Work Won't Love You Back
How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
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3.8 • 11 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
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 teacher, 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The notion that people should love what they do leaves workers dissatisfied and vulnerable to exploitation, according to this alarming study of modern-day employment trends. Devoting each chapter to a different job, journalist Jaffe (Necessary Trouble) provides historical context and speaks to professionals about their pay, job security, and work-life balance. She examines neoliberal economic policies that led to manufacturing layoffs in the 1970s, tracks a Long Island woman's shift from customer service to labor activism after she lost her job of 29 years at Toys R Us, and discusses how "the internship... naturalizes lousy and gendered working conditions." Through the lens of a Caribbean nanny's experiences working in New York City, Jaffe explores the racial history of domestic work, contending that practices begun during the Reconstruction era inform people's lives and job prospects today. Jaffe is an expert researcher and a witty narrator, but some of her history lessons seem needlessly in-depth (a chapter on adjunct professors chronicles the evolution of the university from 11th-century Italy to today), and she offers few practical solutions. Still, this is a noteworthy and persuasive call for returning to a more pragmatic view of work.
Customer Reviews
Working class must-read
A beautiful series of stories peaking I to the lives of people so different yet so interwoven. If you’re looking to see how your struggle is connected to everyone else’s, this is a great place to start.