I didn't want to derail his journal so I created this thread.Lemur wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:07 pmhttps://www.zedbooks.net/blog/posts/fre ... usal-work/
Something to read...when I get the 'free-time' to do so. Ironic
A few snippets to give context:
Whilst our jobs might contractually oblige us to work a certain amount of hours per day, it is clear that we do not simply step out of our workplaces and into a world of freedom.
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free-time is now in jeopardy for people who are between jobs, and even for younger people who have yet to set foot into the world of paid employment. This is in large part down to the new pressures of employability: the responsibility of each individual to improve his or her prospects by training, acquiring educational credentials, networking, learning how to project the right kind of personality, and gaining life experiences that match up with the values sought by employers.
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When the development of employability is a practical necessity and a main mental preoccupation, we become increasingly devoted to doing what needs to be done rather than performing activities because they are intrinsically valuable, i.e., because they develop our personal capacities, or enrich our friendships, or simply because we love to do them.
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Unlike traditional exploitation, which is limited to clocked-in time and imposed externally, through the coercive discipline of bosses and technological control, the discipline demanded by employability is continuous and requires a constant self-policing. Employability represents a ‘decentred’ form of exploitation that people are forced to submit to in an almost voluntary fashion, as the spatial and temporal boundaries that previously confined exploitation to time on the work clock are dissolved.
While we have not had full-time jobs for a long time, we have always tried to maintain our employability. I've been planning out the next phase and found myself thinking about credentials and the prospect of spending some considerable amount time and energy in the near future learning in Fromm's 'having' mode. Something I dread.
How are people here finding a good balance?Erich Fromm, who made an illuminating distinction between learning in the ‘having’ mode and learning in the ‘being’ mode.