The Good Enough Job

The main premise of this book is that workism is particularly American and a fairly modern phenomenon. Workism is the belief that work is the source of meaning in your life, and the author explores how work has come to replace religion, and any other type of volunteering, to become the main focus for everyone.

If you treat work like a religion as the best use of your time, then any time spent not working is time wasted. I know I fight with this and have a hard time relaxing knowing that there are more books to enter here, or books to read, or something to do that is "productive". It made much of my summer hard to enjoy because at no point did I feel like I could let off the gas. Even time spent in the hammock had to be enforced by myself because I continued to think of other things I could be doing.

There are many other interesting books recommended by the author that I'll be digging into over the next few years.

Purchase The Good Enough Job on Amazon

- the central theme the book is that [[workism]] is a particularly [[United States|American]] and especially common among the priviledged and [[workism]]is a fairly modern phenomenon PG XV

- [[Worked Over - Jamie K McCallum]] Pg XX

### 1 For What It's Worth

![[cultivate many sources of meaning in your life]]

### 2 - The Religion of Workism

- [[The Nones Second Edition - Ryan P Burge]] Pg 25
- [[community]] Pg 25 - really the whole chapter
- [[religion]] Pg 25 - really the whole chapter
- [[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - Max Weber Talcott Parsons]] Pg 26

- [[the spiral of silence]] Pg 29
- [[Bowling Alone - Robert D Putnam]] Pg 30

- if you treat work like a [[religion]] and [[worship]]it as the best use of your time, then anything less than perfection in the execution of your work is a failure. Pg 34

### 3 - The Love of Labor

- [[What Color is Your Parachute - Richard Nelson Bolles]] Pg 41
- this is the book that prompted the idea you should love your job and it **needs** to be more than a way to provide food/safety

- if we all have a [[dream job]] and you're not currently in it you better keep [[hustle culture|hustling]] to find it or you're a failure Pg 43 ^b41fcc
- this is a recipe for no leisure and [[overwork|burnout]]

- [[Work Won't Love You Back - Sarah Jaffe]] Pg 50

- ![[why do you work so much for so little]]Pg 53

- [[Can't Even - Anne Helen Petersen]] Pg 53

- C-Suite loves to push working for more than just $ because it allows them to pay poorly and keep more of the money the company earns.

### 4 Lose Yourself

- [[workism]] leads to [[enmeshment]]. This makes quitting the easy part, but then you have no identity and must find who you are outside of someone that has a job/works. Pg 66, 67
- plus if all your "friends" were work friends you loose a bunch because you're no longer invited to the after work happy hour

- [[Karl Marx]] Pg 73
- [[loneliness]] Pg 73

- [[overwork]] is a vicious cycle where you work too much, thus don't have other things to do, and you keep working because it's all you know. Pg 76

- in a culture that valorizes [[hustle culture|side hustle]] the message is that if you're not getting ahead you're falling behind Pg 79

### 5 - Working Relationships

- work as a [[families|family]] is almost never good for [[employee]]. They ask for long hours, less pay and if you push back you're not a "family" player. Pg 88, 89
- but of course the job won't take care of you if you're sick and can't work. Then you're on your own.

- [[Friends Without Benefits - Understanding the Dark Sides of Workplace Friendship]] Pg 90

- so much of work is really only a reward for outworking your peers. It makes work a culture of politics and toxicity. Pg 108

### 6 Off the Clock

- for most of history the more $ you earned the less you work and the more [[leisure]] you took. Pg 112

- we think of the [[overwork|overloaded]] exec checking [[email]] but there are many more people working lots just to eat. Pg 176
- ?? pg number doesn't make sens in this flow. Maybe 116

- [[taylorism]] Pg 118
- [[The Principles of Scientific Management]] Pg 118

- [[Frederic Taylor 160920200702]] skill as a [[marketing]] person far outweighed his success as a person that could make your company more money. Pg 120

- [[4 day Work week]] Pg 130
- [[Shorter]] Pg 130

### 7 Work Hard, Go Home

- [[Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell]] Pg 139
- [[Brave New World - Aldous Huxley]] Pg 139
- [[George Orwell]], [[Aldous Huxley]] Pg 139

- [[Cubed - Nikil Saval]] Pg 140
- the office itself is a technology that ideally helps people get work done. Pg 141
- [[Liquidated - An Ethnography of Wall Street - Karen Ho]] Pg 142
- [[A World Without Email 250420211028]] Pg 142

- [[open office]] have just as many [[distraction]] as a studio apartment with a 5-year-old in it...all the time. Pg 151

### 8 - The Status Game

- when we say someone is [[successful]] we rarely mean happy and healthy. We mean they make a lot of money. Pg 162
- so we confuse money with [[happiness]] which is part of [[happiness rhetoric]]
- [[Status Games - Loretta Graziano Breuning]] Pg 163
- [[LSAT]] Pg 166
- [[Undermining Childrens Intrinsic Interest with Extrinsic Rewards]] Pg 169
- [[Drive - Daniel H Pink]] Pg 169
- [[The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron]] Pg 175
- [[Surf Is Where You Find It - Gerry Lopez]] Pg 175
- [[Range]] Pg 175

### 9 A World with Less Work

- [[overwork]] Pg 182
- [[overwork is a systematic issue]] Pg 182

**1 - Disentangle Survival and Employment**

- [[universal basic income|universal income]] Pg 186
- when we remove [[Scarcity 180920201044]] from people they have room to think and build better lives. Pg 189

**2 - Show Don't Tell** Pg 191

- leaders need to show the balanced workplace they advertise in job ads

**3 - Refine Your Version of good Enough** Pg 193

- your job is a economic contract first, not a calling
- decide how much you need, and stop when you're there
- ?? who are you outside your "productive" self?? Pg 201