Work Won't Love You Back summary

Though there were continued tensions between employers and workers, the transactional relationship remained relatively stable up until the 1960s. During the social unrest that characterized this decade, employers grew frustrated with the concessions the workers won, which, they felt, weakened their ability to generate bigger profits.

This capitalist-driven desire is what caused the Fordist compromise to eventually unravel, giving way to what became known as neoliberalism. Beginning in the 1970s, this was the process by which businesses aggressively went after their goal of maximizing their profits, using politicians and policymakers to achieve this end.

As we arrive at the present day, let’s step back and consider the bigger picture. 

Roughly speaking, we can split the modern world of work into two main spheres. On one side, there’s care work. This is any type of labor – waged or unwaged – that involves caring for other human beings, like parents, housekeepers, and non-profit workers.On the other side, there’s creative work. This is any type of labor that centers around creating something: art, knowledge, technology, entertainment, sports, and so on.And as we’ll now learn, the labor-of-love ethic also comes in two distinct versions, which map onto each of these two spheres of work. 

For the sake of argument, let’s assume all these ideas about work, sacrifice, fulfillment, gender, and the overall labor-of-love ethic are true for a moment – just to see where their logic leads us. 

If care work is inherently fulfilling to women, and creative work inherently fulfilling to men, well, that almost makes it like not working at all, doesn’t it? It’s just women being women, men being men – doing the things that come most naturally to them and bring them the most satisfaction. 

So according to the labor-of-love ethic, work itself is now its own reward. And that makes it not really work, in some sense. Now, add in those gender stereotypes we examined earlier and mix them with some other common ideas in our culture. 

Are you a woman who teaches children? That’s just being a glorified caretaker. Women love doing that.

So what happens if you’re really unhappy about things at work? What if you’re thinking about organizing a union, making demands, or going on strike for better pay, hours, or working conditions? 

Well, nowadays, as part of the rhetoric surrounding the labor-of-love ethic, many employers encourage their workers to see themselves as part of a “family” or a “team,” making sacrifices for "the mission." It would have you believe that if you love what you do, you don’t need to organize as workers, or strike for better working conditions.

Here's the rub: With so much of our lives now being taken up by work, and with so little time or energy left over for anything or anyone else, where do we turn to fill that hole that so many of us sense inside?

Work. After all, where else do we have left to go?

But let’s not be naive. 

Most employers aren’t going to give us shorter hours, higher pay, and better benefits out of the goodness of their hearts. The lessons of the past are clear. If we want to work less and live better outside of our jobs, we need to organize, unionize, make demands, and, if need be, strike.