'Do what you love'? Yeah, right

[DonCoquixote]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/do-what-you-love-yeah-right/2162469

From the article:

"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life! Before succumbing to the intoxicating warmth of that promise, it's critical to ask, "Who, exactly, benefits from making work feel like nonwork?" "Why should workers feel as if they aren't working when they are?"

In masking the very exploitative mechanisms of labor that it fuels, DWYL is, in fact, the most perfect ideological tool of capitalism. If we acknowledged all of our work as work, we could set appropriate limits for it, demanding fair compensation and humane schedules that allow for family and leisure time.

And if we did that, more of us could get around to doing what it is we really love."

[LuvNewcastle]

1. Let's face it, we can't all float around following our passions.

Someone always has to do the heavy lifting to make those passions and great ideas become reality. Most of us are going to be serving the passions of others, not those of our own. Very few of us get to do what we enjoy all the time. Even if we are doing what we enjoy, there are still deadlines and details that must be handled that we aren't going to love. Nothing would get done if everyone did what they wanted to do all the time.

It's such talk as this that makes good workers feel inadequate and unhappy with their lives. It makes people feel like failures if they aren't doing what they love. It reinforces the capitalist lie that if you aren't rich and successful, it's you're own fault. People need to know that they probably aren't the creative sort who get to sit around coming up with ideas for the next big thing, and that's just fine.

We're all special in important individuals in our own right, but that doesn't mean we have the same quality of experience in our lives. There is a certain nobility in getting a dirty job done and finding yourself in other pursuits beyond all that. We aren't what we do for a living. Let's get past that kind of thinking.

[get the red out]

2. Thank you!!!

I am sick of people being made to feel like failures for having a job and surviving instead of following their dreams, whatever that is supposed to mean.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I have no patience with people who turn up their noses at others because of

what they do to pay the bills. That kind of attitude tells me a lot more about somebody than whatever job they do. All too often, when we meet each other, the first question we ask other people is what they do for a living. To me, that is almost irrelevant as to who a person really is. Ask someone what their interests are first. Whether they're a garbage collector, bank teller, or a lawyer makes no difference in whether you'll hit it off if you don't have compatible interests.

[get the red out]

5. I thought I was the only one

Who found that "what do you do" question rude and irrelevant. I am glad I am not! More and more in our society I see honest work being demeaned along with the people who do it. When I was a kid I was taught to respect someone making an honest living, now I see that idea almost completely gone from our society. The whole "dream theme" in work is just a way to make people feel like they have FAILED and it is their fault. Just another avenue to look down on people for made up reasons.

[el_bryanto]

9. The thing is "What do you do" is one of the few points of guarenteed commonality

between people. If you meet someone for the first time, because of how separate we are these days, this is one thing you can safely bring up as a hope to connect with someone.

But it is an irritating question in some ways.

Bryant

[tridim]

6. I want to follow my dream, but it's illegal because the establishment says so.

Fortunately it wont be illegal for much longer.

[Demeter]

4. I do what I love--and don't get paid for it

and then, I have the day job...

so I feel a bit schizophrenic...who doesn't? The work I do for free is so much more valuable to many more people, but one must eat.

[Adrahil]

7. I don;t turn my nose up at people for what they do. But...

... I do look down on those who keep themselves WILLFULLY ignorant. Who reject "book learning" as my grand dad would call it, as an effete, elitist lifestyle.

Anti-intellectualism is a rallying point of the right.

[badtoworse]

8. I guess I'm the exception and the lucky one.

I've enjoyed an interesting career in electric power that has paid me well. I do believe that if you like what you do, you will probably be successful.

[JCMach1]

10. Wrong full stop on all counts... anyone's worth should not be based on unit labor...

That system is falling apart anyone, so let's kill it now.

[liberal_at_heart]

11. It is possible to both set limits on it and enjoy it. My husband was a telecom engineer and he

absolutely loved it. I tell both my children to follow their passion and do what they love. There is nothing wrong with following your passion. Just as there is nothing wrong with labor. My brothers are truck drivers and I am proud of both of them. They work very hard.

[randome]

12. Mitch Hedberg.

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[Nuclear Unicorn]

13. I'm sorry but it just sounds like so much sour grapes

(not that the author is going to give-up writing in major metropolitan newspapers for the privilege of working in the coal mine as pictured on the website) by someone who doesn't understand what the term means.

Every time I have heard the DWYL expression it was always in reference to those were self-employed or very satisfied with their employment. I can't imagine ever hearing it in relation to someone who happily accepted being exploited.

Case in point, my father became self-employed as a General Contractor. Even though his responsibilities multiplied and his compensation-per-hours-worked was diminished he still preferred being his own boss. The only person who could exploit him was him.

One consequence of this isolation is the division that DWYL creates among workers, largely along class lines. Work becomes divided into two opposing classes: that which is lovable (creative, intellectual, socially prestigious) and that which is not (repetitive, unintellectual, undistinguished). Those in the lovable-work camp are vastly more privileged in terms of wealth, social status, education, society's racial biases and political clout, while composing a minority of the workforce.

Okay? And?

"Do what you love" disguises the fact that being able to choose a career primarily for personal reward is a privilege, a sign of socioeconomic class. Even if a self-employed graphic designer had parents who could pay for art school and co-sign a lease for a slick Brooklyn apartment, she can bestow DWYL as career advice upon those covetous of her success.

So says the author who has a Ph. D. (Phenomenal Dork?). When is this hyperventilating, hypocritical scold going to set aside her privilege to go clean the city sewers?

The fact that some people get to do what they like is not a gateway to exploiting others. Nor does that mean the DWYL'ers are not capable of expressing solidarity with those who are exploited. Nor does it mean those doing what they like have won some unfair lottery through no effort or merit. I wouldn't begrudge anybody the opportunity.