Job Enshittification

The progressive deterioration of job quality, conditions, and meaning over time, while workers remain trapped by lack of alternatives. Job enshittification describes how positions that once offered dignity, security, or satisfaction are systematically degraded—responsibilities increase while pay stagnates, autonomy is replaced by algorithmic management, benefits are stripped, schedules become unpredictable, the work itself becomes meaningless or actively harmful. Each change is small, framed as "necessary adjustment," but cumulatively transforms decent jobs into traps. The job doesn't just stay bad; it actively worsens, year by year, until workers find themselves in positions they would never have accepted at the start.

Job Enshittification Example: "When she took the job, it had purpose, autonomy, and respect. Ten years later, with relentless 'optimization,' micromanagement, and meaningless metrics, she barely recognized it—not burnout, but Job Enshittification, the active decay of work itself."

Job Enshittification by Dumu The Void March 12, 2026