Problem With Work News Today

Now playing on This Week in Worker Conquests: New technology scans our faces and attempts to read our minds. Greedy railroad barons get us in a whole heap of trouble. A nation hangs in the balance as the results of an election trickle in. But first: Good news afoot in a footy org. This week U.S. Soccer announced that the league will pay the players on its women’s team as much as it pays the...

Even with a dream job, you can be antiwork

The pandemic has prompted a dawning realization that we are way too obsessed with our jobs.

Demand the Imaginable from Boston Review. Intrinsic to what we hate about work is that we can’t imagine life outside of it.

In March of last year, Reddit user Oneawkwardpanda mentioned that the pandemic stay-home order had resulted in a “massive dip in productivity” for them and asked for advice. “How do you keep yourself accountable? How do you stop snacking?” Many others shared this anxiety about getting as much work as possible done from home; responses included setting up a home office, putting on a tie and shoes in the morning, and “parental controls on your laptop and phone or literally putting your ...

The worst manager I ever had could slip frictionlessly between enthusiasm and furor, high fives and reprimands. He liked to stalk through the restaurant where we worked, his shiny shoes and shiny hair possessed of the same stiff, lacquered sheen. In crossing his path, you risked falling victim to his belittlement, his anger. If he saw you on your phone, he would take it from you. If your dress code–mandated white sneakers weren’t the “right” kind, you’d be required to buy another pair...