> They have long lost their professional ambition, and spend days in the office working on private projects, writing music, taking long lunches and in general killing their time until retirement. Most others are just average people, like you and me, that got trapped in the system and started drinking its Kool-Aid, over time becoming poisoned with it.
It sounds much like working in higher-ed or most government jobs. For that matter, it could be describing some large corporate environments.
I think the same can happen almost anywhere. I've heard startup culture described in the same way: people founding company after company trying to "disrupt" something without caring what it is, trying to fit themselves into a system defined by VC's.
I'm not sure there's any perfect way to avoid this kind of job. If what you care about is sculpture or bird watching or travel, you probably won't find a nice paying job that lets you flex your expertise. You might, it's been done, but there's not the same kind of demand for renowned bird watching authors as there is for doctors or lawyers or engineers.
So maybe the best we can say is this: If your goal in taking a job is for it to be a life's work, the thing you think about in your spare time, and the kind of thing people remember you for, then you need to worry about this. You need to watch out for systems that eat up your time and effort without mattering, because there are lots of them. But if not, then you don't.
Yeah, but the thing is even the most scelerotic, giant tech company (can think of a few) are producing something that someone wants (even if that customer base is dwindling or those wants may be silly - who are we to judge?). So you at least get a sense that you are moving something incrementally forward. It might be hard to say the same thing about parts of the UN.
It sounds much like working in higher-ed or most government jobs. For that matter, it could be describing some large corporate environments.