KatharineDwyer
Is the battle Capital vs Labour? Or Capital vs Life?
The tone of this book is bleak. The authors cite Michel Houllebecq:
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“entering the workforce is like entering the grave. […] from then on nothing happens and you have to pretend to be interested...”
The corollary of this would be that the directive, paternalistic employer of old is no longer suited to a globetrotting world. Stifling hierarchies have been broken down, resulting in more freedom for employees earlier in their careers. Telecommuting can be liberating as well as all encompassing. Whether the price for these developments is too high is a value judgement.
One of the most thought provoking sections was about whether there is any escape? Bizarrely, in sickness you regain time for yourself, and it does seem to be the one time it is permissable to be away from email. But illness is defined by what it is not (ie the tyranny of work) rather than offering its own positive qualities.
As the authors conclude, if this is all we have, it offers little hope of changing cultural norms for the better.
Capitalism and corporate culture aim to make us want to work, something that we would really rather avoid. And they do so in a coercive manner. Whilst some of the authors' positions are extreme, for me they served a useful purpose in considering how the opaque power structures of corporations function.
For example, the authors echo what Deleuze suggests in “Postscript on societies of control,” that the corporation is individualist and encourages employees to compete with one another.
Workers must assume responsibility for their individual training, career and destiny. That is, the employer no longer steers this. Employees are told to manage their time, and are encouraged to work elsewhere, so that value can be extracted from every moment of their day.
