People no longer accept shitty jobs, and it’s fuelling the Great Resignation
Is loving your job is a bad idea?
The downsides of the passion paradigm
Because the rising popularity of the passion paradigm has coincided with both increasing economic inequality and asteep decline in the power of unions, it has attracted a host of criticism.
Sociologist Lindsay DePalma contends that the passion paradigm encourages workers to romanticize their work while blinding them to the unequal distributions of power that characterize their working lives.
In her bookWork Won’t Love You Back, journalist Sarah Jaffe argues that loving your job is a bad idea because it is a recipe for (self)exploitation.
Derek Thompson, a staff writer atThe Atlantic, maintains that the passion paradigm has fuelled a new religion — “workism” — which is responsible for causing burnout and depression even among high-wage earners.
These commentators rightly fear that the passion paradigm can (and does) lead workers to accept harmful working conditions, poor treatment from their employers, and unrealistic expectations from themselves — basically to put up with what they shouldn’t.
When people aspire to love their work, they may prioritize work at the expense of other important aspects of life — family, friends, and hobbies. An overvaluation of work can lead people to see those who cannot work aslazy, stupid, or undeserving of concern.
And yet, despite these evident pitfalls, the passion paradigm can also have the opposite effects. In fact, I would argue that it is one cause of what has been dubbedthe “Great Resignation.”
The Great Resignation
In August 2021,4.3 million American workers quit their jobs, the highest ever recorded. And similar waves have hit theU.K.
InCanada, it’s not clear whether the Great Resignation is taking place with equal intensity, butsome studies showthat Canadian workers are increasingly considering leaving or switching jobs.
There aremany factorscausing the Great Resignation. Among the most notable arewage subsidieswhich have given workers more freedom to choose the kind of work they want to do, theadded work stress caused by the pandemic, the need tostay home with young children, andthe shift to remote work.
However, I think another reason has to do with theexpectationsworkers have around work — expectations that derive from the passion paradigm.
The passion paradigm and the Great Resignation
By disrupting people’s routines, the pandemic has reawakened in many the deep-seated desire for a job they actually enjoy — a desire that has long been suppressed.
My interviews make it clear that many Canadian workers are looking at their jobs and asking themselves, “Is this really what I’m passionate about?” “Do I want to spend the majority of my waking hours doing this?” “Does my job bring me meaning?”
And this isn’t just managers. The highest number of resignations in Canada have taken place within theaccommodation and foodservice industries. And as a recent article inThe Atlanticput it, “this level of quitting is really an expression of optimism that says, ‘We can do better.’”
In a sense, the passion paradigm is paradoxically fuelling the demand for better, more satisfying, and more meaningful work. It isbecauseworkers expect more that they are no longer willing to put up with the status quo.
The passion paradigm requires a strong safety net
Of course, none of this could have happened without the government supports that reweighed the balance of power between workers and bosses.
Since the 1980s, workers have hadless and less power to negotiate. So, while the passion paradigm may have grown in popularity, it grew in economic conditions that were largely determined by employers, not employees.
But in the wake of the pandemic, this has slowly begun to change. Faced with labor shortages, employers are forced to take workers seriously when it comes to demands around pay, flexibility, autonomy, and scheduling. They are receiving the message that “businessas usual” is no longer acceptable — and, in some cases,they’re caving.
The crucial takeaway is that the passion paradigm can fuel demands for better, more meaningful work, but this is only possible when it’s accompanied by a strong social safety net.
Workers don’t need to stop loving their jobs. But they should ask whether their jobs are themselvesloveable. And this is easier to do when you have real economic freedom.
This article byGalen Watts, Banting Fellow, Centre for Sociological Research,KU Leuven, is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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