Work Won’t Love You Back
How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
From the title through every chapter, paragraph, and sentence, this book is a deeply researched polemic against the myth of the “labor of love.” Jaffe talks to primary school teachers, Olympic athletes, academics, game developers, artists, home care workers and more. In each case, she thoroughly demonstrates how the idea that you should love what you do is a tool for exploitation—used both to keep people working longer and harder for less but also to instill an ideology of self-directed advancement that forestalls solidarity. Happily, she also shows the awakening occuring across industries and classes that has led to successful union efforts, even in industries long thought to be immune to collective action. Both a breath of fresh air and a detailed map for the work ahead.