The Age of Anti-Ambition
The Age of Anti-Ambition (behind paywall), Noreen Malone, The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2022.
EXCERPTS:
When 25 million people leave their jobs, it’s about more than just burnout…
The act of working has been stripped bare. You don’t have little outfits to put on, and lunches to go to, and coffee breaks to linger over and clients to schmooze. The office is where it shouldn’t be — at home, in our intimate spaces — and all that’s left now is the job itself, naked and alone. And a lot of people don’t like what they see...
Millions of others have simply left the work force — because they’re sick, or taking care of children, or retiring, or just plain miserable...
Last year only a third of American workers said they were engaged in their jobs...
The enormous personal costs of getting to the top became clear, and the potential warping effects of being in charge also did...
Soon enough we began to question the whole way power in the office worked. What started out as a hopeful moment turned depressing fast. Power structures were interrogated but rarely dismantled, a middle ground that left everyone feeling pretty bad about the ways of the world. It became harder to trust anyone who was your boss and harder to imagine wanting to become one. Covid was an accelerant, but the match was already lit...
For the first time since the survey began, more people say they’re not too happy than say they’re very happy...
just a job, a paycheck to take care of the bills! Not the sum total of us, not an identity...
Even elite lawyers seem to be losing their taste for workplace gunning... It’s happening in finance, too:..
Some people have reacted to this moment by becoming less cynical about the possibilities of work. .. At some companies, it finally feels as if the old hierarchies are being upended, ..
Confronted with this world, many young people with professional options want to be in solidarity with their colleagues instead of climbing the ladder above them...
The professional managerial classes...are in the middle of developing a class consciousness...
But somehow, workplace protections still seem in danger of becoming one more luxury item that accrues to the privileged...
Work is mainly, really, about making money to live. And then trying to make some more. A boring, ancient story. The future of work might be more like its past than anyone admits.