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Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
A deeply-reported examination of why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives.
You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." Whether it's working for "exposure" and "experience," or enduring poor treatment in the name of "being part of the family," all employees are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do what we love.
In Work Won't Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe, a preeminent voice on labor, inequality, and social movements, examines this "labor of love" myth -- the idea that certain work is not really work, and therefore should be done out of passion instead of pay. Told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries -- from the unpaid intern, to the overworked nurse, to the nonprofit worker and even the professional athlete -- Jaffe reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work.
As Jaffe argues, understanding the trap of the labor of love will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. And once freed from those binds, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.
You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." Whether it's working for "exposure" and "experience," or enduring poor treatment in the name of "being part of the family," all employees are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do what we love.
In Work Won't Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe, a preeminent voice on labor, inequality, and social movements, examines this "labor of love" myth -- the idea that certain work is not really work, and therefore should be done out of passion instead of pay. Told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries -- from the unpaid intern, to the overworked nurse, to the nonprofit worker and even the professional athlete -- Jaffe reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work.
As Jaffe argues, understanding the trap of the labor of love will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. And once freed from those binds, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 26, 2021
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September 25, 2021
Corporate Ideology
Work Won’t Love You Back exposes the myth that work should be a ‘commitment’ to ‘being all you can be,’ which requires ‘assiduous loyalty’ to one’s ‘authentic vocation.’ This is the kind of intellectual tripe that emerged from 60’s hippiedom and corporate extravagance of the 70’s and 80’s. Back then we didn’t aspire to mere jobs but to ‘meaningful’ careers. Those of us with the right credentials (that is, who did well on standard tests) could choose among employers; and we were supposed to chose the one with the greatest potential for advancing the common good (measured, of course, by the salaries offered; we were, after all, steeped in neo-liberal economic theory).
For my generation the political had been replaced by the moral. Jaffe captures the spirit of the times: “… we’ve been told that work itself is supposed to bring us fulfillment, pleasure, meaning, even joy. We’re supposed to work for the love of it, and how dare we ask questions about the way our work is making other people rich while we struggle to pay rent and barely see our friends.” This has become the legacy of our leadership in the world - broken politics and broken families. When morality is substituted for politics the world suffers mightily, and not just economically. Disappointment gives way to resentment which leads to a compulsion to find the culprits, which generates victims, hatred, and ultimately the politics we have today.
The corporate morality touted from the 70’s onward in America becomes clear only in hindsight. Although citing the importance of ideals and working for good, this morality is extremely self-centred, insisting on the duty (and the freedom) to select a path, for one’s life as well as for one’s organisation. One was encouraged to express one’s real personal goals, to be self-actualised. Hell, you didn’t get hired unless you had a plan for increasing company performance by 15% and your sights set on being CEO after the current one retired.
And so too the places we worked for were a sort of moral laboratory. A company whose management didn’t agonise to produce a concise statement of its mission, its social purpose, was not just deficient in business practice, it was morally derelict. Plans were the thing: career plans, strategic pans, succession plans, financial plans, diversification plans (oh, and visions of course; every plan had to have an underlying vision). It was important that all these be fact-based, that is, supported by evidence. The fact that there was no evidence to support the purported efficacy of planning whatsoever didn’t strike many as a flaw in the rationality or as paradoxical.
Work, at least the corporate work of buying selling, funding, and coordinating, was romanticised by us. And we lived for the romance not its after effects. Everyone else hated their jobs for the tedium, danger, or sheer toil involved. But not those of us considered leaders. We were of a different class altogether, a class mere workers could aspire to (which was what we hoped they would). Ignoring the biblical dictum that we are doomed to hard labour as human beings, we projected our moral stance on captive corporate audiences under the guise of improving their lot.
I remember my own epiphany after giving an inspired (I thought) pep talk about taking more responsibility for their assignments to a number of front-line engineers in a gas transmission company. At the end I asked for comments. From the crowd one chap in a donkey jacket returned fire. “Look,” he said, “I’ve spent the last twenty years digging fuckin’ holes. And as far as I understand what you just said, I’ll be spending the next twenty years still digging fuckin’ holes.”
The reality of the Labour of Love ideology hit me in that remark with a force of a religious conversion. The concept that work was a source of fulfilment rather than survival became visible as a rationalisation of the historically persistent exploitation of the weak by the powerful. I was the instrument of exploitation. What I had been involved in was not a battle between good and evil, but the battle of power to sustain itself. And I had been enthusiastically on the side of power.
I agree with almost everything that Jaffe has to say about the ‘false consciousness’ created by my generation. But I think she relies too heavily on Marxist theory to make her points. The domination of folk by their ‘betters’ is not unique to capitalism, late stage or otherwise. All human organisation involves asymmetry of power; and power is always abused. The more power, the greater the abuse. Power is the real Original Sin it seems. We are born into its snare and either seek it or submit to it; but we can’t live without it no matter what ideology it is exercised through.
Capitalism is a tool of power, not the reverse. Neither economists nor political theorists seem to get this. Capitalism will adapt itself to the needs of the powerful in highly creative ways. Jaffe implicitly recognises this when she notes:
Power maintains itself by evading the issue, which of course is itself. Exploitation is explained as an economic necessity or as a consequence of some threatening ideology (like either capitalism or socialism), or as propaganda and fake news, or merely as non-existent. The minority who don’t accept such explanations can then be picked off by power at its convenience. One can only hope that from the dozens of cases put forward by Jaffe, she might touch the deeply buried sense of not just self interest but also the will to resist power wherever it shows itself - just like that gas transmission engineer did in backing me down.
I feel compelled to add another personal footnote that perhaps indicates a rejection of the Labour of Love ideology by the latest generation. Several years ago my then 12 year old grandson was asked by another adult what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitation, the boy responded, “Retired.” I was momentarily taken aback. And then I smiled. Sometimes youth is wise beyond its years.
Work Won’t Love You Back exposes the myth that work should be a ‘commitment’ to ‘being all you can be,’ which requires ‘assiduous loyalty’ to one’s ‘authentic vocation.’ This is the kind of intellectual tripe that emerged from 60’s hippiedom and corporate extravagance of the 70’s and 80’s. Back then we didn’t aspire to mere jobs but to ‘meaningful’ careers. Those of us with the right credentials (that is, who did well on standard tests) could choose among employers; and we were supposed to chose the one with the greatest potential for advancing the common good (measured, of course, by the salaries offered; we were, after all, steeped in neo-liberal economic theory).
For my generation the political had been replaced by the moral. Jaffe captures the spirit of the times: “… we’ve been told that work itself is supposed to bring us fulfillment, pleasure, meaning, even joy. We’re supposed to work for the love of it, and how dare we ask questions about the way our work is making other people rich while we struggle to pay rent and barely see our friends.” This has become the legacy of our leadership in the world - broken politics and broken families. When morality is substituted for politics the world suffers mightily, and not just economically. Disappointment gives way to resentment which leads to a compulsion to find the culprits, which generates victims, hatred, and ultimately the politics we have today.
The corporate morality touted from the 70’s onward in America becomes clear only in hindsight. Although citing the importance of ideals and working for good, this morality is extremely self-centred, insisting on the duty (and the freedom) to select a path, for one’s life as well as for one’s organisation. One was encouraged to express one’s real personal goals, to be self-actualised. Hell, you didn’t get hired unless you had a plan for increasing company performance by 15% and your sights set on being CEO after the current one retired.
And so too the places we worked for were a sort of moral laboratory. A company whose management didn’t agonise to produce a concise statement of its mission, its social purpose, was not just deficient in business practice, it was morally derelict. Plans were the thing: career plans, strategic pans, succession plans, financial plans, diversification plans (oh, and visions of course; every plan had to have an underlying vision). It was important that all these be fact-based, that is, supported by evidence. The fact that there was no evidence to support the purported efficacy of planning whatsoever didn’t strike many as a flaw in the rationality or as paradoxical.
Work, at least the corporate work of buying selling, funding, and coordinating, was romanticised by us. And we lived for the romance not its after effects. Everyone else hated their jobs for the tedium, danger, or sheer toil involved. But not those of us considered leaders. We were of a different class altogether, a class mere workers could aspire to (which was what we hoped they would). Ignoring the biblical dictum that we are doomed to hard labour as human beings, we projected our moral stance on captive corporate audiences under the guise of improving their lot.
I remember my own epiphany after giving an inspired (I thought) pep talk about taking more responsibility for their assignments to a number of front-line engineers in a gas transmission company. At the end I asked for comments. From the crowd one chap in a donkey jacket returned fire. “Look,” he said, “I’ve spent the last twenty years digging fuckin’ holes. And as far as I understand what you just said, I’ll be spending the next twenty years still digging fuckin’ holes.”
The reality of the Labour of Love ideology hit me in that remark with a force of a religious conversion. The concept that work was a source of fulfilment rather than survival became visible as a rationalisation of the historically persistent exploitation of the weak by the powerful. I was the instrument of exploitation. What I had been involved in was not a battle between good and evil, but the battle of power to sustain itself. And I had been enthusiastically on the side of power.
I agree with almost everything that Jaffe has to say about the ‘false consciousness’ created by my generation. But I think she relies too heavily on Marxist theory to make her points. The domination of folk by their ‘betters’ is not unique to capitalism, late stage or otherwise. All human organisation involves asymmetry of power; and power is always abused. The more power, the greater the abuse. Power is the real Original Sin it seems. We are born into its snare and either seek it or submit to it; but we can’t live without it no matter what ideology it is exercised through.
Capitalism is a tool of power, not the reverse. Neither economists nor political theorists seem to get this. Capitalism will adapt itself to the needs of the powerful in highly creative ways. Jaffe implicitly recognises this when she notes:
“The difference between what the movements of the 1970s wanted and what they got was telling. They wanted democratic control over the firm; they got employee stock ownership plans. They wanted less work, a life less dominated by demands of the boss; they got fewer jobs and work fragmented into gigs. They wanted less hierarchical trade unions; they got union-busting. They wanted freedom for creative pursuits; they got… “managerialism and shopping. They wanted to change their relationship to the patriarchal nuclear family; they got admonitions to see coworkers as family and the need to be constantly networking. They wanted more interesting work; they got simply more work. They wanted authentic human connection; they got demands to love their jobs.”
Power maintains itself by evading the issue, which of course is itself. Exploitation is explained as an economic necessity or as a consequence of some threatening ideology (like either capitalism or socialism), or as propaganda and fake news, or merely as non-existent. The minority who don’t accept such explanations can then be picked off by power at its convenience. One can only hope that from the dozens of cases put forward by Jaffe, she might touch the deeply buried sense of not just self interest but also the will to resist power wherever it shows itself - just like that gas transmission engineer did in backing me down.
I feel compelled to add another personal footnote that perhaps indicates a rejection of the Labour of Love ideology by the latest generation. Several years ago my then 12 year old grandson was asked by another adult what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitation, the boy responded, “Retired.” I was momentarily taken aback. And then I smiled. Sometimes youth is wise beyond its years.
July 28, 2021
5/5.
I guess the title is a little misleading, this is NOT one of those inspiring self-improvement books you usually find at airport bookstores on how you should work less to feel better. lol
(Side note: If the aim of a book is to make you become a better person or feel better, it's rubbish and a royal waste of time. This applies in 100 per cent of all cases, no exception. There's no such thing as an individual!)
So this book is still, broadly speaking, a Marxist analysis and critique of 'work' in late capitalism. It's an original contribution to the amazing body of work on gender and race in (post-Fordist) capitalism. So the concepts of exploitation and alienation remain key.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have landed on my desk (technically in bed, as I only read in bed) ☭
Some take-aways:
1. I do have a crush on Sarah Jaffe.
2. The premise: as those of familiar with theories of late capitalism may know, ever since 'we' shipped off the shitty jobs to the - pardon me - third world, ‘we’ have been commanded to 'love work'. Service with a smile, devoted to the cause, working ourselves to death because it is 'sooo much more than just a job'. It's a family, a passion, a mission. You name it. “Capitalism must control our affections, our sexuality, our bodies in order to keep us separated from one another. The greatest trick it has been able to pull is to convince us that work is our greatest love”.
3. And if you are depressed, anxious, lonely and burned out, it's clearly your fault for not having found the work of your life or loving your work hard enough (hint: It's not you, it's capitalism).
4. (Obviously, there is also a need to look at those places to where the shitty jobs have been shipped off to, the sweatshops, Chinese factories, African industrial farms etc. while increasingly services are also being outsourced and relocated. Late capitalism doesn’t mean that shitty jobs have disappeared or have been automated, they have only disappeared from one part of the global to another. There are plenty of excellent books on this too.)
5. Now, this myth of 'labour of love' is the central work ethic in late capitalism (like there is a dominant work ethic for every stage of capitalism). And this ethic of ‘labour of love’ is what this book aims to dismantle for what it is: a neoliberal technique of exploitation. Obviously, this is not an entirely new discovery, especially not for those among us who have spent the past two decades obsessing over neoliberal techniques of power rather than starting grown-up lives 😊 but it does add a very original lens and deep dive from various sectors of the labour of love in the post global financial crisis period of ‘punitive neoliberalism’.
6. Speaking of originality. I absolutely love this style of ‘activist academic reporting’, what an intricate fabric of solid Marxist political economy and historical analysis, reporting, reflections from working people, and a call for action. I am the very last nerd to say that there’s not a place and time for very dry Marxist theories and abstract ‘academic’ debates but bringing it back to the real world and making this accessible without compromising on the political philosophy that underpins the theoretical framework like Sarah Jaffe is just perfection ❤
7. The book starts off with an excellent introduction, with plenty of reading suggestions and rabbit holes to follow. Then follow chapters which each shed light on the historical context, and post global financial crisis state and struggles in each of the various industries and sectors of the 'labour of love' including domestic and care work, teaching, retail, nonprofits, creative industries and arts (eye opening chapter!), sports, academia, tech.
8. Zeroing in on the specific industries really highlights some of the broader dynamics on gender and capitalism. I have become quite interested in the more radical end of theories of reproductive labour in capitalism lately (Melinda Cooper wrote some great stuff on this), including, or especially, the critique of the nuclear family as an institution that’s integral to capitalism and that we need to get rid of alongside capitalism and imperialism 😊 This really cuts to the core of our understanding of solidarity and relationships of care beyond the nuclear family, whether straight or rainbow.
9. What's the answer? It's quite straightforward, actually. It's solidarity, real connection beyond the transactional. At the very, very dark heart of neoliberalism, lies the idea that we are all alone and competing in a totalizing market place of everything. From work to romance, everything has been commodified. As work has become love, love has become work. I guess it’s similar to Marx’s theories on the commodity and how social relations within capitalist society exist between commodities while social relations have become commodified (or so). The most potent antidote is to reject this process of atomization and, well, come together and organize. It’s what Bernie referred to when he said ‘fight for someone you don’t know’. What neoliberalism aimed at destroying was solidarity because that’s what always scared ‘the elites’ and only in a society where people are isolated in their struggles can a system that works to the detriment of the ’99 per cent’ flourish. When Thatcher said that ‘economics is the method but the object is the soul’, she meant it.
10. So, contrary to what self-help books make want people believe, the solution to our anxiety and feeling of inadequacy does not lie in becoming ‘more productive’ versions of ourselves, reading three books in ten minutes and increasing our ‘market value’ by adding yet another bullshit degree to our name (Harvard summer course in leadership, anyone? Lol) but in realizing that it’s our society that is sickening, a world that puts profits before people and the planet is the problem, not us. We share this shitty predicament and trying to compete against each other in this fucked up world is preventing us from realizing that, yes indeed, there are alternatives and we can collectively achieve change. We have seen a massive shift to the left (admittedly, also to the right), new movements and ideas that were too radical a few years ago (minimum wage, universal health care, basic income) becoming part of the mainstream political debate. A few years ago, it was easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. We have become so close to the end of the world, that it now seems for more and more – especially young people – possible to imagine the end of capitalism.
11. (Side note on the post covid pandemic world of work: we must resist the effort to use this new remote work as a means to further atomize us. While it's great to have some level of 'flexible working arrangements', let's be very, very critical of employers' push for greater 'flexibility and agility'. Thanks, but employees don't need greater ‘flexibility and agility’, workers need job security and protection from all forms of abuse. Employees sitting alone at home in front of their screens is a dystopian scenario. Employees need a physical space to be together and discuss what's happening at the workplace so they can develop a sense of collective and push back collectively or stand up for each other, including when contracts are becoming less secure for newly recruited colleagues. Workplace organizing formally and informally remains important and widespread remote working would be the final nail in the coffin of workplace solidarity. Outsourcing and flexible this or what may be useful for the bottom line, but we are not ‘labour costs’, we are human beings. Obviously, working from home has also further blurred the line between home and work which must be rejected. ‘We’ didn’t win historic struggles for the eight-hour working day to end up working in one way or another all day in the 21st century. The entire idea of increasing productivity and such was to reduce the amount of necessary work so we can do something else with our human potential, creative, cultural, social, love, or just enjoying ‘non-productive hobbies such as reading and watching reality TV dating shows 😊 ’Let’s not lose sight of this kind of fundamental question of what it mans to be a human being.)
12. The last (very, very awesome) chapter called “What is Love” starts with a quote which I can’t get out of my head as it sums up this neoliberal hell of work so perfectly “We want to call work what is work so that eventually we might rediscover what is love" <3
I guess the title is a little misleading, this is NOT one of those inspiring self-improvement books you usually find at airport bookstores on how you should work less to feel better. lol
(Side note: If the aim of a book is to make you become a better person or feel better, it's rubbish and a royal waste of time. This applies in 100 per cent of all cases, no exception. There's no such thing as an individual!)
So this book is still, broadly speaking, a Marxist analysis and critique of 'work' in late capitalism. It's an original contribution to the amazing body of work on gender and race in (post-Fordist) capitalism. So the concepts of exploitation and alienation remain key.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have landed on my desk (technically in bed, as I only read in bed) ☭
Some take-aways:
1. I do have a crush on Sarah Jaffe.
2. The premise: as those of familiar with theories of late capitalism may know, ever since 'we' shipped off the shitty jobs to the - pardon me - third world, ‘we’ have been commanded to 'love work'. Service with a smile, devoted to the cause, working ourselves to death because it is 'sooo much more than just a job'. It's a family, a passion, a mission. You name it. “Capitalism must control our affections, our sexuality, our bodies in order to keep us separated from one another. The greatest trick it has been able to pull is to convince us that work is our greatest love”.
3. And if you are depressed, anxious, lonely and burned out, it's clearly your fault for not having found the work of your life or loving your work hard enough (hint: It's not you, it's capitalism).
4. (Obviously, there is also a need to look at those places to where the shitty jobs have been shipped off to, the sweatshops, Chinese factories, African industrial farms etc. while increasingly services are also being outsourced and relocated. Late capitalism doesn’t mean that shitty jobs have disappeared or have been automated, they have only disappeared from one part of the global to another. There are plenty of excellent books on this too.)
5. Now, this myth of 'labour of love' is the central work ethic in late capitalism (like there is a dominant work ethic for every stage of capitalism). And this ethic of ‘labour of love’ is what this book aims to dismantle for what it is: a neoliberal technique of exploitation. Obviously, this is not an entirely new discovery, especially not for those among us who have spent the past two decades obsessing over neoliberal techniques of power rather than starting grown-up lives 😊 but it does add a very original lens and deep dive from various sectors of the labour of love in the post global financial crisis period of ‘punitive neoliberalism’.
6. Speaking of originality. I absolutely love this style of ‘activist academic reporting’, what an intricate fabric of solid Marxist political economy and historical analysis, reporting, reflections from working people, and a call for action. I am the very last nerd to say that there’s not a place and time for very dry Marxist theories and abstract ‘academic’ debates but bringing it back to the real world and making this accessible without compromising on the political philosophy that underpins the theoretical framework like Sarah Jaffe is just perfection ❤
7. The book starts off with an excellent introduction, with plenty of reading suggestions and rabbit holes to follow. Then follow chapters which each shed light on the historical context, and post global financial crisis state and struggles in each of the various industries and sectors of the 'labour of love' including domestic and care work, teaching, retail, nonprofits, creative industries and arts (eye opening chapter!), sports, academia, tech.
8. Zeroing in on the specific industries really highlights some of the broader dynamics on gender and capitalism. I have become quite interested in the more radical end of theories of reproductive labour in capitalism lately (Melinda Cooper wrote some great stuff on this), including, or especially, the critique of the nuclear family as an institution that’s integral to capitalism and that we need to get rid of alongside capitalism and imperialism 😊 This really cuts to the core of our understanding of solidarity and relationships of care beyond the nuclear family, whether straight or rainbow.
9. What's the answer? It's quite straightforward, actually. It's solidarity, real connection beyond the transactional. At the very, very dark heart of neoliberalism, lies the idea that we are all alone and competing in a totalizing market place of everything. From work to romance, everything has been commodified. As work has become love, love has become work. I guess it’s similar to Marx’s theories on the commodity and how social relations within capitalist society exist between commodities while social relations have become commodified (or so). The most potent antidote is to reject this process of atomization and, well, come together and organize. It’s what Bernie referred to when he said ‘fight for someone you don’t know’. What neoliberalism aimed at destroying was solidarity because that’s what always scared ‘the elites’ and only in a society where people are isolated in their struggles can a system that works to the detriment of the ’99 per cent’ flourish. When Thatcher said that ‘economics is the method but the object is the soul’, she meant it.
10. So, contrary to what self-help books make want people believe, the solution to our anxiety and feeling of inadequacy does not lie in becoming ‘more productive’ versions of ourselves, reading three books in ten minutes and increasing our ‘market value’ by adding yet another bullshit degree to our name (Harvard summer course in leadership, anyone? Lol) but in realizing that it’s our society that is sickening, a world that puts profits before people and the planet is the problem, not us. We share this shitty predicament and trying to compete against each other in this fucked up world is preventing us from realizing that, yes indeed, there are alternatives and we can collectively achieve change. We have seen a massive shift to the left (admittedly, also to the right), new movements and ideas that were too radical a few years ago (minimum wage, universal health care, basic income) becoming part of the mainstream political debate. A few years ago, it was easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. We have become so close to the end of the world, that it now seems for more and more – especially young people – possible to imagine the end of capitalism.
11. (Side note on the post covid pandemic world of work: we must resist the effort to use this new remote work as a means to further atomize us. While it's great to have some level of 'flexible working arrangements', let's be very, very critical of employers' push for greater 'flexibility and agility'. Thanks, but employees don't need greater ‘flexibility and agility’, workers need job security and protection from all forms of abuse. Employees sitting alone at home in front of their screens is a dystopian scenario. Employees need a physical space to be together and discuss what's happening at the workplace so they can develop a sense of collective and push back collectively or stand up for each other, including when contracts are becoming less secure for newly recruited colleagues. Workplace organizing formally and informally remains important and widespread remote working would be the final nail in the coffin of workplace solidarity. Outsourcing and flexible this or what may be useful for the bottom line, but we are not ‘labour costs’, we are human beings. Obviously, working from home has also further blurred the line between home and work which must be rejected. ‘We’ didn’t win historic struggles for the eight-hour working day to end up working in one way or another all day in the 21st century. The entire idea of increasing productivity and such was to reduce the amount of necessary work so we can do something else with our human potential, creative, cultural, social, love, or just enjoying ‘non-productive hobbies such as reading and watching reality TV dating shows 😊 ’Let’s not lose sight of this kind of fundamental question of what it mans to be a human being.)
12. The last (very, very awesome) chapter called “What is Love” starts with a quote which I can’t get out of my head as it sums up this neoliberal hell of work so perfectly “We want to call work what is work so that eventually we might rediscover what is love" <3
February 12, 2021
To summarize: work is terrible. Love is too precious to be wasted on work. Neoliberalism is a likely culprit for a lot of our labour-related discontents. Unionizing and a complete overhaul of how work is structured as well as our personal relationships to it are in order.
The first half of the book I found to be much stronger than the second half; the first half read like a history of labour interwoven with workers' stories of unionizing, work conditions, and the thinning out of the welfare state. Meanwhile the second half read more like a series of anecdotes and stories about individual experiences regarding the existing contexts of industries driven by "passion." I particularly enjoyed the parts in the first half about discourse around love and work, for example how love tends to be weaponized in union-busting. As the insertion of love and passion into work appears to be recently emergent, Jaffe's insights about the unilateral feminization of labour as a consequence of second wave feminism resulting in the rise of precarious labour is also very convincing and well fleshed out.
The first half of the book I found to be much stronger than the second half; the first half read like a history of labour interwoven with workers' stories of unionizing, work conditions, and the thinning out of the welfare state. Meanwhile the second half read more like a series of anecdotes and stories about individual experiences regarding the existing contexts of industries driven by "passion." I particularly enjoyed the parts in the first half about discourse around love and work, for example how love tends to be weaponized in union-busting. As the insertion of love and passion into work appears to be recently emergent, Jaffe's insights about the unilateral feminization of labour as a consequence of second wave feminism resulting in the rise of precarious labour is also very convincing and well fleshed out.
December 4, 2020
*I received a free ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Work Won't Love You Back felt like it could have been so much more. While the first half of the book was cohesive and interesting, the second half felt much less so.
The book is divided in two parts and I am not sure what happened, but I felt like my interest completely dropped off in the second half. I found it to be incredibly boring, but for the chapter on technology. The segments on art, academia, and sports put me to sleep. That being said, the first half was great and I found all of the research and personal stories surrounding family work and domestic work to be of particular interest.
Jaffe touched on topics from witch hunts to family actors in Japan to white supremacist nationalist groups, but only wrote a few sentences about each. The rest of the chapters followed a formula of Personal Story in Indusry + History of Industry Since Dawn of Time + Little Bit More Personal Story That Doesn't Really Wrap Things Up. The book overall felt too broad and I questioned at the end what the purpose of it being written was. It could basically be summed up as “everyone is miserable working, we should love each other and enjoy our lives… Join a union? I guess.” I felt that giving the same spin on every single industry was just excessive and felt like beating a dead horse.
In conclusion, jobs are shit and we are all miserable. 2.5, rounding down to a 2.
Work Won't Love You Back felt like it could have been so much more. While the first half of the book was cohesive and interesting, the second half felt much less so.
The book is divided in two parts and I am not sure what happened, but I felt like my interest completely dropped off in the second half. I found it to be incredibly boring, but for the chapter on technology. The segments on art, academia, and sports put me to sleep. That being said, the first half was great and I found all of the research and personal stories surrounding family work and domestic work to be of particular interest.
Jaffe touched on topics from witch hunts to family actors in Japan to white supremacist nationalist groups, but only wrote a few sentences about each. The rest of the chapters followed a formula of Personal Story in Indusry + History of Industry Since Dawn of Time + Little Bit More Personal Story That Doesn't Really Wrap Things Up. The book overall felt too broad and I questioned at the end what the purpose of it being written was. It could basically be summed up as “everyone is miserable working, we should love each other and enjoy our lives… Join a union? I guess.” I felt that giving the same spin on every single industry was just excessive and felt like beating a dead horse.
In conclusion, jobs are shit and we are all miserable. 2.5, rounding down to a 2.
March 30, 2022
The contents of this book (the history, the social commentary, etc.) is great overall, particularly the first half. I am not sure that the argument it is ostensibly making is very well integrated into the book as a whole, so that makes it not one of the top tier NF books I've read. Still, totally worth seeking out and quite thought provoking
February 9, 2021
This is an intense, passionate and well-researched book. Unfortunately, the cover blurb, as well as the subtitle, are misleading in the extreme; this, I am sorry to say, is not a book about "How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone", much less about how these grievous conditions can be ameliorated.
What this book really is, is a historical deep-dive into the struggles of Western progressives to form unions, fight for fair pay, and better working conditions across the board. The author is undoubtedly a progressive herself, and her passionate arguments against capitalist exploitation and alienation shows through in every page. Given that perspective, I think either she, or the publishers, would have done well to subtitle the book "The Struggles of the Western Left to Fight for Labor Rights" instead. This book would have been better served by the change, as it belongs more naturally to the history shelves of bookshops and bookshelves, instead of self-help, which the title and subtitle misleadingly directs readers to.
Recommended to those interested in the history of Western progressive labor unions. Not recommended to those looking for answers to their problems with work, or how to improve their lives at work.
What this book really is, is a historical deep-dive into the struggles of Western progressives to form unions, fight for fair pay, and better working conditions across the board. The author is undoubtedly a progressive herself, and her passionate arguments against capitalist exploitation and alienation shows through in every page. Given that perspective, I think either she, or the publishers, would have done well to subtitle the book "The Struggles of the Western Left to Fight for Labor Rights" instead. This book would have been better served by the change, as it belongs more naturally to the history shelves of bookshops and bookshelves, instead of self-help, which the title and subtitle misleadingly directs readers to.
Recommended to those interested in the history of Western progressive labor unions. Not recommended to those looking for answers to their problems with work, or how to improve their lives at work.
September 30, 2020
The first half of this book was absolutely riveting. The second half was...not as riveting.
I don't know if it's because the author REALLY had a clear thesis in the first half of the book (and the academia chapter, actually), but lost the thread a bit in the second half or what.
That said, this is a good book about the exploitation of all different kinds of labor, and how we got here.
Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!
I don't know if it's because the author REALLY had a clear thesis in the first half of the book (and the academia chapter, actually), but lost the thread a bit in the second half or what.
That said, this is a good book about the exploitation of all different kinds of labor, and how we got here.
Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!
May 8, 2021
This is a book that really hit home for me. As someone who has pinned almost all her self worth and happiness on her employment status for many years, I've found it completely soul-crushing when I've unexpectedly lost a job. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and suddenly the things I had worked on at my job were deemed nonessential and mass-canceled. Needless to say, I had a bit of an identity crisis this past year as I struggled to figure out what makes me happy if I can't rely on my job for that kind of fulfillment.
The sections on retail and unpaid internships perfectly articulated the need to smile and remain pleasant even under miserable working conditions or the uncertainty of future employment. The first section of the book was really interesting, while the second half got a bit dry and followed a formula for each chapter that felt constraining. But it was eye-opening to learn how capitalism and neoliberalism have fostered this "be grateful that you even have a job" mentality that innately prevents any chance of improving working conditions.
I'm fortunate enough to say that I truly love my job, but the key takeaway from this book is understanding how important work-life balance is to overall happiness.
The sections on retail and unpaid internships perfectly articulated the need to smile and remain pleasant even under miserable working conditions or the uncertainty of future employment. The first section of the book was really interesting, while the second half got a bit dry and followed a formula for each chapter that felt constraining. But it was eye-opening to learn how capitalism and neoliberalism have fostered this "be grateful that you even have a job" mentality that innately prevents any chance of improving working conditions.
I'm fortunate enough to say that I truly love my job, but the key takeaway from this book is understanding how important work-life balance is to overall happiness.
May 5, 2021
what is this books argument? while i agree with the titular conceit, the actual book doesn’t seem to argue this. fragmentary selections of the labor force, from bougie interns to cashiers, are used as supporting evidence, but to an unclear unifying claim. this book is all over the place, and for a book about neoliberalism and capitalism, brings up ancient greece about three more times than it needs to. jaffe’s research relies on secondary sources, baffling particularly as this self brands as a journalistic investigation, and it seems she herself is saying you’d be better off just reading angela davis, silvia federici, and saidiya hartman. jaffe also falls into the frustrating turn of discussing racism as an addendum, setting up history in such a manner: “conditions were X. for women, they were Y. for women of color, they were Z.” — who is jaffe writing for and what does she want to say?
April 17, 2022
It's a particularly apposite time to be reading this book when many people are re-evaluating their life in regard to their work situation and indeed whether they should stay employed in their current role. This book made me think deeply about why I'm working where I am and whether I shouldn't move somewhere else.
This book shows how the capitalist system has transformed work into a labour of love that's wreaking havoc on people's lives. Sarah Jaffe's book provides examples on how some employees are fighting back against the all-consuming conditions of work and gives us hope that employers of the future can provide jobs that treat people as humans rather than commodities in companies where there's no exploitation.
We have re-created the society of the ancient Greeks, where many of us are so busy with work that being informed members of society feels impossible, and political and social engagement are indulgences for the wealthy. Free time is necessary in order to participate fully in society and a lot of people are denied this time.
This book shows how the capitalist system has transformed work into a labour of love that's wreaking havoc on people's lives. Sarah Jaffe's book provides examples on how some employees are fighting back against the all-consuming conditions of work and gives us hope that employers of the future can provide jobs that treat people as humans rather than commodities in companies where there's no exploitation.
We have re-created the society of the ancient Greeks, where many of us are so busy with work that being informed members of society feels impossible, and political and social engagement are indulgences for the wealthy. Free time is necessary in order to participate fully in society and a lot of people are denied this time.
February 20, 2022
Loved the organization of this book, but the conclusion could’ve been blended with the introduction - the concept of love could’ve been a more defining portion of this book if it was introduced and reestablished throughout. The book does a great job at overviewing each sector and giving some history along with current situations that show a downward slope of working conditions (but not as downward as some would think). Each section could be (and mostly likely are) complete books, but having snippets is great for a narrative. 4.5 stars. Thanks to the publisher for sending this to me. Full review will be posted on TT.
August 9, 2021
So much to say about this one, about how hard it is to love sometimes. In fact this book made me wonder if I should break up with my boyfriend because he’s not a communist. Kidding, mostly.
Reading this while unemployed and still looking for a job is painful. BUT it’s really well written, really well researched (gave me a fresh bunch more of books to read), at times difficult and also really beautiful. The chapter on women’s hockey got me choked up.
I dunno man, life is hard. Be good to the people you love & fight for the rest of the people you don’t know. I wish we all had more time off to read this and talk about it and build power and connect because one of my biggest takeaways from the book was thinking even as those I’ve thought of as privileged as potential comrades - video game developers, pro athletes. When we extend our idea of what the working class looks like, we realize how strong a movement we could be.
Reading this while unemployed and still looking for a job is painful. BUT it’s really well written, really well researched (gave me a fresh bunch more of books to read), at times difficult and also really beautiful. The chapter on women’s hockey got me choked up.
I dunno man, life is hard. Be good to the people you love & fight for the rest of the people you don’t know. I wish we all had more time off to read this and talk about it and build power and connect because one of my biggest takeaways from the book was thinking even as those I’ve thought of as privileged as potential comrades - video game developers, pro athletes. When we extend our idea of what the working class looks like, we realize how strong a movement we could be.
November 11, 2022
Indeed it won't. Too bad you realize that only late in life.
As others have indicated, this is not a self-help book. It's deep, complex, high quality social analysis and critique of a rat race we're all caught in.
It's a race you can never win, not only because of the rat, or even because it's just going around in circles. It's because it's actively plotting against you. Always was, always will.
I think I'll made this a mandatory reading for my kid as soon as she's out of elementary.
As others have indicated, this is not a self-help book. It's deep, complex, high quality social analysis and critique of a rat race we're all caught in.
It's a race you can never win, not only because of the rat, or even because it's just going around in circles. It's because it's actively plotting against you. Always was, always will.
I think I'll made this a mandatory reading for my kid as soon as she's out of elementary.
July 8, 2021
I used to think that, because I don’t and can’t have children, work should be my life. My successful career would be “the thing I leave behind.” Over the last few years I’ve read a few books and articles from septuagenarians who all unanimously say that work is a means to an end and don’t put more into it than you absolutely have to.
But I still couldn’t stop, because now I realize I’m a workaholic.
How did I get here? Work Won't Love You Back describes this dilemma well. Doing good, meaningful work, helping your company thrive, contributing to the success of our Capitalist society all leads to personal satisfaction and happiness right? And in particular, for women who have historically been pushed into underpaid roles in education and non-profit work, you get to do all of this for less. Maybe this is why so many people are struggling with burnout.
I wish this had been written a long time ago, or that I could have read it in college. At the same time, I don’t know that it would have resonated with me then as it does now. It’s hard to feel like you’re not letting your team down when you don’t work 12 hour days because there’s always too much work and not enough people. It’s hard to stop caring about a thing that you’ve been told your whole life you should care about most.
What this book indicates is that change is required, collectively, to undo the norms we’ve enforced around unpaid and underpaid work, around unreasonable working hours, and the notion that work is worth the time and energy that many of us put into it at the expense of our own health.
See more of my reviews: Instagram
But I still couldn’t stop, because now I realize I’m a workaholic.
How did I get here? Work Won't Love You Back describes this dilemma well. Doing good, meaningful work, helping your company thrive, contributing to the success of our Capitalist society all leads to personal satisfaction and happiness right? And in particular, for women who have historically been pushed into underpaid roles in education and non-profit work, you get to do all of this for less. Maybe this is why so many people are struggling with burnout.
I wish this had been written a long time ago, or that I could have read it in college. At the same time, I don’t know that it would have resonated with me then as it does now. It’s hard to feel like you’re not letting your team down when you don’t work 12 hour days because there’s always too much work and not enough people. It’s hard to stop caring about a thing that you’ve been told your whole life you should care about most.
What this book indicates is that change is required, collectively, to undo the norms we’ve enforced around unpaid and underpaid work, around unreasonable working hours, and the notion that work is worth the time and energy that many of us put into it at the expense of our own health.
See more of my reviews: Instagram
December 31, 2021
One of the founders of Goodreads has a saying about the right book in the right hands at the right time. This book came to me at a perfect time in my life.
Sarah Jaffe puts words to how I've felt around work and how we're expected to shape our lives around the idea of a 9-5 job. The first chapter is eye-opening and great setup for the rest of the book, which is broken up into different areas of work. The gist is that the system of work and how people work is broken and needs to be fixed. The nonprofit section really resonated with me and some of my feelings swirling around about it after working in that sector for a few years. She writes:
nonprofits exist to try to mitigate the worst effects of an unequal distribution of wealth and power, yet they are funded with the leftovers of the very exploitation the nonprofits may be trying to combat.
The book is full of knowledge-bombs like that which caused me to look at different things like the Art World, and tech in different ways.
Sometimes when I read books like this, I nod along, going "Ummhmm, yes, these things are all big problems" but end up feeling frustrated at the end because those books don't offer very good solutions. I was concerned I would feel like this after this book, but the last chapter was a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak volume.
Everyone who's ever had a job, and even those who are fortunate enough to never have had a job should read this book. If you can't tell from the title, it's pro-workers, pro-union, and definitely has an agenda, but it's also just a really well thought out and researched book.
Sarah Jaffe puts words to how I've felt around work and how we're expected to shape our lives around the idea of a 9-5 job. The first chapter is eye-opening and great setup for the rest of the book, which is broken up into different areas of work. The gist is that the system of work and how people work is broken and needs to be fixed. The nonprofit section really resonated with me and some of my feelings swirling around about it after working in that sector for a few years. She writes:
nonprofits exist to try to mitigate the worst effects of an unequal distribution of wealth and power, yet they are funded with the leftovers of the very exploitation the nonprofits may be trying to combat.
The book is full of knowledge-bombs like that which caused me to look at different things like the Art World, and tech in different ways.
Sometimes when I read books like this, I nod along, going "Ummhmm, yes, these things are all big problems" but end up feeling frustrated at the end because those books don't offer very good solutions. I was concerned I would feel like this after this book, but the last chapter was a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak volume.
Everyone who's ever had a job, and even those who are fortunate enough to never have had a job should read this book. If you can't tell from the title, it's pro-workers, pro-union, and definitely has an agenda, but it's also just a really well thought out and researched book.
June 9, 2021
This book is so good and so important for folks to read in really industry but especially in those areas she covers in the book. Jaffe takes really an IMMENSE amount of research (it's deeply impressive actually,) and covers so many fields, especially those that are devalued gendered work. As a grad student, I deeply appreciate her covering adjunct and grad student labor and revealing how the (gendered!) labor of teaching is left up to them while tenured professors at many institutions get to drop their teaching responsibilities to pursue their own academic work.
The other chapters are all also excellent--I think the tech labor chapter also was fascinating, especially looking at how some of the myths of the industry lead to the exploitation within the industry (recruiting people who dropped out of college so we don't have to pay them as much, for example) though I maybe was more interested because I didn't have as much knowledge as I did about the struggles of teacher unions and the work around care labor that is being organized.
I do wish she had covered her own field, or at least freelance work generally, because I think there's so much going on there that is ultimately related to this (how are you asked to care about your OWN work as part of freelancing), and the problems of many of these are tied up in "bad bosses" but I think it's also worth looking into ways that freelancers have been organizing and what that might look like. But I think she already covered SO MUCH that I understand why she didn't, and she does it all--the history of these fields, the economic aspects, narratives of organizing, interviews with workers--so I'll just wait for another book maybe.
But I do think everyone should read this and reconsider their relationship to work that asks you to be devoted to your job in some capacity, so please get it asap! (And then try and organize your workplace!)
The other chapters are all also excellent--I think the tech labor chapter also was fascinating, especially looking at how some of the myths of the industry lead to the exploitation within the industry (recruiting people who dropped out of college so we don't have to pay them as much, for example) though I maybe was more interested because I didn't have as much knowledge as I did about the struggles of teacher unions and the work around care labor that is being organized.
I do wish she had covered her own field, or at least freelance work generally, because I think there's so much going on there that is ultimately related to this (how are you asked to care about your OWN work as part of freelancing), and the problems of many of these are tied up in "bad bosses" but I think it's also worth looking into ways that freelancers have been organizing and what that might look like. But I think she already covered SO MUCH that I understand why she didn't, and she does it all--the history of these fields, the economic aspects, narratives of organizing, interviews with workers--so I'll just wait for another book maybe.
But I do think everyone should read this and reconsider their relationship to work that asks you to be devoted to your job in some capacity, so please get it asap! (And then try and organize your workplace!)
November 23, 2020
Work Won't Love You Back is a timely absolutely vital addition to the discussion on late stage capitalism and its discontents. It is a blend of the personal stories of individuals working in the caring and service industries, and a glimpse into the history of those same industries. It breaks down the "how we got there" with labor history, and points the way toward new ways of pushing back against the predominant narratives of work we find ourselves in today, by outlining the stories of those currently pushing back. It is a much need balm to the dangerous tendency, especially of millennials, to put more of themselves into work than we get out, "doing more with less," as a badge of honor, rather than a mark of the absolute shambles our economy is in. It also questions whether institutions, like NGOs are even able to do the necessary work of change when they are subject to the same forces that cause the problems they are combatting in the first place. If such a large chunk of time is spent on fundraising and playing the game with an eye to said fundraising, is it even possible to do the radical work needed to fundamentally change our society in a way that eliminates poverty, etc.?
In a time when everything is being subsumed by capital, and love is no exception, this book is vital. I would recommend this for anyone interested in labor history, criticism of our current capitalisms, and especially anyone in a caring/service industry. It's important that we challenge the assumptions that lead to the exploitation of workers, especially the harnessing and abuse of carers' desires to help people and do good.
FTC disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
In a time when everything is being subsumed by capital, and love is no exception, this book is vital. I would recommend this for anyone interested in labor history, criticism of our current capitalisms, and especially anyone in a caring/service industry. It's important that we challenge the assumptions that lead to the exploitation of workers, especially the harnessing and abuse of carers' desires to help people and do good.
FTC disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
January 27, 2021
I'll be discussing this book on January 27 at 8 PM EST with the author Sarah Jaffe and Chicago teacher Kenzo Shibata. You can watch it either live or afterwards here.
December 25, 2021
3.5 stars
Work sucks, all jobs are exploitative, coworkers aren't family, the "labor of love" idea will swallow your entire soul, etcetcetc.
This book is a little bit of labor and union history, a little bit investigative personal accounts, a little bit sociological exploration into certain professions. Little bits of everything to drive home the harm that late-stage capitalist ideas about working hard and loving what you do have done, particularly to women, who dominate fields like retail, teaching, and care work.
I don't know that you'll learn anything new from this if you follow enough news about labor and union movements or otherwise have a basic understanding of how jobs exploit workers through low pay, long hours, high demands, few benefits, etc. But I do think that anyone who's a millennial or older should read this. Working with both gen Z and millennials has opened my eyes to the change in attitude toward labor that's going on. Every day there's a youth who doesn't show up to work at a job that doesn't pay them a living wage and a worker 10-20 years their senior who is baffled at how they could disrespect a job in that way. The job disrespected them first! Treat the job accordingly! I think young people are watching how we (The Olds) have suffered and they get it, and they are responding in ways we can't quite understand because we're far too locked into the exploitative system.
Anyway, I enjoyed this. Agree with some reviewers that the first half is better than the second. Don't love your job more than your job loves you. Read this book to avoid learning that the hard way.
Work sucks, all jobs are exploitative, coworkers aren't family, the "labor of love" idea will swallow your entire soul, etcetcetc.
This book is a little bit of labor and union history, a little bit investigative personal accounts, a little bit sociological exploration into certain professions. Little bits of everything to drive home the harm that late-stage capitalist ideas about working hard and loving what you do have done, particularly to women, who dominate fields like retail, teaching, and care work.
I don't know that you'll learn anything new from this if you follow enough news about labor and union movements or otherwise have a basic understanding of how jobs exploit workers through low pay, long hours, high demands, few benefits, etc. But I do think that anyone who's a millennial or older should read this. Working with both gen Z and millennials has opened my eyes to the change in attitude toward labor that's going on. Every day there's a youth who doesn't show up to work at a job that doesn't pay them a living wage and a worker 10-20 years their senior who is baffled at how they could disrespect a job in that way. The job disrespected them first! Treat the job accordingly! I think young people are watching how we (The Olds) have suffered and they get it, and they are responding in ways we can't quite understand because we're far too locked into the exploitative system.
Anyway, I enjoyed this. Agree with some reviewers that the first half is better than the second. Don't love your job more than your job loves you. Read this book to avoid learning that the hard way.
May 20, 2021
Good idea, terrible execution. The way the author’s points were organized didn’t really make it easy to follow the line of thoughts and what exactly she was trying to get across with her examples. She has a good intro, loses me in the body of the book and then catches me again in the conclusion. So I guess read those parts and skip the rest? Basically we misuse the term “love” when talking/thinking about work and employers take advantage of that. When we love our work, we are willing to take less and put up with a bunch of horseshit because it’s about more than money. We spoil the true meaning of love and it has a ripple effect on our personal relationships because we love something that can’t love us back. We normalize unrequited love and lower our self worth in the process. Love is an emotion meant for people but we’re stuck sacrificing for our jobs because we care and we ~love~ it due to some tricky manipulation our employers, society, and selves have done. I dunno, I just don’t think this was for me. I don’t love my job, I like it and it serves its purpose. I’d say I get out of it exactly what I put in and we’ve come to a nice mutual understanding that is working out to both of our benefit. I’m not gonna break myself over my job and that’s what the author was trying to encourage us to do in a very drawn out roundabout way. I dunno, skip this book and just relax at work. Love yourself and not your job, buds.
June 11, 2021
I have so many thoughts and feelings!! This might be one of my fave nonfiction books of all time. Solidarity! ✊✊✊
update with shelf-talker:
This is my favorite non-fiction book of all time! Jaffe features the work forces of many different industries and for each one, she includes labor histories, anecdotal stories, & current day issues. Tying facts and histories to personal stories humanized many of these industries for me. I never thought I'd feel solidarity with sports players, but here I am!
I also really enjoyed reading about general modern workplace propaganda -- like "offices are families" and "if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life." These enduring lies are harmful & it was so cathartic to recognize them as propaganda. If you care about labor history or if you've ever felt let down by your job in any way, I highly recommend this book.
update with shelf-talker:
This is my favorite non-fiction book of all time! Jaffe features the work forces of many different industries and for each one, she includes labor histories, anecdotal stories, & current day issues. Tying facts and histories to personal stories humanized many of these industries for me. I never thought I'd feel solidarity with sports players, but here I am!
I also really enjoyed reading about general modern workplace propaganda -- like "offices are families" and "if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life." These enduring lies are harmful & it was so cathartic to recognize them as propaganda. If you care about labor history or if you've ever felt let down by your job in any way, I highly recommend this book.
February 5, 2021
The age of masculine breadwinner factory employees as the main image of the working class is no longer. The working class is more feminine in helping, education, childcare, health, retail, hospitality, precariat gig workers, it is more diverse and fragmented, and except for places like warehouses and a few remaining factory floors has a hard time linking up and coordinating in its own interest. The mindset of the working class is not as contained or compartmentalized as the clock punchers of earlier eras. The service economy while sometimes more interesting the kind of work than factory production taps in things like creativity, networking, emotional labor. Having a passion for your work or loving your job is a new expectation which is a double-edged sword. Being passionate about the job is now expected by employers for even the least remunerative and mundane or tedious or precarious employment since if you don't pay lip service to your passion as a shoe salesman will get you replaced by someone who will. And should you lose employment or not get a highly networked gig "well you obviously didn't love it enough" is your own fault. Employers expect you to get low pay especially if you like what you do. The demands are not compartmentalized and often you take work home. These problems demand flexible gig workers is the endpoint of commodifying your personality and passion and self to a brand on the market to be bought and sold. No guarantees of future employment no set hours and no putting work-life aside even spilling over to online personas and trying to raise families or pay off college debt or find downtime are challenges.
Since the working class is so fragmented diverse and often with many isolated workers who can't coordinate with differing needs a laundry list of protections and bargaining measures and offerings are needed for different members of the working class. Coordination and political aka legal solutions are going to be needed and a whole laundry list for this diverse working class. Like overtime, vacation pay, childcare provisions, eliminating college debt and free education, vacation time, working hour limits, disability, and LGBT allowances, provisions to help People of color. It requires a host of things to help a very diverse set of people with diverse needs but to get them coordination is needed across this highly diverse class to get all these goodies. The problems of this are daunting with plenty of opportunities for division and rule for capital to stop it. Diagnosis and pointing towards solutions but winning them is the problem.
Since the working class is so fragmented diverse and often with many isolated workers who can't coordinate with differing needs a laundry list of protections and bargaining measures and offerings are needed for different members of the working class. Coordination and political aka legal solutions are going to be needed and a whole laundry list for this diverse working class. Like overtime, vacation pay, childcare provisions, eliminating college debt and free education, vacation time, working hour limits, disability, and LGBT allowances, provisions to help People of color. It requires a host of things to help a very diverse set of people with diverse needs but to get them coordination is needed across this highly diverse class to get all these goodies. The problems of this are daunting with plenty of opportunities for division and rule for capital to stop it. Diagnosis and pointing towards solutions but winning them is the problem.
December 12, 2022
If you're thinking about unionizing your workplace or want to learn a bit more about this big union wave we're having in America, this book is for you!
Each chapter discusses a different sector of working people-- retail, nonprofit, fine arts, computer programming, sports, etc. The structure for each chapter is the same throughout: it begins with a brief biography of someone Sarah Jaffe has interviewed who has been instrumental in unionizing their workplace. Then she goes in to the history of that labor force and the various unionization drives and challenges workers have faced. So it was very interesting and each chapter can be read by itself, which is nice. Unfortunately for me, though, I got pretty bored by the last few chapters.
The thing is that I've been heavily involved in unionizing my workplace for almost two years now, and we're already feeling pretty burnout from how long this process has been. So I thought reading this might kind of revitalize me and make me more pumped. And it did that to an extent because it's so cool to contextualize all the work we've done in the vast American labor history. But also I have been in my big sci fi and horror moment because I like that reading is a time to separate myself from my everyday life. I found myself getting tired of reading about "companies don't treat their employees right" and I was like "yeah duh I could have written this." I think for people who haven't really considered how unnatural the American capitalist mindset is, this book could be an excellent eye-opener. I just personally was not in the headspace to hear over and over again how shitty employers are.
Each chapter discusses a different sector of working people-- retail, nonprofit, fine arts, computer programming, sports, etc. The structure for each chapter is the same throughout: it begins with a brief biography of someone Sarah Jaffe has interviewed who has been instrumental in unionizing their workplace. Then she goes in to the history of that labor force and the various unionization drives and challenges workers have faced. So it was very interesting and each chapter can be read by itself, which is nice. Unfortunately for me, though, I got pretty bored by the last few chapters.
The thing is that I've been heavily involved in unionizing my workplace for almost two years now, and we're already feeling pretty burnout from how long this process has been. So I thought reading this might kind of revitalize me and make me more pumped. And it did that to an extent because it's so cool to contextualize all the work we've done in the vast American labor history. But also I have been in my big sci fi and horror moment because I like that reading is a time to separate myself from my everyday life. I found myself getting tired of reading about "companies don't treat their employees right" and I was like "yeah duh I could have written this." I think for people who haven't really considered how unnatural the American capitalist mindset is, this book could be an excellent eye-opener. I just personally was not in the headspace to hear over and over again how shitty employers are.
January 2, 2022
This book is so important. The title is a bit misleading- it's not inspiration/affirmation for millennials, but instead current journalism on labor history in America and Great Britain. I learned SO much about neoliberalism and socioeconomics and came away feeling way more prepared to be critical of capitalism in 2021. Jaffe incorporates social justice movements and interviews with actual people in non-profit professions, artists, and more. The writing is smart and passionate. This is a book I want to read again and also buy 10 more copies to send to people. Thanks for the rec, Elma!!
March 21, 2021
This is the easiest five-star rating I've given in a long time. While listening to every chapter, I thought, THIS is the one! THIS chapter makes the book! When I review this on Goodreads, I need to remember to talk about THIS one!
But then I listened to the next chapter and felt the same way.
The title Work Won't Love You Back sounds like a self-help book, Jaffe reads the audiobook with the intonations of Kristen Bell on Gossip Girl, BUT DON'T LET THAT TURN YOU OFF. This is essential reading. She gives the history of ... work: how neoliberalism transformed work from a necessity to a calling, from a way to support your life to life itself.
Section 1: "What We Might Call Love" explores work that society has tricked us into thinking is adequately compensated by the work itself: mothering, nannying, teaching, nonprofits, and even the service industry where you get to be part of the Walmart/Culver's/Toys"R"Us "family." This section spoke to my soul. Section 2: "Enjoy What You Do!" looks at art, internships, academia, the tech industry, and sports. In the conclusion, she talks about all the other industries she explored (bartenders, actors, hairdressers, therapists, organizers, etc), and I find myself wishing this was an ongoing project or podcast so everyone could see their work (their selves!) explored so thoroughly. Throughout, Jaffe cites Astra Taylor, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Angela Davis, among other thinkers, and considers how covid-19 exposed many of the holes in the logic of capitalism.
And of course, she ends with love, quoting Silvia Federici: "We want to call work what is work so that eventually we might rediscover what is love."
I'm glad we bought the audiobook, instead of borrowing it, so I can return to it in the future, but I also kind of wish I had a print copy to mark up.
But then I listened to the next chapter and felt the same way.
The title Work Won't Love You Back sounds like a self-help book, Jaffe reads the audiobook with the intonations of Kristen Bell on Gossip Girl, BUT DON'T LET THAT TURN YOU OFF. This is essential reading. She gives the history of ... work: how neoliberalism transformed work from a necessity to a calling, from a way to support your life to life itself.
Section 1: "What We Might Call Love" explores work that society has tricked us into thinking is adequately compensated by the work itself: mothering, nannying, teaching, nonprofits, and even the service industry where you get to be part of the Walmart/Culver's/Toys"R"Us "family." This section spoke to my soul. Section 2: "Enjoy What You Do!" looks at art, internships, academia, the tech industry, and sports. In the conclusion, she talks about all the other industries she explored (bartenders, actors, hairdressers, therapists, organizers, etc), and I find myself wishing this was an ongoing project or podcast so everyone could see their work (their selves!) explored so thoroughly. Throughout, Jaffe cites Astra Taylor, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Angela Davis, among other thinkers, and considers how covid-19 exposed many of the holes in the logic of capitalism.
And of course, she ends with love, quoting Silvia Federici: "We want to call work what is work so that eventually we might rediscover what is love."
I'm glad we bought the audiobook, instead of borrowing it, so I can return to it in the future, but I also kind of wish I had a print copy to mark up.
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June 11, 2022
If anything, this has helped me cement my decision to quit one of my teaching jobs so.
August 26, 2021
I checked this book once before and didn't have the energy to read it so let that sink in. But when I finally did, I was so glad I took the time to prioritize reading this extraordinary and mind blowing book that has made me see work (and my own relationship to it) in entirely new ways. Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, & Alone by Sarah Jaffe is giving me major Throughline Podcast vibes, especially their latest series about Capitalism, which means you will be able to see the roots of the how we got here - and better understand how these systems were created - so they can be destroyed. Specific fields are explored from domestic work to educators to retail to nonprofit work to art to interns to academia to sports, all work can be connected to these examples. For many, we work at the intersection of these fields. I appreciate the scope and depth of Work Won't Love You Back that both explores specific people's experiences and sheds light on the historical, political, and sociological events that inform policy choices that impact actual people's lives. I'd love to see this book become a community read where communities, especially folks in charge, thought critically about their roles in this system. I wondered in March 2020 about the books that would come out about the pandemic - and this book is absolutely required reading to reflect upon the last year(s) to explore the cracks in our foundation revealed by the pandemic - and imagine a better world together.
Here are some of the quotes that stood out to me that I will keep thinking about:
The work it takes to suppress one's true feelings, to maintain a calm smile, and the appearance of enjoyment, in order to maintain the customer's mood is familiar to anyone who works with people. "Seeming to 'love the job' becomes part of the job," sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote. (118).. To manage your feelings in order to avoid imposing them on others is to place yourself in a subordinate position; to have to massage others' feelings all day long is to get used to swallowing your own emotions and needs. Skill in this field is a skill learned from a life without power; it should not be surprising, then, that such a skill is rarely seen as a skill by the powerful, who expect deference as their natural right (119)
Hope labor is a snake eating its own tail, and the intern is the hope laborer par excellence.... Working for free in order to one day get one of those jobs that are worth loving, the intern is the vehicle by which the conditions of contingency and subordination that are common to low-wage service work creep into an increasing number of salaried fields....(211).
But perhaps it is understandable that policymakers have not been quick to act in interns' best interests after all, many of their offices still run on unpaid internships (220).
The promises made to the generation of hope laborers are being revealed for the lies they are (323)
Current political and ecological crises can seem overwhelming, impossible, but they have also done something else for us; they can create the possibility of imagining ourselves in a different world. If it was previously easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, we have now glimpsed both, and must now begin to think up something new. (329)
Work will never love us back. But other people will (329)
Here are some of the quotes that stood out to me that I will keep thinking about:
The work it takes to suppress one's true feelings, to maintain a calm smile, and the appearance of enjoyment, in order to maintain the customer's mood is familiar to anyone who works with people. "Seeming to 'love the job' becomes part of the job," sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote. (118).. To manage your feelings in order to avoid imposing them on others is to place yourself in a subordinate position; to have to massage others' feelings all day long is to get used to swallowing your own emotions and needs. Skill in this field is a skill learned from a life without power; it should not be surprising, then, that such a skill is rarely seen as a skill by the powerful, who expect deference as their natural right (119)
Hope labor is a snake eating its own tail, and the intern is the hope laborer par excellence.... Working for free in order to one day get one of those jobs that are worth loving, the intern is the vehicle by which the conditions of contingency and subordination that are common to low-wage service work creep into an increasing number of salaried fields....(211).
But perhaps it is understandable that policymakers have not been quick to act in interns' best interests after all, many of their offices still run on unpaid internships (220).
The promises made to the generation of hope laborers are being revealed for the lies they are (323)
Current political and ecological crises can seem overwhelming, impossible, but they have also done something else for us; they can create the possibility of imagining ourselves in a different world. If it was previously easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, we have now glimpsed both, and must now begin to think up something new. (329)
Work will never love us back. But other people will (329)
May 2, 2022
Wow this book absolutely radicalized me! It was such a detailed account of labor movements in various workforces, from domestic work to sports, and I learned so much. It was very powerful and validating to learn that the struggles I experience as a working person have been felt throughout decades and across the world. This book can definitely be agitating so I recommend not reading it before bed.
The only reason I gave one star off was because I think there was a marketing issue - I expected more of a discussion about the psychology of exploitation and devotion but got labor history instead which certainly isn’t a bad thing!! But would have liked more of the former, personally.
The only reason I gave one star off was because I think there was a marketing issue - I expected more of a discussion about the psychology of exploitation and devotion but got labor history instead which certainly isn’t a bad thing!! But would have liked more of the former, personally.
January 12, 2022
Oof. This book read me for filth. I started it right after I quit my job and pivoted my career. I had to take a several-month break from it because it was too real. Jaffe highlights so many professional spaces I have inhabited and how "loving" our work--in nonprofits, as artists, as teachers etc--is tricksy under capitalism. Gave me so much to think about and struggle with, as a person who has dedicated my life to a career of care work and service. Many important lessons that I'm still reflecting on and clarifying for myself. Highly recommended.
November 5, 2021
I feel pretty conflicted about this book.
One the one hand what is there to not love about the premise?
As I finish another work week with a jam packed teaching schedule, little time to prepare new lessons, and a general disinterest in me as a human being from many of my coworkers (not all to be sure), I too often ponder the contradictions between actually enjoying your work and being expected to enjoy your work in spite of sub optimal working conditions.
Jaffe lays out some interesting arguments about the evolution of work as something that went from craftsmanship, where in theory you made a living but also produced something of your own volition, to slavery and indentured servitude where you worked without compensation but were still expected to be appreciative to your owner, to the modern day workplace where we are compensated financially (granted at often staggeringly inadequate levels) but still expected to not only labor for someone else making large profits but to be happy about it.
It’s this obsession with corporations not only taking our time, something they have always done, but the more modern desire to also take our spirit that Jaffe, and myself, find so troubling.
Why for example do so many employers insist on calling themselves a “family”? Does your family remove you from their lives at short notice when you don’t meet their standards? Do they force you to be in a particular place for 40+ hours a week? Does your family refuse to help you when you are ill?
This insistence on demanding happiness from employees or insisting that being happy is its own reward and therefore health care, paid leave, or living wages aren’t necessary, is a kind of mass delusion employers have somewhat successfully convinced many of its employees of.
If you’re in a family, why bring in outside people (unions) to resolve issues you might have when you can just give your disgruntled employees free frozen yogurt (Elon Musk and Tesla), or toys and games strewn about the workplace (Facebook)?
This is where Jaffe is at her most persuasive and thought provoking.
Unfortunately there is, for me at least, less of a sense that Jaffe is advocating for all workers, and more for specific sections of the population and against others.
While there’s no doubt that women and people of color have less access to good jobs and are compensated less than most white men, dividing workers into different groups is I think not productive at best and at worst divisive.
The people Jaffe interviews are largely young, gay women, with the exception of one young black man. While their voices are often marginalized and need to be heard, it would have been nice to hear the voices of older people struggling to get by or even one white father struggling to support his family as well. Even one.
I recognize the former is of more interesting to her than the latter. But one can’t look at workplace inequality by dismissing the voices of a large segment of the population.
The demands of employers on employees cut across gendered and racial lines. A transgendered person being paid poorly cannot pay their bills in the same way that a white male cannot. I guess I found Jaffe’s emphasis on white males and patriarchy being the problem a little frustrating at times in that we all suffer from crappy working conditions.
Writing a book on workplace discrimination on gendered or racial lines is an important thing I believe but if the premise is that people get screwed by their bosses, I don’t think it’s helpful to divide us by identity when the bigger issue is class.
Jaffe rightly mentions people higher up in corporations standing with those lower down the ladder in labor disputes, but she doesn’t seem to share this belief when it comes to race or gender.
It’s ironic that Jaffe does this in that most of her arguments come from a fairly strong Marxist point of view where solidarity is paramount.
I’m no fan of capitalism, but I’m less of a fan of communism. I just can’t brush it’s brutal history under the rug.
Unions? For sure.
But full scale collectivism, not for me.
Furthermore, a lot of the other territory Jaffe veers off into, Black Lives Matter, defunding the police, abortion...among other current social issues, while deserving of their own debates, don’t seem relevant here other than a checklist of issues important to Jaffe that probably belong in another book.
I guess from the title of the book I was hoping for a universal argument about not allowing ourselves to be exploited by our employers. This book has some interesting research, and some well thought out arguments, but ultimately is a polemic that I found divisive on a topic where without solidarity across all races and genders, true progress is difficult to achieve.
One the one hand what is there to not love about the premise?
As I finish another work week with a jam packed teaching schedule, little time to prepare new lessons, and a general disinterest in me as a human being from many of my coworkers (not all to be sure), I too often ponder the contradictions between actually enjoying your work and being expected to enjoy your work in spite of sub optimal working conditions.
Jaffe lays out some interesting arguments about the evolution of work as something that went from craftsmanship, where in theory you made a living but also produced something of your own volition, to slavery and indentured servitude where you worked without compensation but were still expected to be appreciative to your owner, to the modern day workplace where we are compensated financially (granted at often staggeringly inadequate levels) but still expected to not only labor for someone else making large profits but to be happy about it.
It’s this obsession with corporations not only taking our time, something they have always done, but the more modern desire to also take our spirit that Jaffe, and myself, find so troubling.
Why for example do so many employers insist on calling themselves a “family”? Does your family remove you from their lives at short notice when you don’t meet their standards? Do they force you to be in a particular place for 40+ hours a week? Does your family refuse to help you when you are ill?
This insistence on demanding happiness from employees or insisting that being happy is its own reward and therefore health care, paid leave, or living wages aren’t necessary, is a kind of mass delusion employers have somewhat successfully convinced many of its employees of.
If you’re in a family, why bring in outside people (unions) to resolve issues you might have when you can just give your disgruntled employees free frozen yogurt (Elon Musk and Tesla), or toys and games strewn about the workplace (Facebook)?
This is where Jaffe is at her most persuasive and thought provoking.
Unfortunately there is, for me at least, less of a sense that Jaffe is advocating for all workers, and more for specific sections of the population and against others.
While there’s no doubt that women and people of color have less access to good jobs and are compensated less than most white men, dividing workers into different groups is I think not productive at best and at worst divisive.
The people Jaffe interviews are largely young, gay women, with the exception of one young black man. While their voices are often marginalized and need to be heard, it would have been nice to hear the voices of older people struggling to get by or even one white father struggling to support his family as well. Even one.
I recognize the former is of more interesting to her than the latter. But one can’t look at workplace inequality by dismissing the voices of a large segment of the population.
The demands of employers on employees cut across gendered and racial lines. A transgendered person being paid poorly cannot pay their bills in the same way that a white male cannot. I guess I found Jaffe’s emphasis on white males and patriarchy being the problem a little frustrating at times in that we all suffer from crappy working conditions.
Writing a book on workplace discrimination on gendered or racial lines is an important thing I believe but if the premise is that people get screwed by their bosses, I don’t think it’s helpful to divide us by identity when the bigger issue is class.
Jaffe rightly mentions people higher up in corporations standing with those lower down the ladder in labor disputes, but she doesn’t seem to share this belief when it comes to race or gender.
It’s ironic that Jaffe does this in that most of her arguments come from a fairly strong Marxist point of view where solidarity is paramount.
I’m no fan of capitalism, but I’m less of a fan of communism. I just can’t brush it’s brutal history under the rug.
Unions? For sure.
But full scale collectivism, not for me.
Furthermore, a lot of the other territory Jaffe veers off into, Black Lives Matter, defunding the police, abortion...among other current social issues, while deserving of their own debates, don’t seem relevant here other than a checklist of issues important to Jaffe that probably belong in another book.
I guess from the title of the book I was hoping for a universal argument about not allowing ourselves to be exploited by our employers. This book has some interesting research, and some well thought out arguments, but ultimately is a polemic that I found divisive on a topic where without solidarity across all races and genders, true progress is difficult to achieve.
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