Work Won't Love You Back

Victor Villas reviewed Work Won't Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe

An exhaustive exploration

4 stars

Probably not the book for me because I was already in agreement with pretty much the whole thesis, so revisiting arguments and anecdotes on "How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited" wasn't super engaging or entertaining. The book contains a lot more testimonials and personal accounts than I expected, which might make sense for a target audience but it's not my jam. For someone not so into history, sociology, anthropology etc this might be a heavy read, it really goes from ground up on many intersectional topics.

I think this book is a great introduction to the issue and I recommend a read to help recent startup/corporate survivors to process their grief. I did find the ending a bit watery; the author had hundreds of pages to deconstruct the employee identity but gave themselves a few paragraphs to try to end on a positive note. Not very successful to …

Probably not the book for me because I was already in agreement with pretty much the whole thesis, so revisiting arguments and anecdotes on "How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited" wasn't super engaging or entertaining. The book contains a lot more testimonials and personal accounts than I expected, which might make sense for a target audience but it's not my jam. For someone not so into history, sociology, anthropology etc this might be a heavy read, it really goes from ground up on many intersectional topics.

I think this book is a great introduction to the issue and I recommend a read to help recent startup/corporate survivors to process their grief. I did find the ending a bit watery; the author had hundreds of pages to deconstruct the employee identity but gave themselves a few paragraphs to try to end on a positive note. Not very successful to my eyes, and I think it would have been best to not try. Embrace the depressive nature of being exploited by unfettered capitalism, no sugarcoating.

knizer reviewed Work Won't Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe

there aint no such thing as a dream job

5 stars

as someone whose career path bounced around nonprofits & higher ed, man-o-man am I doing some reconsideration after enjoying this audiobook.

Gossamerchild reviewed Work Won't Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe

Review of "Work Won't Love You Back" on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

What I learned from this book : it's okay to not love my job. I should try expending less mental energy on this - love people, not work. This was a fascinating overview of ways in which people fight to have their work valued as work, as well as the dangers of conflating the necessity of having to work with "loving" the work you do. Emotional burnout is a thing, and if the pandemic taught me anything it's that there are truly no "essential" workers, only essential jobs.

christa reviewed Work Won't Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe

for the burntout

4 stars

this book delivers what it promises but was more deeply researched and expansive than I expected—rolls in labor history, ones relationship to work, social programs, etc, to paint a picture of a cultivated and toxic modern relationship to work. was a concrete way to tie in theory, history, and work malaise, though I lost a bit of interest toward the end and petered out about 3/4 of the way through

hunterowens reviewed Work Won't Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe

a better... society?

5 stars

this is the through, intersectional, globe spanning short form takedown of the "do what you love" myth w/ a deep focus on how it effects the most marginalized workers.

footnoes and research could have been a little deeper but otherwise an a+ read