There are many variations of the phrase attributed to various gurus of our time like Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey, but most of the time the Internet links its origin to Confucius: “Choose a job you love and you won’t have to work a day. of your life. ” If this were the case, the Chinese philosopher could hardly have imagined that, twenty-five centuries later, this thought would become a kind of magic trick thanks to which millions of us carry out the tasks assigned to us every day without consider doing something else. Although we might have many reasons not to do them or to demand better conditions for it.
The love of work has become, as Sarah Jaffe explains in her book Job. An unrequited lovethat Captain Swing has just published in Spain, in a system tool. A masterstroke of capitalism to “let us” work in what we love in exchange for low pay and improveable conditions. As the title suggests, we may love our job, but of course our job doesn’t love us.
In the book, Jaffe examines the lives and professional experiences of workers in various industries, from the unpaid intern to the overworked teacher, from the nonprofit worker to the professional athlete or artist. Few professions have been spared by this strategy.
The journalist, originally from New Orleans and author of several books and countless articles which generally revolve around activism, labor, labor exploitation and the struggles of the working class in the context of capitalism contemporary, is currently on tour to present his new book. recently published in English, From the ashes: mourning and revolution in a world on fire (From the ashes: mourning and revolution in a world on fire). In one of the rare free spaces this promotion leaves him, he assists us from London.
Where did the idea for this book come from?
I started working as a full-time journalist during the financial crisis in 2009. I had previously worked in stores and restaurants and being a journalist was my dream job. I quickly understood that there wasn’t much difference from before: I was still without money, with endless hours, I was exhausted and emotionally it was as intense as before.
At that time, I interviewed a producer of realities television producers who had created a television producers’ union freelancebecause they were very underpaid and overworked. When they complained, they were always told that if they didn’t want to work all weekend, they could find twenty other people who would be happy to do it. I then began to wonder what role does the idea of the “dream job” and love of work play in our general attitude toward work today? Is this an old idea? How long have we thought we have to love what we do for a living?
I trace the origins of the idea of “love of work” to caring jobs, such as nursing and teaching. Jobs very similar to those that women have always carried out at home without pay
Trump was later elected president, and his popularity helped me put this issue in historical context, especially when we think about deindustrialization and the loss of certain types of jobs. Jobs you’re not supposed to like. No one expects you to smile at a car as it goes through an assembly line.
Later I will ask you about Trump and the American electionsbut first, according to the book’s stories, the pandemic also revealed the coercive nature of work.
I finished the first full version of Job. An unrequited love in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit, and it showed how little control we have over work. At that time, I interviewed many people who were still working during the epidemic, and I remember a conversation with an employee of a large perfume chain. His work wasn’t bad; I made $15 an hour, which isn’t a lot in New York, but it wasn’t bad. However, when it came time to reopen the stores, she told me, “I don’t want to die from lipstick.” Suddenly, work had become something very different.
The same thing happened in restaurants. During the first weeks of the disease, cooks were the profession which recorded the most deaths. You don’t expect to risk dying working in a restaurant. Many people had to realize that their job was suddenly dangerous and that their bosses, frankly, didn’t care if they died.
Many years before the pandemic, according to the book’s accounts, after World War II, the industrial work ethic had taken hold in the developed world. What did this consist of?
The industrial work ethic was to go to work, hard work, but for which you received a decent wage, weekends off, and medical care. No one expected you to enjoy your job, but rather that it would provide you with good living conditions. But today, the dominant ethic is “love of work”.
I remember a poster encouraging people to work at Amazon that said, “Find a job spreading smiles.” We all know that working in an Amazon warehouse is terrible. However, they advertised it as if it was going to make you happy.
What does it consist of? And how did the change happen?
The idea of “love of work” had been around for a while. I trace its origin to care-related jobs, such as nursing and teaching. Jobs that are very similar to those that women have always done at home without pay. On the other hand, there is creative work, like art. Artists were expected to be artists for the love of art and not for the love of money.
But over time, jobs traditionally considered “caring” or “creative” began to enter the labor market, for example in hospitals and public schools. But this idea that some jobs aren’t really work and don’t deserve to be paid the same as others has prevailed. It was assumed that they would be accomplished because the person enjoyed caring for others or because the work itself was rewarding.
With deindustrialization, there were more and more jobs in the service sector, such as home health care, and gradually the idea that you have to love your job spread to many other sectors. Even some you wouldn’t expect to have these types of expectations associated with them.
I remember seeing a sign in Philadelphia encouraging people to work at Amazon that said, “Get a Job Spreading Smiles,” but we all know that working in an Amazon warehouse is terrible. However, they advertised it as if it would make you happy. No one wants to work at Amazon or McDonald’s for fun, but that doesn’t mean those jobs couldn’t be good if they paid well and offered other benefits, as happened in industrial work.
The system is always looking for ways to make more money, even if the stories it tells us change so that we behave and don’t burn down Jeff Bezos’ house or fill the streets to protest.
So the goal of capitalism is to make people believe that they are “happy” in their work?
The goal of capitalism is for a small group of people to accumulate a lot of wealth. The justifications and methods of implementation change over time, depending on the struggles and resistance to which we oppose. The capitalist system is being restructured in search of cheap labor and places with more lax environmental regulations. We also see how there is an attempt to replace workers with artificial intelligence because it is cheaper, even though AI requires enormous amounts of energy and resources.
The system is always looking for ways to make more money, even as it changes the stories it tells us so that we behave and don’t burn down Jeff Bezos’ house or Let’s not fill the streets to protest. Promoting love of work is a way to encourage us to keep doing it so Bezos keeps accumulating money.
In the book you ask the question: “What would you do if money was no object?” » This question scared me a little, I thought about what he was going to answer. If money wasn’t an issue, I’d probably do the same thing. So, I don’t know if I’m completely absorbed in the love of work. What about people who truly love their work?
I would also continue writing, although I would probably try to write a novel. Maybe I would do journalism differently, spending more time following a story and making sure it was the best it could be. If money was no object, I think working in the industry would be very different too.
Regardless, what I believe is that things have changed in recent years. There are a lot of horrible things happening in the world, but I detect a change in the way people view work and the way they fight for their rights all over the world. This gives me a lot of hope. In the United States, we haven’t had this many strikes in 40 years, especially in sectors that fit the “love of work” profile, such as teachers or journalists.
I detect a change in the way people view work and the way they fight for their rights all over the world.
Your book is full of hope, but in a few days there will be an election in the United States and Trump could win again. How is this possible?
If Biden were truly dedicated to improving people’s lives, Trump would have no chance of winning. But the reality is that the lives of the majority have not improved enough. Kamala Harris isn’t promising to do so either, and that’s a problem. People have suffered 40 years of decline in their quality of life, unless you’re Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, and they’re very angry and that anger often explodes in a visceral way.
What we really need is to improve people’s lives, their employment, their health care, their ability to afford decent housing in a city where they can find good employment. And until that happens, anger will continue to reign, and figures like Trump will always find a way to take advantage of it.
