What is the Anti-Work Movement?
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By Lora Korpar
In Brief: (1) The anti-work movement advocates for a work structure shift away from paid labor and toward voluntary and fulfilling work. (2) While the anti-work movement is not new, labor shifts from the pandemic have made it grow in popularity. (3) Many members of this movement joined in response to a negative workplace experience, so businesses should respond by evaluating their labor practices.
Amid recent labor shortages and quiet quitting, the anti-work movement has gained steam. The community’s hub is on Reddit, where r/antiwork has more than 2.2 million members. The community shares workplace horror stories, and the ideology that work as it is structured today should be abolished.
What to Know About the Anti-Work Movement
The anti-work movement is not meant to be lazy or advocate for zero labor. It instead argues that many modern jobs are unnecessary and enforce issues like income inequality and poor work-life balance.?
The movement’s most recent demographics survey found that the majority of its members are males below age 35 from North America. More than 64% of members are currently working full-time jobs.?
According to ProofHub, anti-work advocates’ goal “is to reduce or eliminate paid labor and replace it with voluntary work that’s equally as fulfilling but doesn’t take away from family life and other personal interests.” Under this system, employees can choose work hours, work environment and time off.
"If you define ‘work’ as any activity or purposeful intent towards some goal, then sure, [society can’t function without it]. That's not how we define it though. We're not against effort, labor, or being productive. We're against jobs as they are structured under capitalism and the state: Against exploitative economic relations, against hierarchical social relations at the workplace.”?
— r/antiwork FAQ section
How the Anti-Work Movement Grew
This movement did not spring from anywhere. It has existed on Reddit for almost a decade and many people outside of the community have expressed similar sentiments. More than 47 million workers quit their jobs in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many to reevaluate what kinds of work conditions are acceptable. These new priorities caused some to leave their jobs. For example, a Gallup survey found that three in 10 remote employees say they are “extremely likely to seek another job if their company eliminates remote work.”??
The community’s growth boomed after the pandemic began. The December 2021 demographics survey said more than 84% of members joined within the past year.
“I think the pandemic highlighted or exacerbated things that were already happening in the labor space. So there are workers out there who have changed their preferences about work. Maybe the pandemic made them realize how precarious fair work conditions are and made them rethink, ‘Is this something that I want to go through again, and be this vulnerable to the changes that might affect my livelihood?’ Others were just burned out from the fact that they were essential workers [and their] jobs would not allow them to work remotely or social distance, exposing them to risks from the pandemic… We're seeing public support just for organizing and unions unprecedented in the last 50 years because a lot of workers understand how important it is to have not just a job, but a good-quality job.”?
— Enrique Lopezlira is the director of the Low Wage Work Program at the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center.
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The Anti-Work Movement in Practice
The anti-work movement says people should not have to work jobs that don’t give them fulfillment. Many in the community advocate for increased automation in any field possible to fill the gaps. Also, this encourages the rise of small-scale essential businesses like independent grocery stores.?
However, this idea also creates an issue because many essential positions are not widely considered fulfilling. Most essential workers do not have the privilege of choosing a job they are passionate about. The r/antiwork moderators declined an interview with LinkedIn News to comment on the issue, citing a policy to not give interviews to the media.
“A lot of people don't have the option of not doing paid work and just volunteering and doing something that fulfills them because they are in such a precarious financial situation. There's lots of disparities in the labor market, where folks are living paycheck to paycheck. If you're a single parent with responsibilities and very little to no savings, you don't have the option of trying to just volunteer and do what makes you happy. And so the stronger the safety net is, the more people can have some options, but we're a long way from having a safety net in terms of health care, retirement and unemployment insurance.”?
— Enrique Lopezlira
?How Businesses Can Respond to Anti-Work Sentiments
Though the reality the anti-work movement is striving for seems far away, employees can still advocate for better conditions and businesses can still provide for them.
The anti-work Reddit community recommends employees band together with co-workers and unionize whenever possible. The chance of retaliation is smaller when a larger group is demanding change.??
Lopezlira added that businesses must consider their employees as people, not commodities. People are willing to work, but they want to feel appreciated and receive benefits for their efforts.
“I think one of the good things from all of these different movements is that they're rebalancing power. For a long time, the power has been in the hands of the corporations and the employers. And workers are starting to realize that if they want meaningful change, they need to build their power… [Employees] are not just costs that need to be minimized, they're actually assets and partners in the businesses. The employers who embrace that, empower their workers, treat them with respect, give them a living wage consistent with their productivity and provide a good-quality job in terms of schedules, benefits and so forth — those employees will not want to leave. They’ll want to stay and be part of the mission of those organizations.”?
— Enrique Lopezlira
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Meet the experts?
Enrique Lopezlira, Ph. D, is the director of the Low Wage Work Program at the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center. He has more than 17 years of experience in the economics field. At the Labor Center, he analyzes working conditions in low-wage industries and policies to raise labor standards.
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1 年Great to see LinkedIn talking about this. #flexibleworking #worklifebalance
Yes, there is. And we are glad to be a part of it.