Lost in Work

‘Work hard, get paid.’ It’s simple. Self-evident. But it’s also a lie—at least for most of us. For people today, the old assumptions are crumbling; hard work in school no longer guarantees a secure, wellpaying job in the future. Far from equating to riches and fulfilment, ‘work’ means precarity, anxiety and alienation.

Amelia Horgan poses three big questions: what is work? How does it harm us? And what can we do about it? Along the way, she explores the many facets of work under capitalism: its encroachment on our personal lives; the growth of temporary and zero-hours contracts; burnout; and how different jobs reinforce existing hierarchies of race and of gender.

While automating work away is not the answer, Lost in Work shows that when we are able to take control of our workplaces, we become less miserable, and in some cases, are even able to fight back against our bosses.