The Abolition of Work

by Bob Black, Bruno Borges (Illustrator)

“Workers of the world… relax!”
THE ABOLITION OF WORK, a well-know essay written by the anarchist Bob Black in 1985, appears now in a comics edition by Bruno Borges. His expressive cartoons reinforce the strength and pertinence of this groundbreaking text.
Features a new introduction by Bob Black.

Genres: Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Valeria Farinella · Rating 2 out of 5]

some interesting but incredibly vague ideas from someone who has clearly never done care work or manual work and is clearly a man.

[Ricardo Motti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind-blowing.

[Jolien · Rating 3 out of 5]

ik ga helemaal akkoord met de inhoud maar het is nogal elitair geschreven en het voelde of ik moest werken om een boek te lezen dat gaat over het afschaffen van werk.

[Kapinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik zou het boek aanraden als zijn intellect niet volledig was ingesmeerd met moeilijk door hapbare woorden. Name dropping, op elke pagina. Het is een boekje waar je heel wat voorkennis moet hebben over het socio-economisch systeem, over andere denkers die dit willen doorbreken. Desondanks ik toch verlangde naar een boekje dat vlot en laagdrempelig was en is. Wil ik toch zeggen dat het de moeite is om het te lezen. Het idee om in een wereld te mogen leven zoals hij het benoemd. Als spelen en ontdekken belangrijker was dan werk. Als werk zou wegvallen we nog steeds zouden bezighouden met wat we leuk vinden. Er werd veel gezegd en soms begreep ik dingen niet meteen maar ik heb de essentie te pakken. Nu nog hetzelfde boek zonder academische taal en misschien nemen we iedereen mee in het idee. Want wie wilt er niet leven in een wereld waar we hand in hand kunnen leven, leren, helen en spelen.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you weren't already radicalised, this will do it

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anarchist diatribe for the abolition of work. Obviously that aim would collapse the set of living arrangements that currently props up eight billion+ humans. Still, he makes some fair points and offers interesting food for thought.

"Marxists think we should be bossed by bureaucrats. Libertarians think we should be bossed by businessmen. Feminists don’t care which form bossing takes so long as the bosses are women. Clearly these ideology-mongers have serious differences over how to divvy up the spoils of power. Just as clearly, none of them have any objection to power as such and all of them want to keep us working."

[Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

About halfway through The Abolition of Work, Black makes a comparison between the modern American workplace and that of living under a totalitarian regime. While not the most original thought, and being fairly obvious, it is quite apt in many ways.

There are a lot of thought provoking ideas here about how free time is actually not free for anyone except bosses because it doesn’t cost them anything. Whereas the worker is expected to prepare for work, drive to work, return from work, recover from work, etc., in their free time.

Herodotus was onto something because evidently he “identified contempt for work as an attribute of the classical Greeks at the zenith of their culture.” Maybe that’s why he has “hero” in his name.

Black’s argument basically boils down to society needing to play more, or needing in his words a “ludic revolution.” I am inclined to believe him when he states, “under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the golden age of the dilettante, which will put the renaissance to shame. There won’t be anymore jobs, just things to do and people to do them.” Sounds good to me.

[Osmarpetry]

The Abolition of Work — annotated summary

Thesis

Bob Black argues that both capitalist and socialist systems glorify labour, trapping people in compulsory activity that erodes freedom and joy.

The alternative is a society where necessary tasks are automated or shared voluntarily, leaving the rest of our time for play, creativity, and mutual aid.

Core arguments

1. Historical context

Hunter-gatherers “worked” roughly four enjoyable hours daily; industrial society stretched hours and removed agency.

2. Work as control

Even when the task is done, workers stay put to satisfy managerial oversight; commutes, recovery time, and skilling are all extensions of labour.

3. Bureaucratic excess

Large institutions fabricate busywork (reports, redundant approvals). Eliminating “bullshit jobs” frees capacity for meaningful pursuits.

4. Family & gender critique

The nuclear family reinforces unpaid labour (caregiving, housework) and entrenches inequality; abolition requires rethinking domestic roles.

5. Automation & play

Technology should liberate us. Bob Black imagines machines handling monotonous tasks so humans can focus on activities chosen for joy.

Implications for modern knowledge work

Treat LLMs & automation as “fun multipliers”: delegate repetitive checks (linting, summarising) so human effort focuses on creative problem-solving.

Build workflows where experimentation, teaching, and refactoring feel like play rather than drudgery.

Re-evaluate which meetings, reports, or processes exist only for control; redesign them around trust and shared mission.

Where left & right meet

Both sides claim to “humanise” labour yet depend on its existence. The essay proposes a third path: keep essential work (construction, food, health), strip away the rest, and frame remaining duties as missions rather than obligations.

Insight: redesign compensation, recognition, and team rituals so that even necessary toil feels purposeful and time-bound.

Reflection prompts

- Which tasks in my week are “bullshit jobs” that could be automated or removed?
- How can I convert dull routines into collaborative play (pairing, gamified retros, creative challenges)?
- What would a mission-oriented version of our current role look like—clear boundaries, voluntary participation, and shared ownership?

Next steps

- Gather references cited by Bob Black via Perplexity or academic indexes; catalogue thinkers who shaped the essay.
- Adapt these notes into a template for future reading logs (e.g., summary, critique, actionable experiments).
- Explore adjacent texts: David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs, Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing.

[David Marsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I copied into my journal:

"If you do boring, stupid, monotonous work, chances are you'll end up boring, stupid and monotonous. Work is a much better explanation for the creeping cretinization all around us than even such significant moronizing mechanisms as television and education."

"The only thing 'free' about so-called 'free' time is that it doesn't cost the boss anything."

Quoting John Stuart Mill - "All the labor-saving inventions ever devised haven't saved a moment's labor."

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A majority of work that is being done by human beings nowadays can be cut; and, the way that work is structured is not far off from slavery, and is obviously a degradation in quality-of-life from that experienced by our ancestors. These points are appealing, but Black does little-to-nothing to prove them. Instead, there is some vague fantasizing about how nice the world would be if all of us voluntarily did the work that NEEDED to be done, and said work was gamified and no longer called 'work'. Obviously there is some work that humans will never want to do without a good cause to do so, so Black hits back with beautiful ideas like having young kids take care of garbage disposal because...kids like playing around in filth.

Mostly rahat essay, strung-out and not even that high quality of a fantasy, precisely because it lacks concrete.

I think I would have been a much better game developer, playwright, cook, farmer and person by now if I had the opportunity to play with these things, surrounded by others who also had arrived at these things simply by curiosity. Buuuuuut I have 3-4 hours of homework to do, every day, on top of 18 credit hours of classes. Which is not even that bad compared to the work that some people have to do! The best work I have done has never felt like work. But it's not not-work because of that? I digress.

[Aaron Esthelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very great points in here ab out how work seeks to control our lives and sucks the enjoyment out of tasks we could otherwise find enrichment in. Keeping in mind that this book is more of an introduction to the concept, overall the book is very good. It doesnt outline exact ways to carry out an abolition of work and I dont belive it seeks to do so. But towards the end it where the book starts to falter. Many mentions of removing the jobs will make people happier but I personally think that removal of jobs would be detrimental to many. Many individuals who are accustomed to this system would be lost without it and without proper integration into a new system it would surely fail. I dont belive Black didnt think about this, I do however think its worth mentioning. As this book is just an introduction it leaves much more to be discussed.

[Aleksis Ratenieks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting essay from Bob Black. Gives you an entirely different perspective on our current socio-economic system and makes you question many things about it. This essay made me rethink of what I define as "freedom" in the most fundamental way. A truely revolutionary work, that makes you imagine a fundamentaly different world from ours.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incendiary diatribe that goes hand-in-hand, and goes a bit recklessly harder, than something like Graeber's Bullshit Jobs. It's fundamentally a polemic, so there are certain questions about its totalizing worldview that it is not interested in answering, but as a north star for the complete disintegration of capitalist relations, it's never not compelling.

[M]

A punchy essay arguing for an end to work, funny and rather interesting! It opens up some discussions, provokes some feelings (like HAHA, also urgh, also YOU WISH, also I WISH!!), and leaves us with a great quote at the finish line: Workers of the world… RELAX!

[Lala kcsho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todo lo que está bien en un libro y además tiene dibus SPOILER TRABAJAR HACE MAL

[Georgios Glinos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read, with meaningful propositions and quotes of many ancient and modern philosophers.
The sketches are minimalist but ingenious as well.
Loved it

[Conner Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

The least hinged true statement I’ve ever read.

[Ethan · Rating 1 out of 5]

He wants to live like an aristocrat but doesn't have the stomach for slavery it would require

[Pablo Gómez · Rating 5 out of 5]

ESTE LIBRO SE LO DEBERÍA LEER TODO EL MUNDO!!!

Es en formato cómic, se lee muy fácil, y el mensaje es clarito, lo transmite bien. Explica un poco como podría realizarse la abolición del trabajo, no como algo utópico sino potencial realista. No entra muxo en el tema pero como idea inicial está bien. Y cita varios autores/otras lecturas interesantes respecto a esto (soy un inepto y me queda mucho por leer pero me ha llamado la atención)

Está en la biblioteca de la UVa, si alguien lo quiere se lo puedo sacar y prestar.
Creo que a @mudito.jpg le gustaría bastante.
Besozz a mis lectores 💋💋💋


//


"Si haces trabajos aburridos, estúpidos y monótonos, es probable que acabes siendo aburrido, estúpido y monótono"

"Trabajadores del mundo... ¡Relajaos!"

[An · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, short read! A useful lens on how the logic of work has shaped our institutions and even our sense of self. I came away with an entirely new perspective on labor :)