself as the hegemonic language on LinkedIn, also contributes to blurring the lines: it is clearly easier to chat in a language other than your own.
The disappearance of technical skills?
Since the industrial revolution of the 18th century, machines have gradually replaced humans in a multitude of tasks, proving more efficient or less costly than their counterparts. alter ego made of muscle and flesh. If machines were once confined to carrying out repetitive tasks with low added value, the revolution in computing and artificial intelligence that we are experiencing today is reshuffling the cards. Machines are now capable of quickly carrying out increasingly complex tasks, once the prerogative of “well-trained minds”; those who possessed the technical competence. This trend does not seem ready to fade with the exponential development of artificial intelligence, based on progress in deep learning and the machine learning.
The result is a devaluation of technical skills, including those of “white-collar” workers, which could surely accelerate in the years to come. Will we always need human accountants or management controllers?
In a most cynical pamphlet “ The Utopia of rules “, essayist David Graeber interprets “bullshit jobs” as a way for elites to prove their own legitimacy by inventing useless functions for themselves rather than sinking into idleness.
Bullshit jobs… are they really?
By striving to be a little more optimistic, we can also say that man adapts to the new realities of work and takes refuge where he will always be the best. The strategic management of the company or one of its units, a notion that we find in half of the descriptions of bullshit jobs, is undoubtedly one of the most convincing examples of these last impregnable bastions reserved for human intelligence, as these require qualities that are specific to us. In another register, certain new jobs such as CHO “Chief happiness officers” ensure the well-being of employees, which goes hand in hand with productivity and low absenteeism. Proof that new considerations of the employer/employee relationship are gradually emerging.
Among the qualities and skills revalued by this new paradigm of the labor market, we can cite the ability to take into account very diverse factors (and not just quantifiable) in order to make good decisions, but also creativity, empathy, interpersonal skills… all these much more abstract skills are today defined by the name “ soft skills ” which is therefore opposed to purely practical knowledge, ” hard skills “.
By extension, these new professions based partly or totally on soft skills are much more difficult to define than those based on precise technical skills. We therefore understand that it is difficult to instantly identify the functions hidden behind each of them.
Well aware of this shift that the world of work is currently taking and determined to anticipate it, business schools almost all highlight the development of these soft skills at the heart of their pedagogy; at the risk of being accused of being a sanctuary of bullshit by their students…
