Salon.com > Work

Are millennials delusional?

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:25:00 +0000

Young people coming of age over the past decade or so have been referred to as Millennials, or, in a nod to their individualistic nature, Generation Me.

Newly published research suggests they could also be called the generation with unrealistic expectations.

An analysis of the values and ambitions of American 12th graders finds “a growing discrepancy between the desire for material rewards and the willingness to do the work usually required to earn them.” Psychologists Jean Twenge of San Diego State University and Tim Kasser of Knox College report that, for high school seniors in 2005, 2006, and 2007, materialism remained at historically high levels, even as commitment to hard work declined.

Can women over 50 “lean in”?

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This is a guest post from Tira Harpaz. Harpaz is a graduate of Princeton University and Fordham Law School and the mother of three children. She was formerly a Senior Attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and she is currently the founder and president of CollegeBound Advice, an independent college counseling firm. This is her first article for Feministing.

Lean In. It seems like everyone is talking, blogging or arguing about it. Sheryl Sandberg’s well-written, chatty, and informative book purports to give useful advice for women of all age brackets, “from those who are just starting out to those who are taking a break and may want to jump back in.” However, Sandberg seems to miss the mark for a certain segment of the female population: my demographic, the 50- to 60-ish mom who either gave up her career to stay home with her kids or reduced her workload during their formative years, and is now looking to re-enter the workforce or ramp up her job.

Karl Marx and the semantics of a “post-work left”

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Last Sunday, the unthinkable happened: Ross Douthat wrote something halfway sensible.

To be sure, his column “A World Without Work” is no "Communist Manifesto." But I read Douthat, in this deeply conflicted piece, as a metaphorical three-year-old attempting to put together a jigsaw puzzle: He finally has all the pieces, but he just can’t get them to fit together. He admits that work in today’s world is “grinding,” meaningless, alienated, coercive. He argues that government should play an active role in promoting human flourishing. And he seriously considers the position that “the right to not have a boss is actually the hardest won of modern freedoms.”

These are the building blocks of a left politics for the 21st century — but Douthat tries instead to jam them into his conservative lens.

Marissa Mayer, morale killer

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:37:00 +0000

When All Things D's Kara Swisher reported Monday that Yahoo CEO and reluctant metaphor for working motherhood Marissa Mayer's brave new vision for her organization now involves telling several hundred workers they can either stop working from home or get the hell out, a nation of hardworking, life-career-juggling telecommuters winced in sympathy. As our own Irin Carmon put it, "Yahoo is setting back … progress and flexibility" in a move whose "impact falls disproportionately on women." A Yahoo employee, meanwhile, told Swisher it was "outrageous and a morale killer."

Work becomes more like prison

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:34:00 +0000

The human body, with its need for rest, nutrition and hydration, is such an inefficient tool for capitalist production. But while machines are unlikely to replace human workers anytime soon, new technologies can deftly strip workers of their humanity!

The Irish Independent reports that grocery giant TESCO has strapped electronic armbands to their warehouse workers to measure their productivity, tracking their actions so closely that management knows when they briefly pause to drink from a water fountain or take a bathroom break. These unforgivable lapses in productivity impact workers' performance score, which management then apparently uses to terrify them into working faster.

I worked hard for no pay — and I dug it

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:00:00 +0000

We all know people who like to work. They are squares or money addicts, people who can’t think of any worthier way to spend their time. They are mean dads in movies and your brother’s boring girlfriend. They wear work clothes and go to after-work happy hours where they gossip about work with their work friends. Some of the most interesting people I know seem not to do any work at all. They are busy doing other things, like art and drugs.

And so I have long been ashamed to admit that, well, I love working. I love working! I love the transcendent pleasure of creating something that didn’t exist before, the tidy accumulation of hours, the inflating sense of having Done A Good Job. Completed tasks! Schedules! Productivity! My favorite courtship is the dairy farm workplace romance in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. How dreamy to be wooed, as Tess is, “in undertones like that of the purling milk—at the cow’s side, at skimmings, at butter-makings, at cheese-makings, among broody poultry, and among farrowing pigs”?

All work and no play — or you’re fired!

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Dalkey Archive is a prestigious small press that publishes both new and classic works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. But the press, which boasts of bases in London, Dublin and Champaign, Ill., doesn't merely distribute memorable works that founder John O'Brien describes as "saying something that people don't want to hear — that will make them feel uncomfortable." Au contraire – the press is pretty damn avant-garde and uncomfortable even in its job postings.

In a posting that went up on Tuesday, Dalkey explained it is currently in a period of transition, as it seeks to find a successor to its founder and expand its international offices. It needs new blood. Blood "primarily derived from unpaid interns in the first phase of this process." And who might you be, unpaid yet eager intern, or possibly even maybe paid employee? You're the total package. You're "willing to start off at a low-level salary." "Doing whatever is required to make the Press succeed." Also, you have no life. None. Seriously. You "do not have any other commitments (personal or professional) that will interfere with work at the Press (family obligations, writing, involvement with other organizations, degrees to be finished, holidays to be taken, weddings to attend in Rio, etc.) … DO NOT APPLY IF ALL OF THE ABOVE DOES NOT DESCRIBE YOU." It continues, "Any of the following will be grounds for immediate dismissal during the probationary period: coming in late or leaving early without prior permission; being unavailable at night or on the weekends; failing to meet any goals; giving unsolicited advice about how to run things; taking personal phone calls during work hours; gossiping; misusing company property, including surfing the Internet while at work; submission of poorly written materials; creating an atmosphere of complaint or argument; failing to respond to emails in a timely way; not showing an interest in other aspects of publishing beyond editorial; making repeated mistakes; violating company policies." I'm not saying that sounds a mite harsh, but I've seen cults with more laissez-faire policies about outside socialization.

Fighting our new nanny economy

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:24:00 +0000

Job seekers, take note: Massive opportunities in a growing sector of the economy! Perks include low pay -- often below the state minimum wage -- no retirement or pension benefits, often no health insurance, a pretty significant likelihood of stress injuries, and lack of legal protections against harm in the workplace. As a bonus, you'll be told you're "part of the family" -- though what that actually means really depends on your employer's individual generosity.

Just take your pick from being a nanny, housekeeper or elder caregiver, the jobs included in a groundbreaking new study on domestic labor released this week, which surveyed over 2,000 domestic workers from around the country (and in nine different languages). Such jobs grew almost 10 percent between 2004 and 2010, according to census data, which didn't include related categories like cooks and chauffeurs. Ninety-five percent of such workers are female; they are overwhelmingly women of color and immigrants. (An actual, grim bonus: You can't be outsourced.)

I’m going crazy in my job

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Cary:

Two reasons I'm writing to you specifically: a) you're an advice columnist, and b) I have a feeling you might have dealt with exactly what I'm going to ask.

I've just got a new job. It's an office job, but it's for an interesting company, it's young, it's safe, it's comfortable, it's even fairly moral(ish). As far as corporates go, it's pretty right-on, if you know what I mean.

It's my first job since I went traveling a while back, and herein lies the problem. I don't like work. I never have. There are three brief parts to this.

First: It might be partly because I'm lazy, and almost certainly because I'm immature, but it's something about turning up to work every day and being expected to do the same set of actions, have the same attitude and belief systems, have lunch with the same people. It seems crazy to me. I know this is hardly unique to me.

The second part is that I hate business-speak. Even light references to competition, beating out the other players, maximizing profits, make me feel awful. Don't they realize they're talking about putting other people out of jobs? Don't they realize that all we're doing is taking people's money for things they probably could live without? I cringe every time someone whoops about getting bigger numbers than the other guy down the street.

Wal-Mart workers on strike

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Today, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s 50-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass rally outside a Pico Rivera, Calif., store. This is the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world.

“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared…” Pico Rivera Wal-Mart employee Evelin Cruz told Salon yesterday about her decision to join today’s strike. “But I think the time has come, so they take notice that these associates are tired of all the issues in the stores, all the management retaliating against you.” Rivera, a department manager, said her store is chronically understaffed: “They expect the work to be done, without having the people to do the job.”

“Workaholism” is real

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:38:00 +0000

You're sitting at your desk, scrolling through the Alcoholics Anonymous website, when your boss walks up behind you. Not the best career move you'll ever make, perhaps. But let's say you're looking at the Workaholics Anonymous site instead, the section about how even when you're not in the office you're still toiling away. What then? Does your boss give you a talking to, or does he give you a raise?

This rather glib question captures something important about how society views work addiction. Recently, a business strategy website published an article with the headline "Four Famous Workaholics (And The Secrets of Their Success)." It's hard to imagine any other addiction eliciting this kind of approach: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Junkies," say, or "The Sipping Point."