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Sarah Jaffe
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Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone Kindle Edition

by Sarah Jaffe (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 356 ratings
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A deeply-reported examination of why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives.

You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." Whether it's working for "exposure" and "experience," or enduring poor treatment in the name of "being part of the family," all employees are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do what we love.

In Work Won't Love You Back, Sarah Jaffe, a preeminent voice on labor, inequality, and social movements, examines this "labor of love" myth—the idea that certain work is not really work, and therefore should be done out of passion instead of pay. Told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries—from the unpaid intern, to the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit worker and even the professional athlete—Jaffe reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work.

As Jaffe argues, understanding the trap of the labor of love will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. And once freed from those binds, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.
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  1. Print length
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  2. Language
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  4. Publisher
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  5. Publication date
    January 26, 2021
  6. File size
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 organize to challenge them."

-- "The Guardian (London)"

"Jaffe is clear-eyed about all the ways employers exploit workers' goodwill, but...she has also seen how workers use love to their advantage in organizing."

-- "New Republic"

"Jaffe's exhaustive research, expressed in crisp and lucid sentences, is served well by her high-quality narration."

-- "AudioFile"

"By pulling apart the myth that work is love, Jaffe shows us that we can reimagine futures built on care, rather than exploitation."

-- "Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author"

"A stunning critique of capitalism, a collective conversation on the meaning of life and work, and a discerning contribution to the demands of the future society everyone deserves."

-- "Jane McAlevey, author of A Collective Bargain"

"Jaffe's committed, on-the-ground engagement, historical range, and ferocious gathering of revolutionary thought combines to create something genuine and profound."

-- "Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox"

About the Author

Sarah Jaffe is a Nation Institute fellow and an independent journalist covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in the Nation, Salon, the Week, American Prospect, Washington Post, Atlantic, and many other publications.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B087C44LV6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bold Type Books (January 26, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 26, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2037 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 433 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 356 ratings

About the author

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Sarah Jaffe

Sarah Jaffe

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Sarah Jaffe is the author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, which Robin D.G. Kelley called “The most compelling social and political portrait of our age.” She is a Type Media Center reporting fellow and an independent journalist covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and pop culture. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, the Guardian, the Washington Post, The New Republic, the Atlantic, and many other publications. She is the co-host, with Michelle Chen, of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as a columnist at The Progressive and New Labor Forum.

Sarah is currently at work on her next book, Work Won’t Love You Back, on the “labor of love”–how we all came to love our jobs, or at least to be forced to pretend to, and how this drains the security, bank accounts, and happiness of workers from restaurant servers to NFL players, nannies to nurses to Hollywood actors. It will be out in 2021 from Bold Type Books.

Sarah was formerly a staff writer at In These Times and the labor editor at AlterNet. She was also the web director at GRITtv with Laura Flanders. She was a contributing editor on The 99%: How the Occupy Wall Street Movement is Changing America, from AlterNet books, as well as a contributor to the anthologies At the Tea Party and Tales of Two Cities, both from OR Books, Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America, from Picador, and Labor in the Time of Trump, from ILR Press.

She was one of the first reporters to cover Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15, has appeared on numerous radio and television programs to discuss topics ranging from electoral politics to Superstorm Sandy, from punk rock to public-sector unions.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
356 global ratings
Arrived STICKY with food finger prints on the cover!!!!
1 Star
Arrived STICKY with food finger prints on the cover!!!!
The front cover is so sticky and gross.. the cover feels like something was spilled on it, and there’s like sticky finger prints and crumbs
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Top reviews from the United States

Matthew Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars It's true.
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024
Verified Purchase
Got this as a gift for the wife. I need to read it now.

It's true though...
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Selenne Mayoral Cruz
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Topic
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2023
Verified Purchase
I chose this rating because I couldn’t put this book down. This topic resonated with my thoughts about work, but it made me realize how this slavery to work disguised as love is rather a systemic issue that, like systemic racism and discrimination, permeates all fields in one way or another. I recommend this book for people who are disillusioned with burnout.
11 people found this helpful
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Pamela Vilas
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente análisis
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2023
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Muy buen estudio sobre workismo. De lectura rápida, sin argumentos intrincados. Muchas referencias, notas y bibliografía para profundizar.
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Kindle Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Love and work are both verbs and nouns
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2022
Verified Purchase
Love and work are things we do but rarely do they coincide. A labor of love almost seems to be an oxymoron. Love is about emotion and work is about money. How do you put a price on passion or sacrifice? How do you place a numerical value on happiness? No answer on that here. Yes, there are many injustices in life, society, work, and school. Do things need to change? Absolutely!
Sure, neoliberal capitalism created a greater framework of exploitation and selling the lower classes a load of pixie dust that smells like it came from the back end of an animal. I guess I am still missing the point. Coming together to create change? Yes. Unions? They make money too.
With money comes power and with power comes responsibility. Seems like the responsibility is missing these days. It is hard to change things for the greater good with every issue creating division and serving individual agendas. Human greed and selfishness is taking precedence over decency and service and contribution.
8 people found this helpful
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Stephane Wahl
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking and hopeful
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2022
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This book certainly achieved the author's desire to "crack open" this reader. I am already the caretaking mom friend in my personal life, but I didn't realize how much I had been twisted into thinking that putting in the same unpaid, emotional labor at work was normal. Brava to Sarah, and to all those doing the work to open more eyes and hearts.
12 people found this helpful
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J. Lambrecht
5.0 out of 5 stars Good mix of history and personal stories
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2021
Verified Purchase
The separate chapters are related to different occupational fields and can be read independently depending on one’s interests. All contain narratives about real people and changes in occupational fields over the last 150 years or more. All present unions as the best way for workers to compel employers to respond to their grievances and needs. While I would have liked to read about additional changes that could be made to the so-called free market and other area of employment concerns, such as immigrant labor, this was an engaging book.
15 people found this helpful
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Jason H
3.0 out of 5 stars Wanted to love it more
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2023
This is for the audiobook. I wanted to love it more. It's quite lopsided in the premise, presented to the reader again and again, that if you work for someone else you're going to be screwed. I think we all get that point early on. A lot of worker conditions are poor and people are generally going to be exploited to the limit the law allows it, especially at the low end. What's missing was the element of personal responsibility not just in fighting for better labor laws but in making the case to the reader that they need to leave the most exploitable parts of the economy, especially the hourly or gig work. After a few chapters, I stopped reading it because I felt like I got the gist of the book.
3 people found this helpful
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ChubNChad
2.0 out of 5 stars Meandering and juvenile screed.
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2022
Verified Purchase
Once she started talking about “surplus value” and “exploitation” I put aside this heap of Marxist crap. She wants us to feel sorry for someone who majored in dance or theater and now can’t make ends meet. Should have expected this once I looked up the author and found out she has the “alt” look, complete with standout makeup and short hair. Marxian economics are a worthless dead end. The book has some interesting history of labor movements but offers nothing of practical value to workers nor does it explain the economics of our discontent. It’s also too long for the point it’s seeking to make.
5 people found this helpful
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Cliente Satistecho de KINDLE
5.0 out of 5 stars Un libro muy recomendable
Reviewed in Mexico on March 24, 2021
Verified Purchase
Este libro es interesante porque creo que pronto habrá mas personas organizándose para cambiar el mundo, que mejor que sean mujeres.
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Emily Book
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2021
Verified Purchase
I just received my copy today and I can’t put it down. It’s riveting. Just wanted to say that!
13 people found this helpful
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BB
3.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for the life narratives in the book, 1 star for the simplistic anti-capitalist stance
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2021
Verified Purchase
The author brings an important subject to life and the individual narratives are truly compelling and tell us much about the precariousness of workers across many industries and for that she deserves five stars.
The book fails miserably though in its socio economic analysis of the world today. Capitalism, and in particular 'neo-liberarism' is to blame for everything that has gone wrong and to me the reality is much more nuanced and complex than the author's simple narrative that capitalism is 'evil'.

For a more mature analysis of the world of work today I suggest Richard's Sennet the corrosion of character:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corrosion-Character-Personal-Consequences-Capitalism/dp/0393319873/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YZW5ATVYCFD2&dchild=1&keywords=richard+sennett+the+corrosion+of+character&qid=1614070944&sprefix=richard+sen%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-1

For a sociological view of the world of corporate managers I'd suggest Robert Jackall's the moral maze:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/dp/0199729883/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+moral+maze&qid=1614071370&sr=8-1

And for a far more elaborate view of socio economic changes in the last 500 years, Charles Mann 1493

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005WJ4LO0/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1
19 people found this helpful
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TheLearner
1.0 out of 5 stars Painfully slow moving and terribly depressing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2022
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I was really excited about reading this book as I thought it would be kind of like a self-help book about how to deal with corporate life. I thought it would be about not giving your life to your employer. This not what this book is at all.

This book feels like a collection of woke hit-piece essays stitched together.

There is literally no connection from one chapter to the next. It’s just a stream of consciousness about each sector of work. Neither offering any helpful tips nor offering a solution to the situation.

It is excruciatingly slow moving, depressing and awfully dull and offers nothing new.

One thing is clear, the author hates men, especially white men!
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E.
1.0 out of 5 stars Faulty binding
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book is unreadable because the print goes right into the binding, so you can't read it. Unfortunately I'd bought it as a gift and didn't notice this until too late to return it.
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