Work Won't Love You Back

Whether it's working for free in exchange for 'experience', enduring poor treatment in the name of being 'part of the family', or clocking serious overtime for a good cause, more and more of us are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do work we enjoy.

Work Won't Love You Back examines how we all bought into this 'labour of love' myth: the idea that certain work is not really work, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than pay. Through the lives and experiences of various workers - from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit employee, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete - this compelling book reveals how we've all been tricked into a new tyranny of work.

Sarah Jaffe argues that understanding the labour of love trap will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. Once freed, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure and satisfaction.

'[Jaffe] documents the importance of work to identity and emotional lives. Work Won't Love You Back unpicks the growing cult of work as a passion. ... The pandemic has exposed this myth, making the book a timely read.' - Financial Times

'An extremely timely analysis of how we arrived at these brutal inequalities and of some of the ways in which a deliberately atomised workforce is beginning to organise to challenge them.' The Guardian

'Work Won't Love You Back brilliantly chronicles the transformation of work into a labour of love, demonstrating how this seemingly benign narrative is wreaking havoc on our lives, communities and planet. By pulling apart the myth that work is love, Jaffe shows us that we can reimagine futures built on care, rather than exploitation. A tremendous contribution.' Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal

'Illuminating and inspiring...Work Won't Love You Back is ultimately an optimistic book. Jaffe is clear-eyed about all the ways employers exploit workers' goodwill, but because she has spent so much time reporting on labor actions across the world, she has also seen how workers use love to their advantage in organizing.' The New Republic
'The book is also both structurally ambitious, combining essays on very specific industries such as domestic work, teaching, retail, nonprofits, art, academic, tech, sports, and of particular note, interns as it is a narrative feat...The most lucid moments in Jaffe's writing come in the form of her blunt redefinitions of commonplace ideas. There are several of these brilliant sentences throughout the pages: 'The labor of love, of short, is a con'; 'Charity is a relationship of power'; and 'programming, a field currently dominated by young men, was invented by a woman,' to name a few.' The Progressive

'Jaffe and the workers she interviews help us make sense of the messy tangle of emotions so many of us feel about our professional lives; when the lines are blurred between work and play, as Jaffe so astutely explains and historicizes for us, they are simply the messy tangle of emotions about our lives, full stop. The final chapter of Work Won't Love You Back is at once a brilliant contribution to the growing canon of anti-work political theory and a moving ode to human connection.' The Baffler

'The prose is crisp and compulsively readable... a deeply engaging work.' Indypendent

“'As the world of work changes drastically before our eyes, this book could not be more timely. Jaffe does a fantastic job of bringing her argument to life through interviews with workers from across the class spectrum. A brilliant and persuasive book from one of the left's most insightful and thought-provoking writers.'”

‘Sarah Jaffe is a rarity in the US. Not only is she one of the few journalists still reporting on the labour movement, but she sits on an even shorter list of writers intent on covering the everyday stories of working people through a lens of dignity and empowerment. […] Work Won’t Love You Back is ambitious in breadth [while] also reach[ing] for impressive theoretical depth.’

Sarah Jaffe is a Type Media Center fellow and an independent journalist covering the politics of power, from the workplace to the streets. The author of Necessary Trouble, she has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation and many other outlets. She tweets as @sarahljaffe.

Whether it's working for free in exchange for 'experience', enduring poor treatment in the name of being 'part of the family', or clocking serious overtime for a good cause, more and more of us are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do work we enjoy. Work Won't Love You Back examines how we all bought into this 'labour of love' myth: the idea that certain work is not really work, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than pay. Through the lives and experiences of various workers -- from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit employee, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete -- this compelling book reveals how we've all been tricked into a new tyranny of work. Sarah Jaffe argues that understanding the labour of love trap will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. Once freed, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure and satisfaction. '[Jaffe] documents the importance of work to identity and emotional lives. Work Won't Love You Back unpicks the growing cult of work as a passion. ... The pandemic has exposed this myth, making the book a timely read.' -- Financial Times 'An extremely timely analysis of how we arrived at these brutal inequalities and of some of the ways in which a deliberately atomised workforce is beginning to organise to challenge them.' The Guardian ' Work Won't Love You Back brilliantly chronicles the transformation of work into a labour of love, demonstrating how this seemingly benign narrative is wreaking havoc on our lives, communities and planet. By pulling apart the myth that work is love, Jaffe shows us that we can reimagine futures built on care, rather than exploitation. A tremendous contribution.' Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal 'Illuminating and inspiring... Work Won't Love You Back is ultimately an optimistic book. Jaffe is clear-eyed about all the ways employers exploit workers' goodwill, but because she has spent so much time reporting on labor actions across the world, she has also seen how workers use love to their advantage in organizing.' The New Republic 'The book is also both structurally ambitious, combining essays on very specific industries such as domestic work, teaching, retail, nonprofits, art, academic, tech, sports, and of particular note, interns as it is a narrative feat...The most lucid moments in Jaffe's writing come in the form of her blunt redefinitions of commonplace ideas. There are several of these brilliant sentences throughout the pages: 'The labor of love, of short, is a con'; 'Charity is a relationship of power'; and 'programming, a field currently dominated by young men, was invented by a woman,' to name a few.' The Progressive 'Jaffe and the workers she interviews help us make sense of the messy tangle of emotions so many of us feel about our professional lives; when the lines are blurred between work and play, as Jaffe so astutely explains and historicizes for us, they are simply the messy tangle of emotions about our lives, full stop. The final chapter of Work Won't Love You Back is at once a brilliant contribution to the growing canon of anti-work political theory and a moving ode to human connection.' The Baffler 'The prose is crisp and compulsively readable... a deeply engaging work.' Indypendent

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