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The Refusal of Work: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work
Paid work is absolutely central to the culture and politics of capitalist societies, yet today's work-centred world is becoming increasingly hostile to the human need for autonomy, spontaneity and community. The grim reality of a society in which some are overworked, whilst others are condemned to intermittent work and unemployment, is progressively more difficult to tolerate.
In this thought-provoking book, David Frayne questions the central place of work in mainstream political visions of the future, laying bare the ways in which economic demands colonise our lives and priorities. Drawing on his original research into the lives of people who are actively resisting nine-to-five employment, Frayne asks what motivates these people to disconnect from work, whether or not their resistance is futile, and whether they might have the capacity to inspire an alternative form of development, based on a reduction and social redistribution of work.
A crucial dissection of the work-centred nature of modern society and emerging resistance to it, The Refusal of Work is a bold call for a more humane and sustainable vision of social progress.
In this thought-provoking book, David Frayne questions the central place of work in mainstream political visions of the future, laying bare the ways in which economic demands colonise our lives and priorities. Drawing on his original research into the lives of people who are actively resisting nine-to-five employment, Frayne asks what motivates these people to disconnect from work, whether or not their resistance is futile, and whether they might have the capacity to inspire an alternative form of development, based on a reduction and social redistribution of work.
A crucial dissection of the work-centred nature of modern society and emerging resistance to it, The Refusal of Work is a bold call for a more humane and sustainable vision of social progress.
280 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2015
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5748 people want to read
About the author
David Frayne
4 books38 followersDavid Frayne is a writer and social researcher, investigating the social, ethical and political dimensions of our work-centred societies and beyond. He is currently contributing in his capacity as a sociologist to a project on 'The Hard Problem' in the Berggruen Fellows Program at New York University.
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July 2, 2021
I am so glad that this book and I found each other. This book came to me at the perfect moment, giving voice to thoughts that have been bouncing around my head for the last two years or so. I am so thankful I read it. It sounds a bit cheesy, but this book was tremendously psychologically validating for me. In addition to being a well-argued, interesting read, it helped me feel less alone in my ideas about the world.
Many progressive and leftist critiques of labor focus on getting higher wages, better benefits, and better working conditions. Some occasionally focus on reducing working hours for workers. I’ve been reading a lot of books about work lately, and they all focus on one or more of these elements.
But there is simply no mainstream critique of the value of work itself. Why do we work? Why is our work primarily arranged in the form of full-time jobs or careers, or precarious, alienating gig work? Why do we need to perform a job for someone in order to get the things we need to survive? Why must we devote so much of our lives to work? Why are unemployed people treated with such contempt? Why is the first thing we ask someone after meeting them “So, what do you do?”
These questions have buzzed around my brain for the last several years, as work has increasingly come to dominate my life, while also exhausting me, damaging my mental health and creating a growing list of chronic aches and pains from sitting at a computer all day.
I’ve tried therapy, meditation, exercise, and getting better sleep. I’ve tried changing jobs, declining useless meetings, saying no to projects I don’t want, and trying to have better boundaries. I’ve made friends with my coworkers. I’m currently paying lots of money to see a career counselor and explore different jobs. I’ve done informational interviews with people in jobs I might like. I’ve worked through the entirety of What Color Is Your Parachute?
Despite all this effort, my feeling of disgust with work—not just with my job in particular but with work in general—keeps returning. Why, I kept wondering, do we accept 40+ hours of work per week as normal? How did this come to be the way things are, and why does it continue? What would it look like to remove work from its cultural pedestal and to give everyone the ability to lead a rich, full life that is not predominantly occupied by earning wages from a job?
I love this book because it is one of the only books I’ve seen that attempts to answer those questions. It’s written by a sociologist, so it often has a very academic tone, but I still found it captivatingly readable. The first half of the book is a philosophical and historical exploration of work: what work is, why work is often a source of misery for so many, and why (even as technology advances and we produce more goods than ever) we still spend the majority of our time working.
In the second half of the book, the author focuses on the experiences of people who refuse to work, or who have reduced the impact of work on their lives. He interviewed a bunch of people living in the UK between 2009 and 2014 who just “noped” right out of the whole work thing, and he asks them how they came to that decision, what they love about their lives, and what they find challenging.
While I enjoyed the entire book, I found the second half to be the most interesting. I especially enjoyed a chapter called “The Breaking Point” in which the interview subjects discuss their feelings on work and how they realized that work and jobs are socially constructed—and that they could simply choose not to participate.
One man discussed the work ethic, which is so strongly inculcated in us from the time we are young children, and how he realized it was made up—and that there is no real reason every single person needs to work all the time. He had been brought up to pursue a career, but he realized he could choose otherwise.
As he put it, “The trouble is that once it’s happened, you can’t really see things in any other way because it’s almost as if you’ve seen what it is—it’s like seeing through a disguise actually. It’s kind of like the adult equivalent of realizing there is no Santa Claus.”
This quote stuck with me because I had a similar epiphany last year, the sudden realization that deeply ingrained cultural beliefs about what is true and what is important are incorrect. This realization was startling and impossible to dismiss. Once you fully perceive jobs, employment, and money as social constructions, it is extremely hard to put that genie back in the bottle and return to the autopilot of a 9 to 5.
That said, the book makes clear that this is not an easy epiphany to live with. This is not a book that glamorizes unemployment. All of the interview subjects who decided to work less (or not at all) struggled financially. Some relied on a partner for support. Some worked part-time jobs with meager wages. Some relied on public benefits and help from friends.
Despite their hardships, the author treats his interview subjects with care and respect. They often discussed how they were made to feel guilt and shame for being unemployed or employed only part time, how their dislike of work was often medicalized as depression or another mental illness—as though the only reason one might not want to work full time is because they are mentally ill! Many subjects lamented how socially isolating it can be to not have a job where the primary construction of one’s social identity comes from a job title.
The author presents his subjects’ choice to minimize work not as a character flaw but as a brave and radical act. He goes out of his way to illustrate that far from being lazy, they have meaningful, active lives filled with volunteer work, hobbies, and social bonds. It just so happens that their lives are not centered around a job.
I deeply loved this book because it is the first book that has articulated my own negative feelings about how work dominates the lives of almost all people on Earth. That said, the ending of the book falls a bit flat because although the author proposes some possible paths forward to bring the anti-work movement into the mainstream, there is currently zero political momentum behind the idea of working less and finding meaning primarily outside of work. In that sense, this book can be a depressing read. This is the situation we are stuck with, and there is no feasible way out yet—at least not at scale. But in another sense, this book is also hugely validating to those who quietly resent the chokehold that work has on all of us. May we all one day live in a world where work doesn’t dominate so much of our one precious life.
Many progressive and leftist critiques of labor focus on getting higher wages, better benefits, and better working conditions. Some occasionally focus on reducing working hours for workers. I’ve been reading a lot of books about work lately, and they all focus on one or more of these elements.
But there is simply no mainstream critique of the value of work itself. Why do we work? Why is our work primarily arranged in the form of full-time jobs or careers, or precarious, alienating gig work? Why do we need to perform a job for someone in order to get the things we need to survive? Why must we devote so much of our lives to work? Why are unemployed people treated with such contempt? Why is the first thing we ask someone after meeting them “So, what do you do?”
These questions have buzzed around my brain for the last several years, as work has increasingly come to dominate my life, while also exhausting me, damaging my mental health and creating a growing list of chronic aches and pains from sitting at a computer all day.
I’ve tried therapy, meditation, exercise, and getting better sleep. I’ve tried changing jobs, declining useless meetings, saying no to projects I don’t want, and trying to have better boundaries. I’ve made friends with my coworkers. I’m currently paying lots of money to see a career counselor and explore different jobs. I’ve done informational interviews with people in jobs I might like. I’ve worked through the entirety of What Color Is Your Parachute?
Despite all this effort, my feeling of disgust with work—not just with my job in particular but with work in general—keeps returning. Why, I kept wondering, do we accept 40+ hours of work per week as normal? How did this come to be the way things are, and why does it continue? What would it look like to remove work from its cultural pedestal and to give everyone the ability to lead a rich, full life that is not predominantly occupied by earning wages from a job?
I love this book because it is one of the only books I’ve seen that attempts to answer those questions. It’s written by a sociologist, so it often has a very academic tone, but I still found it captivatingly readable. The first half of the book is a philosophical and historical exploration of work: what work is, why work is often a source of misery for so many, and why (even as technology advances and we produce more goods than ever) we still spend the majority of our time working.
In the second half of the book, the author focuses on the experiences of people who refuse to work, or who have reduced the impact of work on their lives. He interviewed a bunch of people living in the UK between 2009 and 2014 who just “noped” right out of the whole work thing, and he asks them how they came to that decision, what they love about their lives, and what they find challenging.
While I enjoyed the entire book, I found the second half to be the most interesting. I especially enjoyed a chapter called “The Breaking Point” in which the interview subjects discuss their feelings on work and how they realized that work and jobs are socially constructed—and that they could simply choose not to participate.
One man discussed the work ethic, which is so strongly inculcated in us from the time we are young children, and how he realized it was made up—and that there is no real reason every single person needs to work all the time. He had been brought up to pursue a career, but he realized he could choose otherwise.
As he put it, “The trouble is that once it’s happened, you can’t really see things in any other way because it’s almost as if you’ve seen what it is—it’s like seeing through a disguise actually. It’s kind of like the adult equivalent of realizing there is no Santa Claus.”
This quote stuck with me because I had a similar epiphany last year, the sudden realization that deeply ingrained cultural beliefs about what is true and what is important are incorrect. This realization was startling and impossible to dismiss. Once you fully perceive jobs, employment, and money as social constructions, it is extremely hard to put that genie back in the bottle and return to the autopilot of a 9 to 5.
That said, the book makes clear that this is not an easy epiphany to live with. This is not a book that glamorizes unemployment. All of the interview subjects who decided to work less (or not at all) struggled financially. Some relied on a partner for support. Some worked part-time jobs with meager wages. Some relied on public benefits and help from friends.
Despite their hardships, the author treats his interview subjects with care and respect. They often discussed how they were made to feel guilt and shame for being unemployed or employed only part time, how their dislike of work was often medicalized as depression or another mental illness—as though the only reason one might not want to work full time is because they are mentally ill! Many subjects lamented how socially isolating it can be to not have a job where the primary construction of one’s social identity comes from a job title.
The author presents his subjects’ choice to minimize work not as a character flaw but as a brave and radical act. He goes out of his way to illustrate that far from being lazy, they have meaningful, active lives filled with volunteer work, hobbies, and social bonds. It just so happens that their lives are not centered around a job.
I deeply loved this book because it is the first book that has articulated my own negative feelings about how work dominates the lives of almost all people on Earth. That said, the ending of the book falls a bit flat because although the author proposes some possible paths forward to bring the anti-work movement into the mainstream, there is currently zero political momentum behind the idea of working less and finding meaning primarily outside of work. In that sense, this book can be a depressing read. This is the situation we are stuck with, and there is no feasible way out yet—at least not at scale. But in another sense, this book is also hugely validating to those who quietly resent the chokehold that work has on all of us. May we all one day live in a world where work doesn’t dominate so much of our one precious life.
January 27, 2019
"'Normal' is a flexible category that is always ripe for reinvention"- David Fayne
This was a nostalgic read because it reminded me of the sociology books I read at the university. It also felt like a revolutionary act because the most simplistic description of the contents of this book sound like a communist manifesto.
What a great book! Solid research, sound arguments, accessible language - though it was a bit of a drag to get into thanks to the heavy theory.
The central argument is a critique of the work-centred society that most of us live in. Where paid labour is valued the most, though the distribution of meaningful and well-paid jobs is unequal and a lot of necessary and meaningful work does not bring a wage; where the economic forces are driving us to spend more, effectively locking us even further into work that many find alienating; where systematic faults that cause unemployment and underemployment are framed as personal failures of individuals, and the unemployed person is stigmatised as a "slacker" who is "not doing anything".
Living in Finland, I feel that not all of the problems described in the book, which comes from the UK-centric view, apply. There is generally a healthier attitude to working hours, cities are built to encourage shared spaces, and there's a culture of spending time outdoors and enjoying activities that are truly relaxing and free of consumption. It's one of the only places in the world that's doing a real-life experiment with Universal Basic Income, after all.
"Once again, this is not to suggest that work cannot be enjoyable. It is, however, to suggest that the felt need to work is strongly influenced by society’s political, economic, and moral choices. ... There is nothing in the human’s innate psychological make-up that makes it necessary for him or her to be a paid employee. In today’s work-centred society, unemployment is undoubtedly a terrible experience for most people, but this tells us little about how non-work would be experienced in a putative future society where work was no longer constructed as the only source of income, rights and belonging. What if income would be decoupled from work, in such a way that everyone could benefit from a greater level of financial security? What if there were a range of ways to earn respect as a citizen, other than through the performance of paid work? And what if a growing abundance of free-time gave rise to a flourishing infrastructure of informal social networks and autonomously organised production? "
This will definitely be a divisive, thought-provoking read.
This was a nostalgic read because it reminded me of the sociology books I read at the university. It also felt like a revolutionary act because the most simplistic description of the contents of this book sound like a communist manifesto.
What a great book! Solid research, sound arguments, accessible language - though it was a bit of a drag to get into thanks to the heavy theory.
The central argument is a critique of the work-centred society that most of us live in. Where paid labour is valued the most, though the distribution of meaningful and well-paid jobs is unequal and a lot of necessary and meaningful work does not bring a wage; where the economic forces are driving us to spend more, effectively locking us even further into work that many find alienating; where systematic faults that cause unemployment and underemployment are framed as personal failures of individuals, and the unemployed person is stigmatised as a "slacker" who is "not doing anything".
Living in Finland, I feel that not all of the problems described in the book, which comes from the UK-centric view, apply. There is generally a healthier attitude to working hours, cities are built to encourage shared spaces, and there's a culture of spending time outdoors and enjoying activities that are truly relaxing and free of consumption. It's one of the only places in the world that's doing a real-life experiment with Universal Basic Income, after all.
"Once again, this is not to suggest that work cannot be enjoyable. It is, however, to suggest that the felt need to work is strongly influenced by society’s political, economic, and moral choices. ... There is nothing in the human’s innate psychological make-up that makes it necessary for him or her to be a paid employee. In today’s work-centred society, unemployment is undoubtedly a terrible experience for most people, but this tells us little about how non-work would be experienced in a putative future society where work was no longer constructed as the only source of income, rights and belonging. What if income would be decoupled from work, in such a way that everyone could benefit from a greater level of financial security? What if there were a range of ways to earn respect as a citizen, other than through the performance of paid work? And what if a growing abundance of free-time gave rise to a flourishing infrastructure of informal social networks and autonomously organised production? "
This will definitely be a divisive, thought-provoking read.
February 9, 2016
Excellent. I enjoy any book that forces us to rethink aspects of our lives we consider eternal. This is a beautifully clear and thought-provoking discussion and I would recommend anyone to read it.
May 12, 2020
In 2013, I embarked on a personal experiment in which I intentionally unplugged myself from traditional employment. I really wish David Frayne’s The Refusal of Work had existed during those first years, as it would have lent intellectual energy and a useful lexicon to a project that was difficult at first to articulate. I also think this book would have appealed more fully to my 2013-self than it does to my 2019-self.
The Refusal of Work explicates a “Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work,” but only within a limited scope. Inside that scope, it is an incisive and well-researched piece of cultural criticism dominated by late-20th century and early-21st century Marxist theorists. The most notable of these is André Gorz, from whom Frayne borrows many ideas as well as a definition of work: “An activity carried out for a wage” (19). At the outset, Frayne is rightly preoccupied with identifying critical questions––ones that reveal the heart of his dispute with the modern concept of work:
"What is so great about work that sees society constantly trying to create more of it? Why, at the pinnacle of society’s productive development, is there still thought to be a need for everybody to work for most of the time? What is work for, and what else could we be doing in the future, were we no longer cornered into spending most of our time working?" (13)
These inquiries reveal that Frayne has no interest in creeping around the edges of work, but rather prefers a head-on assault. He accomplishes this handily, crafting detailed chapters that demonstrate the harms of overwork (psychological and physical), the colonizing force work exerts on human lives, and how the capitalist culture of work has become deeply entrenched in society’s repositories of power. He is careful at several points not to discredit the positive aspects of work, but focuses on its negative effects on individuals and society as a whole. The clear message is that Frayne would like to live in a world in which everyone can work less, and where work would be firmly “subordinated to the need for human autonomy and the leading of richer, more varied lives” (17).
Frayne makes good on his promise to explore the praxis of work resistance, although again the scope is quite limited. Between 2009 and 2013, he conducted interviews “with a range of people who were taking significant measures to prevent work from colonising their lives” (118). These people all appear to have resided in the United Kingdom, and Frayne offers no quantitative data to complement his qualitative analyses. Still, there is much to be gained from his summaries of the interviews and quotes from his subjects. All of them experienced some version of “the breaking point,” which Frayne describes as:
"The moment at which people began to reflect more clearly on the nature of cognitive power, and on their own powers of self-direction within the constraints of the society around them. The need to be employed was no longer accepted as a natural law or feature of human nature, but instead represented an object ripe for critical attention. With high spirits and a note of pride, people described a process of reflection on their stock notions and habits, a shedding of their roles, and a rediscovery of their lives as open to possibilities. They spoke out against the prescriptive world of timetables, duties, routines and rules which threatened their ability to maintain an image of themselves as unique, deliberative and responsible people. They achieved catharsis as their sense of repression culminated in a bona fide change." (128)
While details vary from subject to subject, Frayne does a good job of finding the common threads that bind them together. The strongest of these is an increased desire for relaxation and creative independence. He also describes a variety of ways that stepping back from work can be accomplished, examining both moderate and radical approaches (i.e. working one less hour per day vs. giving up work entirely). The result is a mixed bag, but one that indicates the possibility of working less as a pathway to increased self-actualization:
"Whilst we can safely assume that their lives entailed significant financial hardships (hardships that some were happy to talk about, and others reluctant), a lower level of consumption was a key component in people’s attempts to discover a less materialistic version of the good life. People worked and consumed less in order to avoid the ‘troubled pleasures’ of affluence, hoping to discover new pleasures of the more sublime and enduring kind that can only be realised with an abundance of free time. Resisting capitalism’s constant invocations to feel ashamed and dissatisfied with their possessions, they took pride in their ability to develop their own ideas of pleasure, beauty, sufficiency and well-being. They were reflecting on the relationship between well-being and commodity consumption, and discovering a new sense of mastery and rootedness in the world, as they developed their hitherto undiscovered capacities for self-reliance. Whilst it would be absolutely blinkered to deny that the escape to a slower pace of life is a practical impossibility for many people, who would not be able to survive economically, it is equally reckless to accept the idea that high-consumption lifestyles are the fixed norm to which everybody should aspire." (187-8)
Now, a few quick words about The Refusal of Work’s weaker elements. Beyond the limitations of scope already mentioned, Frayne’s writing is dry and repetitive throughout––perfectly serviceable but rarely poignant or stirring. Frayne also presents an extremely lopsided interpretation of capitalism, refraining at any point from acknowledging its historical role in lifting billions out of abject poverty and improving the material well-being of millions beyond what even monarchs enjoyed just a few short centuries ago. These shortcomings render The Refusal of Work merely a good piece of nonfiction rather than a great one.
Frayne’s text shines most brightly in its nuanced explorations of the relationship between work and identity. Modern work’s domination of our identities can be profound, and many people never learn to achieve (or are barred from achieving) a critical distance from which to examine how much of their identities are wrapped up in their professional lives. Frayne’s analysis injects much-needed daylight into the gap between work and identity, providing concepts and terms that give people permission to exist and develop outside of work’s overbearing influence:
"A person may find temporary solace in calling himself a teacher, a bar manager, or a policeman, but none of these identities says everything about who he actually is. No matter how hard a person tries to achieve self-actualisation through the adoption of a work role, he will always fail." (65)
I agree with the general assertion here, but I also think it’s important to note that some people do actually seem “to achieve self-actualisation through the adoption of a work role.” In my experience, these are a relatively small number of highly ambitious, competitive people whose identities hinge on becoming superior operators in business, politics, crime, or some other power-broking arena. With the exception of criminals, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with these folks allowing work to occupy the center of their lives, but the problem is that, as they gain power and influence, they tend to expect the same all-consuming dedication from their colleagues and employees. Over time, standards that facilitate flourishing for a tiny minority end up being misapplied to entire workforces; I believe it is this pernicious dynamic that Frayne seeks to expose and subvert.
The most encouraging aspect of Frayne’s analysis of work and identity is his proposition that the refusal of work represents a universal struggle in which any and all citizens of the world can partake. He frames this argument using David Cannon’s idea of a “worthwhile ethic,” which could replace the more traditional “work ethic” by “questioning the sanctity of paid work and insisting that there are other, potentially more worthwhile, activities around which life might be organised” (233). Frayne explains further:
"The notion of a movement based on the ‘worthwhile ethic’ avoids the pitfalls of trying to unite people on the basis of existing social categories such as class or gender. A range of people stand to benefit from the shift to a less work-centred society, and the desire for a more self-determined life does not belong to any single demographic. The desire to transcend a work-centred existence germinates wherever people sense a rift between their socially prescribed roles and their sense of self. This is true whether these people are old or young, male or female, with or without families, working or not working, rich or poor. As a banner under which people could potentially unite, an advantage of the ‘worthwhile ethic’ is that it is broad, and does not confine the struggle to any particular cultural group. What count as ‘worthwhile’ is up to each person to decide." (233-4)
This excellent passage allows a temporary and much-needed escape from the Marxist confines that restrain the rest of the text. By transcending the limitations of any ideology and appealing to each person’s desire to have more time to enjoy life in a self-directed and open-ended fashion, Frayne proves that his theories have the potential to undergird a legitimate, coalition-based sociopolitical movement. This could be even more powerful if combined with the rapidly-increasing global concern about climate change. Less work equals less consumption in most cases, so there is an overlapping interest for individuals and societies seeking to decrease their carbon footprint.
What would such a movement look like? Dipping again into Gorz’s work, Frayne advocates for a “politics of time”––an incremental means of scaling up and institutionalizing the isolated efforts of those already refusing work on an individual basis:
"What is demanded is not an instant, top-down change in policy, but a more gradual process of collective exploration and open debate. Indeed, perhaps one of the reasons democratic debate is currently in such a moribund state is that our busy lives leave us with so little time to study politics, collectively organise, or find out what is going on in our communities. The strength of democracy depends on people having the time to engage and participate in this process. The difference between the politics of time and the prescriptive utopias of the past is that the former does not seek to enroll people in some pre-planned utopian scheme, but to gradually free them from prescribed roles, furnishing them with the time to become politically active citizens…The hope is that an increasing amount of free-time will allow people to forge new relations of co-operation, communication and exchange, and thereby become participants in the construction of their own futures." (222)
These are pretty words, but I am skeptical that any such movement is close at hand. Frayne agrees that “there appears to exist no cultural movement that currently has the potential to develop a politics of time” (227). This is no reason to conclude that refusing work in one’s own way is a futile effort, but I don’t think we can expect a widespread shift in global work practices anytime soon.
This review was originally published on my blog, words&dirt.
The Refusal of Work explicates a “Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work,” but only within a limited scope. Inside that scope, it is an incisive and well-researched piece of cultural criticism dominated by late-20th century and early-21st century Marxist theorists. The most notable of these is André Gorz, from whom Frayne borrows many ideas as well as a definition of work: “An activity carried out for a wage” (19). At the outset, Frayne is rightly preoccupied with identifying critical questions––ones that reveal the heart of his dispute with the modern concept of work:
"What is so great about work that sees society constantly trying to create more of it? Why, at the pinnacle of society’s productive development, is there still thought to be a need for everybody to work for most of the time? What is work for, and what else could we be doing in the future, were we no longer cornered into spending most of our time working?" (13)
These inquiries reveal that Frayne has no interest in creeping around the edges of work, but rather prefers a head-on assault. He accomplishes this handily, crafting detailed chapters that demonstrate the harms of overwork (psychological and physical), the colonizing force work exerts on human lives, and how the capitalist culture of work has become deeply entrenched in society’s repositories of power. He is careful at several points not to discredit the positive aspects of work, but focuses on its negative effects on individuals and society as a whole. The clear message is that Frayne would like to live in a world in which everyone can work less, and where work would be firmly “subordinated to the need for human autonomy and the leading of richer, more varied lives” (17).
Frayne makes good on his promise to explore the praxis of work resistance, although again the scope is quite limited. Between 2009 and 2013, he conducted interviews “with a range of people who were taking significant measures to prevent work from colonising their lives” (118). These people all appear to have resided in the United Kingdom, and Frayne offers no quantitative data to complement his qualitative analyses. Still, there is much to be gained from his summaries of the interviews and quotes from his subjects. All of them experienced some version of “the breaking point,” which Frayne describes as:
"The moment at which people began to reflect more clearly on the nature of cognitive power, and on their own powers of self-direction within the constraints of the society around them. The need to be employed was no longer accepted as a natural law or feature of human nature, but instead represented an object ripe for critical attention. With high spirits and a note of pride, people described a process of reflection on their stock notions and habits, a shedding of their roles, and a rediscovery of their lives as open to possibilities. They spoke out against the prescriptive world of timetables, duties, routines and rules which threatened their ability to maintain an image of themselves as unique, deliberative and responsible people. They achieved catharsis as their sense of repression culminated in a bona fide change." (128)
While details vary from subject to subject, Frayne does a good job of finding the common threads that bind them together. The strongest of these is an increased desire for relaxation and creative independence. He also describes a variety of ways that stepping back from work can be accomplished, examining both moderate and radical approaches (i.e. working one less hour per day vs. giving up work entirely). The result is a mixed bag, but one that indicates the possibility of working less as a pathway to increased self-actualization:
"Whilst we can safely assume that their lives entailed significant financial hardships (hardships that some were happy to talk about, and others reluctant), a lower level of consumption was a key component in people’s attempts to discover a less materialistic version of the good life. People worked and consumed less in order to avoid the ‘troubled pleasures’ of affluence, hoping to discover new pleasures of the more sublime and enduring kind that can only be realised with an abundance of free time. Resisting capitalism’s constant invocations to feel ashamed and dissatisfied with their possessions, they took pride in their ability to develop their own ideas of pleasure, beauty, sufficiency and well-being. They were reflecting on the relationship between well-being and commodity consumption, and discovering a new sense of mastery and rootedness in the world, as they developed their hitherto undiscovered capacities for self-reliance. Whilst it would be absolutely blinkered to deny that the escape to a slower pace of life is a practical impossibility for many people, who would not be able to survive economically, it is equally reckless to accept the idea that high-consumption lifestyles are the fixed norm to which everybody should aspire." (187-8)
Now, a few quick words about The Refusal of Work’s weaker elements. Beyond the limitations of scope already mentioned, Frayne’s writing is dry and repetitive throughout––perfectly serviceable but rarely poignant or stirring. Frayne also presents an extremely lopsided interpretation of capitalism, refraining at any point from acknowledging its historical role in lifting billions out of abject poverty and improving the material well-being of millions beyond what even monarchs enjoyed just a few short centuries ago. These shortcomings render The Refusal of Work merely a good piece of nonfiction rather than a great one.
Frayne’s text shines most brightly in its nuanced explorations of the relationship between work and identity. Modern work’s domination of our identities can be profound, and many people never learn to achieve (or are barred from achieving) a critical distance from which to examine how much of their identities are wrapped up in their professional lives. Frayne’s analysis injects much-needed daylight into the gap between work and identity, providing concepts and terms that give people permission to exist and develop outside of work’s overbearing influence:
"A person may find temporary solace in calling himself a teacher, a bar manager, or a policeman, but none of these identities says everything about who he actually is. No matter how hard a person tries to achieve self-actualisation through the adoption of a work role, he will always fail." (65)
I agree with the general assertion here, but I also think it’s important to note that some people do actually seem “to achieve self-actualisation through the adoption of a work role.” In my experience, these are a relatively small number of highly ambitious, competitive people whose identities hinge on becoming superior operators in business, politics, crime, or some other power-broking arena. With the exception of criminals, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with these folks allowing work to occupy the center of their lives, but the problem is that, as they gain power and influence, they tend to expect the same all-consuming dedication from their colleagues and employees. Over time, standards that facilitate flourishing for a tiny minority end up being misapplied to entire workforces; I believe it is this pernicious dynamic that Frayne seeks to expose and subvert.
The most encouraging aspect of Frayne’s analysis of work and identity is his proposition that the refusal of work represents a universal struggle in which any and all citizens of the world can partake. He frames this argument using David Cannon’s idea of a “worthwhile ethic,” which could replace the more traditional “work ethic” by “questioning the sanctity of paid work and insisting that there are other, potentially more worthwhile, activities around which life might be organised” (233). Frayne explains further:
"The notion of a movement based on the ‘worthwhile ethic’ avoids the pitfalls of trying to unite people on the basis of existing social categories such as class or gender. A range of people stand to benefit from the shift to a less work-centred society, and the desire for a more self-determined life does not belong to any single demographic. The desire to transcend a work-centred existence germinates wherever people sense a rift between their socially prescribed roles and their sense of self. This is true whether these people are old or young, male or female, with or without families, working or not working, rich or poor. As a banner under which people could potentially unite, an advantage of the ‘worthwhile ethic’ is that it is broad, and does not confine the struggle to any particular cultural group. What count as ‘worthwhile’ is up to each person to decide." (233-4)
This excellent passage allows a temporary and much-needed escape from the Marxist confines that restrain the rest of the text. By transcending the limitations of any ideology and appealing to each person’s desire to have more time to enjoy life in a self-directed and open-ended fashion, Frayne proves that his theories have the potential to undergird a legitimate, coalition-based sociopolitical movement. This could be even more powerful if combined with the rapidly-increasing global concern about climate change. Less work equals less consumption in most cases, so there is an overlapping interest for individuals and societies seeking to decrease their carbon footprint.
What would such a movement look like? Dipping again into Gorz’s work, Frayne advocates for a “politics of time”––an incremental means of scaling up and institutionalizing the isolated efforts of those already refusing work on an individual basis:
"What is demanded is not an instant, top-down change in policy, but a more gradual process of collective exploration and open debate. Indeed, perhaps one of the reasons democratic debate is currently in such a moribund state is that our busy lives leave us with so little time to study politics, collectively organise, or find out what is going on in our communities. The strength of democracy depends on people having the time to engage and participate in this process. The difference between the politics of time and the prescriptive utopias of the past is that the former does not seek to enroll people in some pre-planned utopian scheme, but to gradually free them from prescribed roles, furnishing them with the time to become politically active citizens…The hope is that an increasing amount of free-time will allow people to forge new relations of co-operation, communication and exchange, and thereby become participants in the construction of their own futures." (222)
These are pretty words, but I am skeptical that any such movement is close at hand. Frayne agrees that “there appears to exist no cultural movement that currently has the potential to develop a politics of time” (227). This is no reason to conclude that refusing work in one’s own way is a futile effort, but I don’t think we can expect a widespread shift in global work practices anytime soon.
This review was originally published on my blog, words&dirt.
July 4, 2019
Varför arbetar vi fortfarande så mycket? Vad skulle hända om vi inte gjorde det? Hur skulle människor använda tiden då? Och om fler och fler slutar konsumera och upphör med denna 'commodity-intensive work and spend lifestyle' som länge varit normen.
Efter en historisk tillbakablick med Marx, Marcuse m.fl. ägnas flera kapitel åt fallstudier och exempel och det tillförde mycket att läsa det. En aning störande är de halvakademiska skribentmarkörerna "den här delen kommer att behandla..." senare följt av "i det här kapitlet såg vi...", i kommande kapitel kommer jag att...". Utan alla dessa hade boken blivit kortare och (ännu) mer läsbar.
Först mot slutet tas idén om medborgarlön (Basic Income) upp. En bok för den som kanske redan läser texter av Bodil Jönsson eller Roland Paulsen.
Efter en historisk tillbakablick med Marx, Marcuse m.fl. ägnas flera kapitel åt fallstudier och exempel och det tillförde mycket att läsa det. En aning störande är de halvakademiska skribentmarkörerna "den här delen kommer att behandla..." senare följt av "i det här kapitlet såg vi...", i kommande kapitel kommer jag att...". Utan alla dessa hade boken blivit kortare och (ännu) mer läsbar.
Först mot slutet tas idén om medborgarlön (Basic Income) upp. En bok för den som kanske redan läser texter av Bodil Jönsson eller Roland Paulsen.
July 27, 2022
This was a great one and had it all.
I've been so interested in work for a long time. I've been going through all the books on the subject I could find. This feels like a definite book on the subject as it dwells on the concept of work, the history of it and some interviews of people refusing work and praising idleness. Usually books against work tend to be against employment and focus on how to hustle, to me it doesn't feel that useful or fresh. It's more about freelancing.
And yes, of course this is about employment instead of work. Work isn't good or bad, it just is, it can be extremely satisfying and even bring a meaning to ones life. But most of us are stuck in totally meaningless jobs, some of them even evil, taking away our most precious things for the benefit of someone else.
I loved how this focused on the shame and shed light on how beautiful idleness can be.
I've always hated work, but I've always been very productive in what interests me. And I'm not talking about only music and creative stuff, but also doing labor and helping out for something I care about or someone I care about.
I am 32 years old now. I've worked ten years in the advertising industry and I'm not going back after the vacation. Next week will be my first time unemployed, post-work, in 12 years now. Actually, when I really think about it, maybe first time ever. I've been making a pretty handsome buck, but it's gone somewhere; lunches when I've been at work,
The more money I have and the less time I have, the more I tend to consume. It's twisted.
I've noticed that what I most enjoy in life is riding my bike around Helsinki, going to different libraries and reading. Watching films, seeing friends, doing sports, writing, making music, performing... and I have it all now.
What I'm most afraid of now when going solo is just basic life; how to cover food and rent and such things. It's a good thing. Fear is good.
I have zero interest in returning to an office. Sitting at a desk from 9 to 5, making compromise after compromise until my work doesn't feel like my own, feeling profoundly unsatisfied and not being able to eat properly, sleep properly, see my mom and friends as much as I'd like to, not having time to bike and walk and go to the gym.
Fuck work. I'm not a sheep.
Remember what Chaplin said in The Dictator?
The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men!
Alrighty then. A very good book that EVERYONE should read. Unless you are already filthy rich, free or running your own hustle. Maybe you should still read this, though.
Imagine doing something for 40 hours every week, for the rest of your life, giving up your time and energy and the sunshine hours of the day and not being you, not seeing your loved ones... AND NEVER EVEN QUESTIONING IT.
Rant over. Just wanted to tell you how much of an effect this did on me. And of course I know that we all hate work, we all try to find our ways out (but we are trapped) and so on... but trust me, there's still leaps to take, norms to be challenged and beauty to be uncovered.
I've been so interested in work for a long time. I've been going through all the books on the subject I could find. This feels like a definite book on the subject as it dwells on the concept of work, the history of it and some interviews of people refusing work and praising idleness. Usually books against work tend to be against employment and focus on how to hustle, to me it doesn't feel that useful or fresh. It's more about freelancing.
And yes, of course this is about employment instead of work. Work isn't good or bad, it just is, it can be extremely satisfying and even bring a meaning to ones life. But most of us are stuck in totally meaningless jobs, some of them even evil, taking away our most precious things for the benefit of someone else.
I loved how this focused on the shame and shed light on how beautiful idleness can be.
I've always hated work, but I've always been very productive in what interests me. And I'm not talking about only music and creative stuff, but also doing labor and helping out for something I care about or someone I care about.
I am 32 years old now. I've worked ten years in the advertising industry and I'm not going back after the vacation. Next week will be my first time unemployed, post-work, in 12 years now. Actually, when I really think about it, maybe first time ever. I've been making a pretty handsome buck, but it's gone somewhere; lunches when I've been at work,
The more money I have and the less time I have, the more I tend to consume. It's twisted.
I've noticed that what I most enjoy in life is riding my bike around Helsinki, going to different libraries and reading. Watching films, seeing friends, doing sports, writing, making music, performing... and I have it all now.
What I'm most afraid of now when going solo is just basic life; how to cover food and rent and such things. It's a good thing. Fear is good.
I have zero interest in returning to an office. Sitting at a desk from 9 to 5, making compromise after compromise until my work doesn't feel like my own, feeling profoundly unsatisfied and not being able to eat properly, sleep properly, see my mom and friends as much as I'd like to, not having time to bike and walk and go to the gym.
Fuck work. I'm not a sheep.
Remember what Chaplin said in The Dictator?
The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men!
Alrighty then. A very good book that EVERYONE should read. Unless you are already filthy rich, free or running your own hustle. Maybe you should still read this, though.
Imagine doing something for 40 hours every week, for the rest of your life, giving up your time and energy and the sunshine hours of the day and not being you, not seeing your loved ones... AND NEVER EVEN QUESTIONING IT.
Rant over. Just wanted to tell you how much of an effect this did on me. And of course I know that we all hate work, we all try to find our ways out (but we are trapped) and so on... but trust me, there's still leaps to take, norms to be challenged and beauty to be uncovered.
November 19, 2025
Vrouw leest boek, vrouw stopt met werk.
October 11, 2020
Having read Kathi Weeks' work, I began reading sure that Frayne would simply rehash her work less well. Instead, I found that Frayne's disciplinary focus and ethnographic interviews were mildly informative; still more useful was the theoretical bibliography he offered--Adorno, Gorz, and Mills are useful theorists that I'm glad to add to my repertoire.
October 26, 2024
this book is so fucking good. Frayne articulates his entire thesis and argument so well and I absolutely agree with everything. while it might seem impossible and even terrifying to imagine a society that is not so work-centered and values humans regardless of their perceived usefulness to capitalist machinations, he is undeniably correct in saying that carrying on like we do in the present is unsustainable for us humans and also our planet.
we are killing ourselves. capitalism is killing us. we should make a move forward in doing better for our own sake.
we are killing ourselves. capitalism is killing us. we should make a move forward in doing better for our own sake.
February 8, 2021
In his book David Frayne offers a provocation to the concept of modern work. He questions the unquestionable: Is it okay that work is
>>the one only source of status in our society,
>>the only way of making a living and acquiring steady income,
>>forming our identity,
>>taking up much of our free time besides working hours (commuting, trainings, learning new things, buying clothes for work, etc)
>>overall the most central part of most of our lives? And is it worth it?
Frayne explains through a historical recap how we got here, and why the current situation seems to be rock solid due to the ruling values of capitalism. He shares the personal experience (good and bad alike) of those who are aiming at refusing work as it is, or just minimizing its relevance. Finally he introduces ways we can challenge work’s central place in our lives.
The book does perfectly what it was intended to do: it provokes. It puts the bug in our ear that the way we work and the way we prioritise work above everything else is not quite normal, and that there should be a better way in order to have more content and balanced lives.
I recommend this book for hopeless idealists, and everyone who currently feels completely burnt out from work and wonders ‘Does it really have to be like this?’.
>>the one only source of status in our society,
>>the only way of making a living and acquiring steady income,
>>forming our identity,
>>taking up much of our free time besides working hours (commuting, trainings, learning new things, buying clothes for work, etc)
>>overall the most central part of most of our lives? And is it worth it?
Frayne explains through a historical recap how we got here, and why the current situation seems to be rock solid due to the ruling values of capitalism. He shares the personal experience (good and bad alike) of those who are aiming at refusing work as it is, or just minimizing its relevance. Finally he introduces ways we can challenge work’s central place in our lives.
The book does perfectly what it was intended to do: it provokes. It puts the bug in our ear that the way we work and the way we prioritise work above everything else is not quite normal, and that there should be a better way in order to have more content and balanced lives.
I recommend this book for hopeless idealists, and everyone who currently feels completely burnt out from work and wonders ‘Does it really have to be like this?’.
June 12, 2023
A lot of great stuff here: interviews with people who choose not to work/are unable to work, an analysis on alienation and the ambivalence of working, as well as the examination of work as the centrepiece of our society. My main problem is that it doesn't follow through on its premises? The critique of work as the access point to life is really radical if you think about it, and the resulting changes to restructure the importance and role of work need to be too. In the end, the author suggests several reforms, and the tired refrain of "starting conversations" and the recourse to "democratic debate".
June 23, 2020
One idea stuck really hard..."There are things that you think would make your life better when you have them, but there is no point if you spend all your time out there earning the money you need to pay for them."
May 3, 2023
The book is a good starting point to challenge the idea of how work-centered our lives are. At times a bit repetitive, but nonetheless well-researched.
From thoughts about how pervasive work has become, to provocations about how to better engage with free time/leisure time, the reader is left with a refreshed perception of the entity "work" and how to escape from its enticing traps.
From thoughts about how pervasive work has become, to provocations about how to better engage with free time/leisure time, the reader is left with a refreshed perception of the entity "work" and how to escape from its enticing traps.
December 7, 2021
I appreciated the ethnographic element of this book the most—I learned a lot from the participants’ experiences of trying not to work, and I felt that I could relate to a lot of what they told Frayne. One idea that will stick with me is how consumerism is a self-perpetuating cycle, in the sense that we get so tired from work that we have to consume to meet our needs, and then we have to work again to afford consumption, and so on.
I do think that Frayne is more than a bit too pessimistic about the prospects for reducing and redistributing work more equitably. We may not have a political movement for less work right now, but we’ve had them in the past, and there’s no reason why we can’t again.
The focus on the individual interviews also seemed to overlook the collective nature of autonomy and refusal, though Frayne does mention that in the last chapter. My main concern was that the book was extremely focused on the West to the point of ignoring the rest of the world entirely. I get that his interviews were with people in the UK, but every time an example of antiwork politics came up, it was from the US or Europe. I would have loved to see more about refusal and the Global South. Globalization means that any answer to the domination of work has to account for the unequal distribution of work and time across borders and lines of race, class, gender, etc., which Frayne does not do.
I do think that Frayne is more than a bit too pessimistic about the prospects for reducing and redistributing work more equitably. We may not have a political movement for less work right now, but we’ve had them in the past, and there’s no reason why we can’t again.
The focus on the individual interviews also seemed to overlook the collective nature of autonomy and refusal, though Frayne does mention that in the last chapter. My main concern was that the book was extremely focused on the West to the point of ignoring the rest of the world entirely. I get that his interviews were with people in the UK, but every time an example of antiwork politics came up, it was from the US or Europe. I would have loved to see more about refusal and the Global South. Globalization means that any answer to the domination of work has to account for the unequal distribution of work and time across borders and lines of race, class, gender, etc., which Frayne does not do.
June 15, 2024
Quite disappointing. I am on board and agree with nearly everything the author presents, but the book is inelegantly written and deeply repetitive, with the overall impression that it was being padded to reach an arbitrary word count. The arguments rarely penetrated beyond surface level critiques, and while other scholars are cited frequently, the original research that comprises the second half is thin at best, consisting only of a series of interviews of, I think it was said, just 17 individuals who had cut down their working hours one way or another, and the author’s personal reactions to and interpretations of what they had said. In fact, other scholars are cited almost too frequently; the work of André Gorz is mentioned so often, I dare say on something like 30% or more of the book’s pages, that it reads almost as a summary and recapitulation of his work updated for the 21st century more than anything else. The best I can say for this book is that it adequately confirmed my prior convictions (a dubious distinction), and that I was able to mark off a number of bibliography entries as potential options for further reading. I had high hopes for this book, but those hopes were simply not met.
July 29, 2025
Loved this book, especially the theoretical part. I highlighted so many passages in it. Although it is more academic, the writing remains accessible, which I really appreciate. I love it when authors make you question things that are so naturalised today and remind you that many things we assume to be beyond alteration are in fact socially constructed (as so many things in life). This book helps us to gain a better understanding of the work-centred society in which we live and work nowadays, and of how this affects our everyday lives, including our consumption and leisure time, and how it forms our identity.
Will I personally continue to participate in economic work and be part of commodity relations in the future? Certainly. However, this book reminds us of the extent to which our lives, ways of thinking and interactions are shaped or 'colonised', as Frayne would say, by economic demands. In my opinion it is important to be aware of that, as it enables us to rethink. I'm looking forward to his next research projects!
And to conclude, I will use Frayne's own ending:
To any who would suggest that there is no alternative to the work-centred society, I submit that it is a profoundly sad society that cannot envisage a future where a sense of social solidarity and purpose are achieved through anything other than commodity relations.
Will I personally continue to participate in economic work and be part of commodity relations in the future? Certainly. However, this book reminds us of the extent to which our lives, ways of thinking and interactions are shaped or 'colonised', as Frayne would say, by economic demands. In my opinion it is important to be aware of that, as it enables us to rethink. I'm looking forward to his next research projects!
And to conclude, I will use Frayne's own ending:
To any who would suggest that there is no alternative to the work-centred society, I submit that it is a profoundly sad society that cannot envisage a future where a sense of social solidarity and purpose are achieved through anything other than commodity relations.
August 7, 2021
The first half of this book was theory around work culture, and the second half was qualitative research into individuals who currently pursue a reduced work load. I thought the theory was really valuable, especially in taking me outside of structures that I normally take for granted (emotional labor, corporate culture, work life balance, the current tight ties between work and self worth) and helping me to start to think critically about them. I also appreciated the (albeit tentative) suggestions for how we as a society could better distribute our available (and scarce) work, income, and leisure. I was a bit less enthusiastic about the second part, which was more of an exploration of individual experiences and motivations rather than the collectively applicable first half. Overall definitely worth a read, and will likely expand your perception of work and the culture surrounding it.
November 5, 2024
Un libro muy interesante sobre la teoría y la práctica del rechazo al trabajo. Está bien como introducción a la teoría, pero los ejemplos de gente concreta que ha intentado trabajar menos me parece menos interesante y bastante anecdótica. Aún así esta bien para los interesados en el tema. ¡Abajo el trabajo!
December 24, 2017
amazing book
May 13, 2020
Eye opening concepts about work centered society. Worth to read but presented research doesn't actually proof anything. I think more depth about the subject may be presented in cited materials.
December 7, 2021
A must-read for literally everyone.
Read
August 12, 2023my social sciences lecturers would be so proud :p it baffles me how some people would never question the default path!
November 28, 2024
I've would've given it higher rating as an essay or article. The book format felt to long.
June 27, 2021
this was really good! theoretically not really telling me anything I didn't know but it was a valuable roundup of perspectives which are against work, and then the second half which is interviews with people who are themselves resisting work was really refreshing - actually thinking about stuff in practice ! I would also have preferred if generally it was more radical but it did end on that note
October 9, 2022
A thought-provoking book, which invites us to challenge the traditional notions of work in today's society. Interrogating the various emotions and general feelings of apathy surrounding work, Frayne suggests several pragmatic actions in order to decentralise work in our lives, and to invite more free time for our own personal growth and development outside of work.
As someone who had struggled with work-life "balance" during the periods when I was employed, I definitely support shorter working hours as a feasible solution to decentralise work from our lives. I am also intrigued by the interviews conducted with people who were not conventionally employed. Some of them let go of professional jobs in favour of more autonomy and free-time. However, their lives were not without difficulties as society's views on unemployed people are still unfavourable.
This book is definitely worth a read.
As someone who had struggled with work-life "balance" during the periods when I was employed, I definitely support shorter working hours as a feasible solution to decentralise work from our lives. I am also intrigued by the interviews conducted with people who were not conventionally employed. Some of them let go of professional jobs in favour of more autonomy and free-time. However, their lives were not without difficulties as society's views on unemployed people are still unfavourable.
This book is definitely worth a read.
March 8, 2022
Written in 2015 and even more relevant today. Very dry reading but worth it.
March 25, 2021
Channelling the work of labour critics from the Frankfurt School to more contemporary thinkers such as Kathi Weeks and Andre Gorz, Frayne offers a look through the cracks in the cultural hegemony surrounding what he calls 'the work dogma'. Frayne explores these fractures and captures what is perhaps the zeitgeist of the neoliberal period - an intemperate fixation on an individualistic view of work in the moral, cultural, political and economic spheres - through a fruitful melding of theoretical insight and testimony from those actively attempting to resist work. Through his interactions with these resistors, Frayne questions the efficacy of approaches to resisting work with a view to stimulating our imaginations about alternatives to the current paradigm.
December 5, 2020
Does not our current societal relationship to work thwart human potential and autonomous self-development on a massive scale? Is an "emancipatory transformation of society", through a reimagining of the obligation to work, possible?
The Refusal of Work is a thorough look at work-critical thought and practice, bridging anti-capitalist/anti-consumerist perspectives and less-ideological, common-sense refusal of overwork. Frayne's style is academic but quite accessible, and I found it to be an enjoyable read, if a bit of a downer at times.
The first half of the book is a fairly comprehensive theoretical treatment of the human costs of work and the widespread societal enshrinement of the work ethic. Although it was not necessarily revelatory, I appreciated the strong grounding in prior literature and was happy to see such a cohesive case made against our current relationship to work.
The second half of the book synthesizes Frayne's observations from time spent studying and interviewing "a range of people who were taking significant steps to reduce the presence of work in their lives" over the course of about six years. The resulting portrait, assembled from ordinary people's experiences, says quite a bit about the economic, social, and psychological struggles faced when trying to "downshift" one's commitment to work in a world that greedily demands more.
Taken altogether, the book is more problems than solutions, but I have to feel that, at this moment, these problems cannot be articulated enough. In that spirit, here's my very rough summary of the "theory" part of the book:
--
Working pains
Work routinely inflicts various forms of indignity and suffering upon workers: loss of autonomy; alienation (cf. Marx) from the fruits of one's labors, from the process of production itself, and from life-affirming human relations. The trend of "workplace values" and "bring your whole self to work" promises better but is potentially an insidious demand for yet more emotional labor and subjugation of the worker's identity to suit the employer.
The colonising power of work
Work exerts influence on our lives even after we clock out, increasingly "colonising" our (ostensibly) free time. The "degradation of leisure" is evident in our treatment of hobbies as secondary to economic production. Even the unemployed (students, job-seekers, etc.) are haunted by the spectre of "employability" and pressured to live a life that looks good on paper for prospective future employers.
Worryingly, technological advances and associated productivity gains over time have hardly translated to less work for the lot of us: instead, advertising simply ramps up to generate demand for the increased supply. In the limit, this is a vicious cycle where people work ever harder to afford ever-growing consumption, and all our lives become ever more transactional as workers, too drained by their jobs to manage it all themselves, contract out the mere necessities of life (eating, cleaning, child-caring, etc.) and feed the beast of work even as they unwind and prepare to rinse-and-repeat the next day.
The stronghold of work
Normative mainstream attitudes toward work do little good for the working class. Paid employment (however gainless or coercive) is widely upheld as an inherently desirable state for people to strive toward, and the ideal of a strong work ethic is often enshrined as the defining mark of character and used to demonize "lazy bums" or "freeloaders" who, for various reasons and to various degrees, resist societal norms around work. This pervasive moralization of work stifles alternatives and entrenches an unsatisfying status quo.
The Refusal of Work is a thorough look at work-critical thought and practice, bridging anti-capitalist/anti-consumerist perspectives and less-ideological, common-sense refusal of overwork. Frayne's style is academic but quite accessible, and I found it to be an enjoyable read, if a bit of a downer at times.
The first half of the book is a fairly comprehensive theoretical treatment of the human costs of work and the widespread societal enshrinement of the work ethic. Although it was not necessarily revelatory, I appreciated the strong grounding in prior literature and was happy to see such a cohesive case made against our current relationship to work.
The second half of the book synthesizes Frayne's observations from time spent studying and interviewing "a range of people who were taking significant steps to reduce the presence of work in their lives" over the course of about six years. The resulting portrait, assembled from ordinary people's experiences, says quite a bit about the economic, social, and psychological struggles faced when trying to "downshift" one's commitment to work in a world that greedily demands more.
Taken altogether, the book is more problems than solutions, but I have to feel that, at this moment, these problems cannot be articulated enough. In that spirit, here's my very rough summary of the "theory" part of the book:
--
Working pains
Work routinely inflicts various forms of indignity and suffering upon workers: loss of autonomy; alienation (cf. Marx) from the fruits of one's labors, from the process of production itself, and from life-affirming human relations. The trend of "workplace values" and "bring your whole self to work" promises better but is potentially an insidious demand for yet more emotional labor and subjugation of the worker's identity to suit the employer.
The colonising power of work
Work exerts influence on our lives even after we clock out, increasingly "colonising" our (ostensibly) free time. The "degradation of leisure" is evident in our treatment of hobbies as secondary to economic production. Even the unemployed (students, job-seekers, etc.) are haunted by the spectre of "employability" and pressured to live a life that looks good on paper for prospective future employers.
Worryingly, technological advances and associated productivity gains over time have hardly translated to less work for the lot of us: instead, advertising simply ramps up to generate demand for the increased supply. In the limit, this is a vicious cycle where people work ever harder to afford ever-growing consumption, and all our lives become ever more transactional as workers, too drained by their jobs to manage it all themselves, contract out the mere necessities of life (eating, cleaning, child-caring, etc.) and feed the beast of work even as they unwind and prepare to rinse-and-repeat the next day.
The stronghold of work
Normative mainstream attitudes toward work do little good for the working class. Paid employment (however gainless or coercive) is widely upheld as an inherently desirable state for people to strive toward, and the ideal of a strong work ethic is often enshrined as the defining mark of character and used to demonize "lazy bums" or "freeloaders" who, for various reasons and to various degrees, resist societal norms around work. This pervasive moralization of work stifles alternatives and entrenches an unsatisfying status quo.
dnf
June 23, 2025read 15% and it was painfully academic. really wanted to enjoy it since I resonate with the topic; however, I realized I wasn’t learning anything new and it was sucking the enjoyment out of reading so I cut my losses early
April 24, 2018
32nd book for 2018.
I found this a fairly light, but interesting read questioning the underlying assumptions about the need for work as an economic, moral, and self-affirming activity within our society.
A significant part of the book is devoted to the analysis of interviews with unemployed or minimally employed people. While the interviews are interesting, they seem too limited in scope to allow much by way of deeper analysis.
Overall, the book offers the reader a good starting point for framing issues relating to work and it's importance to individuals and society.
4-stars.
I found this a fairly light, but interesting read questioning the underlying assumptions about the need for work as an economic, moral, and self-affirming activity within our society.
A significant part of the book is devoted to the analysis of interviews with unemployed or minimally employed people. While the interviews are interesting, they seem too limited in scope to allow much by way of deeper analysis.
Overall, the book offers the reader a good starting point for framing issues relating to work and it's importance to individuals and society.
4-stars.
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