Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c653IR // #c653Synthesis

A duct taper is an employee 'whose job exists only because of a glitch or fault in the organization; who is there to solve a problem that ought not to exist.' The work is real, but it's real because something upstream is broken — often cleaning up after a sloppy or incompetent superior.

— In our words · Source: Bullshit Jobs (David Graeber)

[Use when]

Use to audit: is the problem I'm solving caused by a defect in the system (then fix the system) or inherent to the work (then fix the work)? A duct-taper role is a signal the real fix is upstream — don't staff the patch, fix the glitch.

[Why it matters]

Recognize it in the wild: the work is genuinely necessary but the need is artificial — a patch on a glitch, not a function. The tell is resentment: 'cleaning up after someone who makes a completely gratuitous and unnecessary mess is always irritating.' Duct tapers are usually angry because their whole job is undoing someone else's damage. Most obvious form: 'underlings whose jobs are to undo the damage done by sloppy or incompetent superiors.'

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