The Problem With Work

Ep 9 - Conclusion: The Future is Now

Queries: longandsour@gmail.com In this episode of The Problem with Work we discuss Chapter 5 - The Future is Now and the epilogue - A Life Beyond Work. In these pages, Weeks divides the discussion into three sections: cases against utopia, defence of utopia, and forms and functions of the utopian expression. After considering Weeks’ relevant points from the last section, we’ll summarize the broad themes covered in our previous episodes this season. First, we’ll pull the key takeaways from previous episodes on the Work Society and the Work Ethic. By looking back at the first half of the book, we draw connections to what Weeks calls the ‘deconstructive’ function of a policy demand. Then, revisiting the Basic Income and Shorter Hours demands we can highlight what Weeks refers to as the ‘reconstructive’ function.    Benedetta summarizes her contributions to the past eight episodes as a reflection on the dual nature of the art world: as a place of work for artists and creative producers, and as a place of leisure for the public. By keeping in mind these two sides of the field, she argues we can clearly understand the limits of the work society both in terms of its exploitative structures, as well as in terms of what we are missing out on, by discounting our non-work time. In her professional reflections, Nancy focuses on her attempt to be a bridge and an antidote during this season. In her commitment to building a bridge between academia and practical application, she remains steadfast in the value of research being dependent upon effective public communication. As an antidote, she wishes that everyone would stop taking psychology-sounding advice from strangers on social media. Art of the Episode: Art For the Art World (1977), by Adrian Piper Art for the Art World is an installation made of a small room “large enough to accommodate 3 or 4 people at a time, but small enough to conduce to low-level claustrophobia” in Piper’s words. The outside of the box-room is white, whereas the inside is completely covered in black and white photographs and newspaper clippings depicting things like a strike in Cambodia, effects of an earthquake in Turkey, students riots public executions in Thailand and so on… in random places in red are stenciled the words NOT A PERFORMANCE. Question of the Episode: Imagine your current career as a sailboat. There are variables outside the boat which are out of your control: the weather, the water, other boats. There are variables inside that boat which are more likely to be within your control. Consider these questions: What is your current destination? How is your compass guiding you? When are the winds in your sails? Do you have any leaks? Who else is on board? Happy sailing, professionals.  Stay tuned for updates on an exciting Season Two! Works cited Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with Work. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723 [https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723] Northumbria University Basic Income Health Project [https://hosting.northumbria.ac.uk/basicincomehealth/]  The 4 Day Week Foundation [https://www.4dayweek.co.uk/] (UK) Vivek Chibber: How the Left Got Lost | Doomscroll [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8K9w3-b9U] Sonnentag, S., & Wiegelmann, M. (2024). Not detaching from work during leisure time: A control‐theory perspective on job‐related cognitions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 45(7), 1003–1024. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2792 Van Reenen, J., & Yang, X. (2024). Cracking the Productivity Code: An international comparison of UK productivity. London School of Economics and Political Science. https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/special/cepsp41.pdf

Ep 8 - The Demand for Shorter Hours

Email: longandsour@gmail.com In this episode, we discuss Chapter 4 - Hours for What We Will: Work, Family and the Demand for Shorter Hours. In her book, Weeks analyses 3 different ideological cases for shortening the workday: (1) less work for more family time (2) less work for more free time (3) less work for more freedom to shape our society After presenting each case and considering possible political premises for the ideal of a post-work society, we then offer our professional and personal insights from within the art world and organizational psychology.  Benedetta thinks about what the issue of working hours represents for the inextricably personal nature of creative work and careers. She proposes as a framework, what economist Claudia Goldin called “time-greedy jobs”, highlighting its usefulness in understanding gender parity gaps. Nancy considers recently published interdisciplinary research on the positive outcomes of a four-day work week, and how social science must be centred in its policy making. She briefly touches on concepts of the Ideal Worker and how it is incompatible outside of hetero-normative assumptions of organizing a life. That is, the ways in which using space and inhabiting time differs when living a Queer life when considering the demand for shorter hours. (For a more in depth discussion on Queer Time, listen to Jack Halberstam’s talk on Queer Narratives [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozvOeRtuUc&ab_channel=MuseumofContemporaryArtChicago] at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.)  Art of the Episode: Washing/Track/Maintenance: Outside (1973) by Mierle Laderman Ukeles.  Washing/Track/Maintenance: Outside was a series of four performances staged at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, in Hartford CT, in 1973. In these performances Laderman Ukeles sought to make visible the ordinary maintenance work necessary for the functioning of any art institution and individual household. The performances were based on her Maintenance Art Manifesto (1969), which she wrote shortly after having a child and finding herself extremely frustrated with the seeming incompatibility of her identities as artist and mother, and the apparent invisibility of her domestic labor. This work underscores that to be equitable, a feminist time ethics must acknowledge and value these often invisible forms of labor. Question of the Episode: In what ways has the image(ry) of the Ideal Worker informed your approach to work? How does it determine how you organise your time, your relationships, you work outside of work, your notions of being a successful person? If you are a woman, what tensions does the embodiment of an Ideal Worker bring up for you?  Works cited Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with Work. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723 [https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723] Art Basel in Basel (2019, June 13). Panel discussion with Chus Martínez, Coco Fusco, Nadine Zeidler. Moderated by: Julieta Aranda. Between Production and Reproduction | Career and Motherhood in the Artworld Campbell, T. T. (2023). The four-day work week: a chronological, systematic review of the academic literature. Management Review Quarterly, 74(3), 1791–1807. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-023-00347-3 Chung, H. (2022). A social policy case for a Four-Day week. Journal of Social Policy, 51(3), 551–566. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047279422000186 Fletcher, M., Evans, L., Parry-Williams, L., Ashton, K., & Green, L. (n.d.). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and employment. https://phwwhocc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Impacts-of-COVID-on-Women-Explanatory-Note-Eng-FINAL.pdf [https://phwwhocc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Impacts-of-COVID-on-Women-Explanatory-Note-Eng-FINAL.pdf] Goldin, C. (2021). Career & Family: Women’s Century-long Journey Towards Equity. Princeton University Press. Halberstam, J. (2005). In a queer time and place: transgender bodies, subcultural lives. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA70887604 Jahal, T., Bardoel, E. A., & Hopkins, J. (2023). Could the 4‐day week work? A scoping review. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 62(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12395 Cover artwork by ⁠Simone Hutsch⁠ [https://unsplash.com/@heysupersimi] from Unsplash. Music by Tech Oasis from Pixabay.

Ep 7 - Universal Basic Income: Policy, perspective and provocation

Comments and Questions: Email longandsour@gmail.com In this episode of The Problem with Work we discuss the second part of chapter 3, Working Demands, and specifically about Kathi Weeks’ formulation of a proposal for a Universal Basic Income. Following in her footsteps, we elaborate upon a Universal Basic Income as a concrete policy proposal, but also as a conceptual tool of analysis, in the forms of a critical perspective on the present, and as a provocation to ambitiously re-imagine the future. After this discussion, we present our professional insights surrounding Universal Basic Income as a policy and as a political demand. Nancy explains some examples of psychological impacts that the introduction of a UBI could potentially have on workers and on society. Interdisciplinary research suggests a UBI could address many of the determinants of mental health and well-being commonly experienced today. Benedetta talks about a few examples of Basic Income programs for artists and other programs of government support for the arts, their impact for both artists and potentially audiences, and the aspirational nature of such programs, in their recognition (even if partial) of the importance of the sector for society. Question of the Episode: How would receiving a UBI change your sense of security and connectedness in relation to your work life?  Art of the Episode: Look at Art. Get Paid (2016), Maia Chao.  Look at Art. Get Paid was a socially engaged art project that paid people that didn’t visit art museums to visit one as guest critics of the art and the institution. Maia Chao and team recruited visitor-critics through advertisements in public transports. They received 200+ responses, and 41 people were invited as guest critics, with priority given to BIPOC, working class people, people with disabilities, and black. The projects yielded very interesting insights for the museum on their audience engagement and inclusivity. The guest critics offered accounts of what the museum looked and felt like for a newcomer, and the feedback was instrumental in adjusting museum curatorial decisions and policies. Works cited Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with Work. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723 [https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723] Gentilini, U. et al. (2020). Exploring Universal Basic Income. World Bank Group. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/993911574784667955/pdf/Exploring-Universal-Basic-Income-A-Guide-to-Navigating-Concepts-Evidence-and-Practices.pdf [https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/993911574784667955/pdf/Exploring-Universal-Basic-Income-A-Guide-to-Navigating-Concepts-Evidence-and-Practices.pdf] Griffin, V., Zlotowitz, S., McLoughlin, E., Kagan, C. Psychologists for Social Change, (2017). Universal Basic Income: A Psychological Impact Assessment [https://citizen-network.org/uploads/attachment/541/universal-basic-income-a-psychological-impact-assessment.pdf]. PAA: London. Stanford Basic Income Lab: https://basicincome.stanford.edu/research/guaranteed-income-dashboard/ [https://basicincome.stanford.edu/research/guaranteed-income-dashboard/] Sodergren, M. (2024, March 26). Charting progress on the global goals and decent work [https://ilostat.ilo.org/blog/charting-progress-on-the-global-goals-and-decent-work/#:~:text=Despite%20an%20overall%20decline%20in,third%20of%20their%20employed%20population] - ILOStat. Würfel, C. (2025, August 1). Millennial women were told to chase our dreams. That’s left us burnt out, broke and dreaming of a rich patron. The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/01/millennial-women-work-broke-rich-boomer].  Cover artwork by ⁠Simone Hutsch⁠ [https://unsplash.com/@heysupersimi] from Unsplash. Music by Tech Oasis from Pixabay.

Ep 6 - Lessons from Wages-for-Housework

Questions & Comments? Email In this episode, we set our sights on Chapter 3 where Weeks shifts her focus from “the development of an antiwork critique to the incitement of a postwork political imaginary,” (p. 32). We focus on Weeks’ rereading of the 1970s movement Wages for Housework. We discuss the 3 aspects of the movement she highlights as having valuable insights and innovative analyses: 1. The Social Factory 2. Refusal to Work  3. The Demand (as a process) In our discussion of The Demand as a process, we consider the two ways Weeks looks at it. The Demand as a perspective, and the Demand as a provocation. Looking at it as a perspective, we talk about demystification, denaturalization, and the invitation to cognitive mapping as they relate to demanding wages for housework. As a provocation, we examine the usefulness of wages for housework as an incitement of antagonism, collective power, and desire.  In the second section, we offer our perspectives from the Artist’s Studio and the Office Cubicle. Benedetta uses examples from the art world to expand upon her earlier remarks on  demystification, denaturalization, and cognitive mapping. She proposes that these same discursive tools of analysis be applied to artistic labor.  In her expansion on using the Demand process as a means to provoke, Nancy offers two examples from Organisational Psychology research and scholarship: flexible work, and debiasing hiring practices. She invites the audience to contemplate the value in trying to make change whilst working in a biased system, and attempting change by rejecting that system instead.   Art of the Episode: Triplice Tenda (1969), Carla Accardi.  Triplice Tenda is an installation in the form of three polygonal tents, contained one inside the other, made of Sicofoil – a transparent plastic sheet. The surface is painted with a semiregular repetition of light pink waves, inspired according to the artist, by non-figurative Islamic decorative patterns. The theme of the work is a re-imagined domestic space that borrows structurally from nomadic cultures, and their close relationship to the surrounding environment. At the same time it represents a protected and solid space, by virtue of the multiple contained layers. The see-through aspect of the Sicofoil is intended as a support to overcome fear, allowing the person inside the tent to look outside from this sheltered space. Question of the Episode: If you were to hire someone to do your household labour, what would the job advert include?  Works cited Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with Work. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723 Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002 [https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002] Banet-Weiser, S., & Kay, J. B. (2025). Through the looking glass: Feminism and reactionary politics in the digital hall of mirrors. European Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494241310721 [https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494241310721] Chung, H. (2024). Flexible working: A deep dive into the impact of remote working on gender equity. Shape Talent [https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/278670274/Shape-Talent-Flexible-Working-whitepaper-2024.pdf] White Paper. Costa, M. D., & James, S. (1975). The power of women and the subversion of the community. Davis, B. (2022). Art in the After-Culture. Haymarket Books. Goldin, C. (2021). Career & Family: Women’s Century Long Journey toward Equity. Princeton University Press. Krivkovich, A., Field, E., Yee, L., McConnell, M., & Smith, H. (2024, September 17). Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report. McKinsey & Company [https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace]. La Berge, L. C. (2019). Wages Against Artwork. Duke University Press. Van Der Zee, R. (2025, April 2). Hiring women, rather than just talking about it, works. That doesn’t mean all men are on board, it turns out. The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/05/hiring-women-rather-than-just-talking-about-it-works-that-doesnt-mean-all-men-are-on-board-it-turns-out]. World Economic Forum. (2022). Global Gender Gap Report 2022. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2022 [https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2022] Cover artwork by ⁠Simone Hutsch⁠ [https://unsplash.com/@heysupersimi] from Unsplash. Music by Tech Oasis from Pixabay.

Ep 5 - Rejecting and Resisting the Work Ethic

In this episode, we discuss what Weeks refers to as the "parallel history of those who failed to internalize the ‘gospel of work’”. This is the other side of the story we told in Episode Four. Instead, it is about resisting and rejecting the Work Ethic. We offer a brief overview of what was (and is) rejected, by whom, and via what action. In our discussion on rejecting the Work Ethic, we talk about the different ideological positions highlighted in the book which include: * Socialist Modernization * Socialist Humanism * Autonomist Marxism   We discuss what each focused on in their critique of capitalist work ethic, and we reflect on their limitations. In the second section, we switch focus to current and contemporary ways in which the Work Ethic continues to be disavowed and how it persists, even in the face of rejection. Benedetta uses the world of Art as a useful framework for reflecting the limitations of Socialist Humanism and working for passion. She does this through a discussion of potential for harm and exploitation, as well as the missing value of (and need for) boredom and rest.  Considering how a glorification of the Work Ethic can make us unwell, Nancy uses examples found in Organizational Psychology research to offer practical actions we can all take to resist the temptation to chase passion as a career guide. She asks the listener to consider how they can engage with their jobs in ways that are more likely to result in enjoying meaningful, decent, and psychologically rich work.  Other topics pop up along the way such as a brief exchange on the challenge and utility of Utopias (a topic to be explored in much more detail in future episodes!), warnings about the neurological impact of overwork, and an example of Job Crafting done perfectly by tending soil.  Question of the Episode: What/When/How will you rest?  Rest and recovery are essential for us all. However, in a contemporary world that is filled with productivity hacks, hustle culture, and an unending sense of urgency from our phones - it can be hard to do without purposeful action. Here is a simple way to build small, consistent moments of rest into the end of your work day.    Art of the Episode: Ville Fantôme (1996), Bodys Isek Kingelez.  Bodys Isek Kingelez’s works were, as he called them, “extreme maquettes”, architectural and urban models made of paper, cardboard, plastic and other found materials. They are joyous, utopian visions of human environments that offer Kingelez’s own optimistic ideas of what a peaceful, collectively built world might look like. Ville Fantôme, his largest construction, is one of the few completely imaginary places he built. Here the world of the living and that of passed ancestors meet, reminding us of the complexity, if not of the impossibility, of the task of defining a ‘human essence’. Works cited Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with Work. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394723 Castrioto, B. (2024). Labor of Fire. https://benedettacastrioto.com/Curatorial-Projects [https://benedettacastrioto.com/Curatorial-Projects] Gullì, B. (2005). Labor of Fire. Temple University Press. Innes, A. (2023). Late Soviet Britain: Why Materialist Utopias Fail. Cambridge University Press. Jebelli, J., PhD. (2025). The brain at rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life. Penguin Group. Sonnentag, S., & Wiegelmann, M. (2024). Not detaching from work during leisure time: A control‐theory perspective on job‐related cognitions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 45(7), 1003–1024. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2792 Zacher, H., & Baumeister, R. F. (2024). Differences among a satisfied, a meaningful, and a psychologically rich working life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2024.2417102 Cover artwork by ⁠Simone Hutsch⁠ [https://unsplash.com/@heysupersimi] from Unsplash. Music by Tech Oasis from Pixabay. Inquires: longandsour@gmail.com