Antiwork

ReConsider

Today we talk about something I've reconsidered lately: Antiwork

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Erik’s initial take

-labor organization and rights are a great thing

-Not putting up with crappy work conditions, and forcing companies to compete, is a great thing (and this is my opinion as an employer)

-saying “I want stuff - someone has to make it- and I don't want to work in exchange” seems crazy

-”Ending work,” part of the motto, is very explicitly about not working, even though antiworkers will sometimes say they're not actually about that. At the very least it’s terrible marketing.

What do they say the’re about?

"A lot of people mistake antiwork for being lazy, and like nothing has to ever get done," one moderator of the subreddit, who goes by u/rockcellist, told Business Insider.

"But the truth of the matter about antiwork — and everything surrounding it — is that obviously things have to get done, but the current structure in which things get done and the way that capital flows as they get done is unfair and should be nonexistent."

Many posts are about pushing back against, or at least calling out, what seem like unfair or ridiculous practices by companies/management…

..but others get really weird.

#3 post all time is a disgruntled employee, telling one side of the job, who went and deleted thousands of hours of work they did (they happened to still have access).

Erik sees…

Again among some stuff about labor organization, work standards, sharing some amazingly awful stuff that employers and managers have done, sharing pay rates, tips to negotiate, other stuff that actually seems pretty good:

1. The sense that money isn’t earned - it’s just this ritual/token task you have to do to be allowed to live/survive
2. The sense that suckering a company to get paid to do nothing is good
3. 40 hours is way too much work

So this doesn’t fit with my own model or experience or biases.

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