Rethink Work

Changing how we think about work

Introduction

Changing how we think about work and how much work is needed for a good life

  • faviconWork, Work, Work — So a Few Can Be Rich: Inside every workplace, management control mechanisms have been put in place, the result of which has been stress, injuries, depression, and a profound sense of alienation, the consequence of living under the control of others [2022]
    In: Democracy & Power,  Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Mental Health, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Source: CounterPunch    

  • faviconWork anxiety is built into capitalism: Max Weber’s 1905 book still perfectly captures the mindset that sustains our work ethic today. He shows how European Protestants created a mode of thinking about money, work and dignity that we, to this day, cannot escape: it is our “iron cage” [2022]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Protestant Work Ethic, Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconRemembrance of Work Time Standards Lost – Mainstream economists have completely blown the issue of working time; we should call the bluff of the textbook-thumping experts who seem to think that a toxic cocktail of overwork and underemployment is “good for the economy” [2001]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Straight Goods    

  • faviconWords indicating labour in most European languages originate in an imagery of compulsion, torment, affliction and persecution. It seems that despite the progress, work doesn’t bring relief from poverty, but it’s rather a confirmation that humanity is destined to suffer needlessly and endlessly [2013]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Protestant Work Ethic   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconUBI, at its heart and in its philosophy, upholds the idea of social justice by acknowledging that everyone deserves a decent quality of living, regardless of socioeconomic status. By ensuring that every person receives an unconditional basic income, UBI supports people’s inherent worth and equality and ensures that no one is left behind in the quest for a fulfilling life [2024]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: UBI   
    Comments   
    Source: Independent Blogs    

  • faviconYour boss is obsessed with productivity without knowing what it means – That’s poor ground to stand on when trying to revoke remote work [2023]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Productivism, Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Source: Vox    

  • faviconFour-day week campaign to launch UK pilot – The latest trial will also look at other flexible working policies, including a shorter working week, flexible start and finish times, a nine-day fortnight or compressed hours, when people work the same number of hours but over fewer days [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconEveryone working less – with no reduction in pay – could be a solution to everything from Britain’s chronic productivity problems and the mental health pandemic to the broken care sector. It’s better for the planet, too: the overworked drive more, eat more processed food & buy more disposable items [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Environment, Mental Health   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconIn a world of Covid, rampant social media mobs, rising ideologies, increasing risk of nuclear war, AI threatening some sort of hockey-stick growth curve, the rise of working from home is a rare bright spot mainly because it allows people to spend significantly more time with their families [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Source: The Intrinsic Perspective    

  • faviconClassical Music’s Burnout Addiction: The unhealthy practices in music education that prime young musicians for failure from the beginning – particularly the belief that burnout-inducing schedules offer an accurate representation of the professional world, to see if they’ll crack under the pressure [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Mental Health   
    Comments   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconThree-quarters of remote workers based in the UK’s capital city would demand an inflation-busting pay increase – or quit altogether – if asked to give up their right to flexible working, based on survey [2023]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Source: The Register    

  • faviconSome employees have already headed back to their cubicles, some are hybrid, and others are fully remote. The future of work is uncertain, but one thing remains undeniable: pandemic or not, workers are not problems to be “fixed” — work culture is [2022]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Source: Teen Vogue    

  • faviconA lot of advice for how an individual can deal with it burnout simply won’t work because they leave it to the individual worker to heal their own burnout. But the individual didn’t cause their own burnout; their culture and workplace did. Lasting solutions have to happen on the collective level [2022]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Mental Health   
    Comments   
    Source: The Next Big Idea Club    

  • faviconThe vast majority of companies taking part in the world’s largest trial of a four-day week have opted to continue with the new working pattern, in a result hailed as evidence that it could work across the UK economy [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconThis world is built on the idea of work being an individual status point and symbol of success, which is meant to give unique meaning to our lives. Burnout is what happens when work no longer provides us with these things [2022]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human   
    Comments   
    Source: Farsight    

  • faviconBeyond Bullshit Jobs — There’s plenty of meaningful work to be done in order to save humanity and the planet. […] Our aim, then, should be to replace oppressive and meaningless work with work that actually enhances peoples’ lives, other people as well as the people who are engaged in that work [2019]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: How to be Human, Protestant Work Ethic   
    Comments   
    Source: The Philosopher    

  • faviconBurnout is not a thing inside us that has gone wrong. It’s the relationship between our ideals for work and the reality of our jobs. To counter it, we need to make work less central to how we understand our lives and spend more time with our families, communities and enjoy more leisure time [2022]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Leisure, Mental Health, Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: Welcome to the Jungle    

  • faviconThe Surprising Effects of Remote Work: Working from home could be making it easier for couples to become parents—and for parents to have more children [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Source: The Atlantic    

  • favicon“We’ve created a society where we fear boredom and we’re afraid of doing nothing,” says psychology lecturer Dr Sandi Mann. But in trying to avoid boredom, we miss out on its benefits. When we’re bored, we daydream, and that has been linked to creativity [2024]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Leisure, Mental Health   
    Comments   
    Source: BBC    

  • faviconIt may not be that the 4-day work week revolutionises our minds as much as it might revolutionise our schedules. It will take more to truly disconnect ourselves from the impetus to work ever more or from the view that leisure’s purpose is to recuperate or distract from work [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconBurnout culture is deeply rooted in our belief that work is “a means not just to a paycheck but to dignity, character, and a sense of purpose”. Burnout culture has persisted because we cherish these ideals about work. We fear losing the meaning that work promises [2022]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconEmployee surveillance isn’t only about logging, it’s the potential for it to be used against workers. This technology can just be used to exert power over employees in a way that wasn’t possible before [2023]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Technofeudalism   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconThe Protestant work ethic is the notion that your worth is a function of your hard work: what you produce. This is the mental illness of our time. The idea of hard work put forth in American society is a burden that crushes the broken and disenfranchised and suffocates the souls of those who grit their teeth and bear it [2018]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Mental Health, Protestant Work Ethic   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Life After Dogma    

  • faviconDollar Stores Show Capitalism at its Worst – A firsthand account of the unsafe working conditions, low pay, and corporate surveillance at one of the most profitable retail chains in the US [2024]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Technofeudalism, Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Current Affairs    

  • faviconIn a ground-breaking public attitudes study, the Fairness Foundation has unveiled striking insights into the web of factors influencing the health and well-being of people in Britain. One of the most significant revelations from the study is the pervasive impact of work on people’s health across age groups and income brackets [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Research   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: New Statesman