Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone Paperback – 27 Jan. 2022

I just received my copy today and I can’t put it down. It’s riveting. Just wanted to say that!

Unfortunately I listened to the first 2 chapters and then fast forwarded through each one until the end. It did not grab my attention and was cobbled together and not as insightful as I had hoped. It seemed well researched but strung together in a way that did not engage me.

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=8-1For 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=8-1And for a far more elaborate view of socio economic changes in the last 500 years, Charles Mann 1493https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005WJ4LO0/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1

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!

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.

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.

Este libro es interesante porque creo que pronto habrá mas personas organizándose para cambiar el mundo, que mejor que sean mujeres.

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.

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.

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.