Future of Work: 9 books I read in 2023

Laetitia@Work #65

Hi everyone,

This is my first newsletter of 2024 and the perfect opportunity to wish you all a happy New Year! 🤗

I must confess I find it increasingly hard to comply with the upbeat New Year rituals of wishing for a wonderful year as if we could just start from scratch and forget about the climate, war, and the rise of fascism (and all the upcoming elections this year). By the way, I recently came across this new acronym: BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, Incomprehensible) to replace the old VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) acronym, which makes me wonder: what new year rituals should we invent in a world of extreme anxiety and dumbfoundedness?

In any case, one way to make your year more beautiful is by reading more books! So here's my yearly selection of future of work books that I enjoyed in 2023. (My definition of "future of work" is pretty broad so these books actually delve into a wide range of societal topics).

👉 And for those who missed last year's selection, you can still find it here: Future of Work: 12 books I read in 2022. Laetitia@Work #54

📚 Below is a list of 9 books about the future of work that I read in 2023. It is a mix of English and French books. Sadly they’ve not all been translated. But hopefully you’ll find something you’ll want to read in this list👇💡

1. Quit: The Power of Knowing When To Walk Away by Annie Duke

Success isn't just about hard work and persistence. Often, the most crucial skill is to be able to recognise when to persevere and when to change course. Quit is a must-read book that draws from cognitive science, business and history to help us better understand why we make bad decisions at work (and in life) and how to avoid them. “One of the biggest clues to the way that the language favors grit over quitting is that one of the synonyms for grittiness is heroism. Others include bravery, courage, and fearlessness. When we think of perseverance, particularly in the face of danger, we picture the hero, who gets to the edge of death, faces down the abyss, and perseveres when other people would give up. Meanwhile, people who quit are cowards” Annie Duke writes.

👉 Also read: Why I'm tired of goals. Laetitia@Work #55 in which I mentioned Duke’s book.

👉 And: 5 toxic forces that prevent you from quitting when you should. Laetitia@Work #56

2. Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood by Jessica Grose

In Screaming on the Inside, journalist Jessica Grose discusses the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers, fuelled by societal ideals of the perfect mother who can effortlessly juggle work, wellness, and home life. Parenting is more of a collective matter than a private one: raising a child takes public support—childcare, healthcare, schools and other infrastructures—which the US hasn’t made affordable enough (alas many other countries aren’t doing that much better in that regard). As a result women still lag behind in the workforce. Thank you Nobel Prize winner Claudia Goldin for explaining how this has a huge influence on the world of work: the motherhood penalty is still the primary cause of gender inequalities in the workplace.

👉 Also listen to this podcast (in French) in which I discuss Grose’s book and the shifting representations of motherhood in popular culture (with Céline Alix & Sandra Fillaudeau): Maternité: Place à l’ambivalence 🎧

3. Chums: How A Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over The UK by Simon Kuper

Whitehall is teeming with Oxford alumni. An overwhelming majority of the postwar British prime ministers attended Oxford. When these peers, rivals and friends entered national politics and the business world, they brought all their university connections with them. In Chums, Simon Kuper explores how a small caste of privileged people influenced modern Britain disproportionately. But this tale also speaks volumes about the changes in the economy and the world of work. Plutocracy is on the rise. The importance of networking grows, as jobs become more polarised, and the “good jobs” (those that pay well and carry social prestige) are increasingly reserved for a caste that passes down privileges from generation to generation.

4. A World Without Work by Daniel Susskind

As generative AI advances into the white-collar world, many people fear the threat of becoming obsolete, much like assembly line workers before them. Will machines destroy our jobs? In A World Without Work, Daniel Susskind insists we are heading towards a world with less and less paid work. Therefore we need to reinvent our public policies to address technological unemployment and resulting inequalities, redistribute wealth, and regulate the power of tech giants. I may not believe we are headed to a world without work (mostly we’re headed to a world with lots of poorly-paid service jobs) but Susskind’s analysis is a must-read to have a better grasp of the Luddite question in its modern form.

👉 Also read this Welcome to the Jungle article in which I discuss Susskind’s book and all the reasons why I disagree with (some of) it: Un monde sans travail est-il (vraiment) possible ? (in French).

5. Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

In Rest is Resistance, “Nap Bishop” Tricia Hersey emphasises the importance of rest as a racial and social justice issue, particularly in the context of historical oppression and the legacy of slavery. Rest is a form of resistance against capitalism and white supremacy, as these systems have perpetuated exhaustion and exploitation. The Nap Ministry she founded promotes rest as a form of reparation and a way to connect with one's ancestors. Rest serves as a fertile ground for imagination, community care, and political action. It has cognitive value, facilitating creative thinking and identity formation. Today’s popularity of the 4-day workweek aligns with the growing recognition that rest is a means of resisting productivity culture & its deleterious consequences.

👉 Also read Rest is Resistance. Laetitia@Work #59

👉 And What if rest was a form of resistance? (Welcome to the Jungle)

6. Sois jeune et tais-toi (“Be Young and Keep Quiet”, not translated) by Salomé Saqué

Despite what consultants and other proponents of generational discourse may say, when it comes to work, there are no significant generational differences in aspirations: we all want some security, dignity, a sense of purpose, a place in a nice team, good pay, and a better balance between work and life. So why are the young assumed to be "different"? And why is Gen Z labeled as lazy, ignorant, individualistic, insufficiently engaged, fickle? In Sois jeune et tais-toi, an essay that became a best-seller in France, journalist Salomé Saqué invites readers to "change their perspective on youth." As new entrants into the job market, the young are offered (mostly) “bad jobs” and a largely misaligned deal (with little or no access to housing, for example).

👉 Also read Salomé Saqué : en finir avec les clichés sur la jeunesse, notamment au travail (in French) (Welcome to the Jungle)

7. The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery by David Gopnik

In The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery, Adam Gopnik explores the concept of mastering a skill. Real work in the context of stage magicians represents the accumulation of skills & technical expertise that elevate a magic trick. In his quest to understand mastery, he becomes a student in drawing, magic, driving, bread making, boxing, ballroom dancing. His main learning? Making work real involves embracing our human imperfections. “We search in the arts not simply for the signs of skill, which are, if not easily taught, still teachable. We search for the signs of a unique human presence (...) We never really love an artist’s virtuosity, or if we do, it feels empty. We love their vibrato, their unique way of entangling their learned virtuosity within their unique vulnerability.”

👉 Also read The Mystery of Mastery. Laetitia@Work #64

8. L’ex plus beau métier du monde (“The Former Greatest Job in the World”, not translated) by William Lafleur

France’s largest employer, the Éducation nationale (our National Education system), suffers from a severe lack of attractiveness. Until recently, it was at least good at retaining its recruits. But French teachers are now resigning en masse. William Lafleur was one of them. In L’ex plus beau métier du monde, he explains why the topic of career change is now on every teacher’s lips. Teacher resignations have increased by 528% in 12 years. In three words the reasons are: (lack of) "salary, resources, respect." The impoverishment of teachers is substantial. Their salaries have not kept up with inflation for many years. It is very difficult for a young teacher to afford decent housing. And they’ve been asked to work more and more.

👉 Also read Les profs démissionnent en masse (my article in Nouveau Départ)

9. Éloge du bricolage ("In Praise of DIY”, not translated) by Fanny Lederlin

In a beautiful philosophy book titled Éloge du bricolage. Souci des choses, soin des vivants et liberté d’agir, Fanny Lederlin urges us to abandon the engineer's logic and embrace that of the “handy(wo)man”. Much like Wall-E in the Pixar film, it involves caring for things as one should care for the living, making do with what's available, and tolerating the "impure". "[This logic] presents itself as a tactic that prioritises practice before theory: it's the means that determine the end (…) it is the context, the situation, as well as the available tools, objects at hand, and the individuals with whom and for whom one is acting that shape the intentions – always open, provisional, and subject to modifications along the way – of DIY practitioners." An essential lesson for the future of work!

👉 Stay tuned for a future podcast with the author of this book!

🎙️ We launched a new podcast with Samuel Durand (in French): it’s called Work Buddies. Check out these episodes: La place des vacances dans le travail, Rémunération : nos secrets de négociation, IA et démographie 🎧

💡Check out the latest article in French I wrote for Welcome to the Jungle: Arrêtons de rabaisser les « bons élèves » au travail !

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🎙️ The Nouveau Départ podcast will return for a new season next week! “Économie et travail : 7 tendances pour 2024” will be the first episode “À deux voix” of 2024 🎧

👉 Subscribe to receive our future podcasts directly in your inbox!

Miscellaneous

🤕 Why Do Women Get More Headaches Than Men?, Melinda Wenner Moyer, The New York Times, December 2023: “Many women, for instance, experience migraine headaches before and during menstruation, just after their estrogen levels drop (…) women who get migraine headaches tend to experience steeper estrogen drops than women who don’t. It’s unclear exactly why estrogen fluctuations trigger migraine headaches (…) Estrogen does important things inside the brain, so the hormonal changes must also trigger a series of events culminating in migraine”

😑 The Annoyance Economy, Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, October 2023: “The gap between how the economy is and how people feel things are going is enormous, and arguably has never been bigger. A few well-analyzed factors seem to be at play, the dire-toned media environment and political polarization among them. To that list, I want to add one more: something I think of as the “Economic Annoyance Index.” Sometimes, people’s personal financial situations are just stressful—burdensome to manage and frustrating to think about—beyond what is happening in dollars-and-cents terms. And although economic growth is strong and unemployment is low, the Economic Annoyance Index is riding high.”

📚 Ursula K. Le Guin on Change, Menopause as Rebirth, and the Civilizational Value of Elders, The Marginalian, Maria Popova: “Living through one of the profoundest changes a human body-soul can undergo — menopause, long cottoned in the euphemism “change of life” — she writes: “The woman who is willing to make that change must become pregnant with herself, at last. She must bear herself, her third self, her old age, with travail and alone. Not many will help her with that birth.” Although biologically particular to female bodies, Le Guin goes on to observe, menopause is a lens on the universal experience of change and our civilizational bias against old age.”

I wish you all a not-too-bad New Year full of love and great books! 📚❤️🤗