Work Wont Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe
Work Wont Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe
3 Rating(s)
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Work Won't Love You Back
How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone

Author: Sarah Jaffe

Narrator: Sarah Jaffe

Unabridged: 12 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/26/2021


Synopsis

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.

About Sarah Jaffe

Sarah Jaffe is a Nation Institute fellow and an independent journalist covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in the Nation, Salon, the Week, American Prospect, Washington Post, Atlantic, and many other publications.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mara on 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 wo......more

Goodreads review by Ang on 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......more

Goodreads review by Caitlyn on May 08, 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......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on March 28, 2023

Work Won't Love You Back is a relatable yet depressing exploration of why the ever-repeated mantra of "do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life" is categorically false and sets us up for exploitation in the workplace. A manifesto on the many ways in which capitalism and neoliberali......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on 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......more