Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life. Who has not heard this phrase ever? "It is the first step towards exploitation," Sarah Jaffe warns La Vanguardia as she raises her hands to her head. Today she arrives at bookstores La feina no t'estimarà, the Catalan translation of Work won't love you back, the book with which she revolutionized (and continues to do so) the United States and the United Kingdom. From the latter country, she connects by video call to talk about her publication and about "how deceived we all live" since "many times the relationship with our jobs is more toxic than any other idyll, but we don't want to see it."
The writer still remembers when she worked as a waitress. She “she Dreamed of one day having a stable job with which she could breathe a little. When I became a journalist, what I wanted the most, I thought that all my problems would end and that working would become something similar to a hobby, but I realize that I continue with the same conditions as before: I am autonomous, I am still aware of to be able to make it to the end of the month and you continue to expect him to be smiling all the time. To top it off, there is the additional idea that, now yes, I have to be grateful for having a good job that many aspire to. It doesn't matter if I work extra hours or if I have little social life. It is assumed that I have come far and that I have to say thank you at all times, whatever the cost. As she said she... an exploitation. Studying no longer guarantees you a decent job.”
These experiences led Jaffe to specialize in labor issues, as he realized that many people were going through the same thing, both inside and outside the world of journalism, such as "teachers, who in the United States earn 21% less than other sectors with similar studies. He often justifies himself by saying that it is a vocational job. And with that it seems legitimate that they have to put up with all the attacks they receive, like when they are blamed for a young man abandoning his studies.
Another very topical example is that of the Hollywood scriptwriters who are now on indefinite strike. “That they work for large productions does not mean that they are rich. Many times they do not even have medical coverage. As if that were not enough, to all this is added the lack of regulation on artificial intelligence, which can put their positions at stake. There comes a point where, if you force the machine, people get up and say enough is enough”.
Jaffe analyzes the social and economic changes that over the years have caused workers to lose out and believes that "much remains to be done" but is convinced that "the pandemic has opened the eyes of many people, who realized that their bosses did not care if they got sick or died as long as the chain of work continued to work”.
The author blames this way of working on “capitalist life, which manipulates our feelings to the point that we come to tolerate mistreatment and excessive hours in order to advance in our professions, or, at least, opt for it. It's important to slow down and ask yourself if it's really worth it. Alert, spoiler, no. We will only get exhausted and end up alone. And none of us want that, right?
Jaffe emphasizes “the importance of understanding that work does not free us or make us happy. It is true that, sometimes, it gives us good moments. Interviewing certain people satisfies me and when I was a waitress I loved the spontaneous conversations that arose with some customers. In other words, I agree with taking advantage of the occasions that bring us joy during the workday. But that's not enough to hold it all. Yearning for total happiness in the workplace is an unreal concept imposed by an outdated society. And we are in the 21st century, let's modernize and start acting like it, ”he concludes.
