ubiquity of work

#capitalism
#neoliberalism
#politics
#work

The idea of work always being available rather than a timeboxed task with clear boundaries. We have work email and work Slack on our phones so we can be available at all times. The gig economy rewards its workers for being ready to work at any time or place. Even in our spare time we're encouraged to be "building our brand" and "marketing ourselves."

Mark Fisher suggested that this inability to escape work, along with rampant consumerism and the attention economy, are intentional patterns of life put forth by neoliberalism since the 1970s, not to gain an economic advantage, but to keep workers busy so they don't have the time or energy to explore the possibility that there might be better alternatives to capitalism.