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Christiana White's avatar

I've been fascinated by the lie-flat movement in China and the so-called Great Resignation here. I've been working since I was 13, an eighth-grader, and frankly I'm tired. I'm also angry, I've discovered. I was commuting up to three hours round-trip a day when I went into the office. Luckily I had whittled that down to two to three times per week. But that was still six to nine hours a week of DRIVING, at a time when none of us should be commuting (planet is on fire). Also: children. I'm a single mom of two kids who are now 20 and 23. I managed to do an amazing job a single mom, putting my kids first whenever possible, but at great cost to myself. I feel toxified by the shame and guilt I felt, and the fury, at all of the times I was made to feel afraid for leaving work to see my kids' play at school, or meet them for the Halloween parade around the school yard. I guess I sound spoiled. Obviously, the trade-off is clear. We trade our time for money, and we needed money. My jobs made it possible to provide a safe home for my kids. I should be grateful. If I had a better attitude, maybe I would be. I struggle with trying to figure out if there is something with our work culture or whether the problem lies with me. My biggest gripe is how work culture destroys family and community. The kids are warehoused. The elders are warehoused. There is no one to take care of our vulnerable populations. We farm this work out, and I find that troubling to say the least. I don't know what the answer is. But I find myself thinking often about the "promise" that the advent of computers were going to make it possible to reduce work hours. Why has that not happened?

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Peter Saracino's avatar

May I suggest, “The Tyranny of the Clock,” an old essay by George Woodcock? Much angst about work is tied to how much we are slaves to mechanical/digital time. A farmer with a crop to plant has an entirely different view of work to a journalist with a deadline in three hours.

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