Work Won't Love You Back

How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone

By: Sarah Jaffe

Narrated by: Sarah Jaffe

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2021 Sarah Jaffe (P)2021 Hachette Audio

It's like...

This is a well written college paper maybe graduate level. Followed a solid argumentative framework. She makes her case well. Its informative. I have to take a break half way due to the tone. By tone I mean my first sentence. I would advise on reducing the redundancy of the phrase "It's like".

Great research and conclusions

Great research and conclusions! What a great macro view of labor history. Telling, and a narrative of our time.

A Necessary Read of People and History

Like any nonfiction, there are moments it can be dry, but unlike much nonfiction and textbook history, it captures complexity and people. Regardless of one's politics, it is extraordinarily important to see how people are often exploited by their employers, even in important jobs doing what we believe in, like teaching, caretaking, art, or nonprofit work (even at a place like Planned Parenthood). Even if we are lucky enough to love our job, we should not let those in charge exploit us for free labor, "for the kids," "for the community," while others then profit off that labor. And while we can love what we do, people taking advantage of that can ruin it. While we can love what we do, loving people is far more important than loving a job, which, by definition, is work.

Must read for all Workaholics!

This book had a lot of personal and intellectual "aha" moments for me. Working in public education for 30 years and during the pandemic has pushed me prematurely toward retirement but I have new perspectives about it. The history of work is fascinatingly analyzed in a way that you will never look at any industry the same again.

work

injoy life join a union love your self and don't be afraid to stand up for what you deserve.

Okay, but nothing new

With such a provocative forward and title, I was expecting something revolutionary. Although all the points were good, very few were new. Maybe 20% of this book contained content I had not read before. If you’re well-read and we’ll-informed, I wouldn’t recommend it. As a starter for those interested in worker exploitation and collective resistance for the first time, it provides a good, basic foundation.

Interesting

This author does a terrific job of describing the history of work - especially for women - and how we got to where we are today. Toward the end she ventures into theorizing about alternate means of production & distribution and a new form of “work”. I didn’t agree with some of her theories but the bulk of it I found to be a good read.

Long overdue

It needed to be said. It the one thing I learned early on in my employment life, work won't love you back. Great read!

A valuable reminder

I really enjoyed the performance and theme of this book. As a junior professor, the chapter on academia was particularly personal. I've previously complained of the exploitative nature of academic labor from junior faculty, adjuncts, post docs and grad students. The bogus argument of "you should feel lucky to be here" as a justification for poor treatment was called out explicitly in this book and allowed those of us in one of these career fields see the common thread across many others (such as sports, tech and home care). Even more importantly, the book gave us permission to be declare the mental and emotional exhaustion of being in a culture and work environment where nonstop work is glorified. We do not have to feel inept for hitting a wall or needing recovery time. I hope many people read that it inspires us to demand more of our jobs and more of life instead of just work.

New perspective

provides plenty of food for thought, insightful history in industries I hadn't previously thought of