... illuminating and inspiring ... ultimately an optimistic book. Jaffe is clear-eyed about all the ways employers exploit workers’ goodwill, but because she has spent so much time reporting on labor actions across the world, she has also seen how workers use love to their advantage in organizing ... I wondered how men have responded to the love ethos in their work and activism.
The author offers no solutions to the problems she describes, although clearly, in her view, capitalism is not the ideal system for encouraging worker satisfaction. Instead, rather abruptly, she concludes what’s needed is a world that allows us to 'value the relationships we have with others.' To create such a world, we must free love from work ... Far too long, a bit heavy on the politics, yet bound to make many readers reexamine their working lives
... if an employer uses the language of love to stifle its employees’ fight for labor justice, then does that employer genuinely love its employees? Sarah Jaffe’s new book...has an answer to this question and it’s a sobering one that all workers need to hear ... One of the major strengths of Work Won’t Love You Back is its commitment to tracing the relevant labor history of the professions it scrutinizes ... Workers in all sectors, including care work, retail, health care, and tech, must continue to come together, build solidarity, and fight against neoliberal exploitation. This is the implicit call to arms in Jaffe’s book.
... a searing indictment of the way employers leverage the language of love to undermine workers’ ability to organize for better working conditions ... As many of us rethink the power dynamics that shape our jobs and workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaffe’s passionate call to reimagine our relationships with work and one another, and imagine new possibilities, is indispensable reading.
Jaffe peels back layers of laboring for love so that the reader can see the trap and be empowered to demand their worth. This book will appeal to general audiences looking for career guidance.
A welcome cri de coeur against the soulless machinery of late capitalism ... The book is long on description and short on solution, but Jaffe does suggest, soundly, that as the current economy cracks along its fissures, it affords room to imagine something better. Working people of all stripes have much to learn from this book.
Jaffe is an expert researcher and a witty narrator, but some of her history lessons seem needlessly in-depth and she offers few practical solutions. Still, this is a noteworthy and persuasive call for returning to a more pragmatic view of work.
