Customer Reviews

Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR

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Have you ever wondered why people introduce themselves by saying "what they do"? Have you ever wondered why "work" is so central to everything we say, do, or think about? Well this book answers a lot of those questions. I found that I would read a chapter and then think about it for a couple of days before moving on because it shook my very foundation THAT HARD. I can't recommend this book enough.

"Selling the Work Ethic" by Sharon Beder is a highly readable and thought-provoking history of how work has come to dominate our society. Using thorough documentation and skillful analysis, Ms. Beder contends that today's pathological obsession with work is a direct result of the capitalist production of human subjectivity. The author argues that a change in priorities from production and consumption to one that privileges the quality of life and the environment is needed to resuscitate our frayed society.

Section One discusses the Reformation and the transition from precapitalism to the present. Ms. Beder contrasts the anti-materialist teachings from ancient Greece and the early Christian church with the Protestants who gave a voice to the emerging capitalist class by equating prosperity with virtue. As time progressed, business-sponsored schools, churches and newspapers promoted the work ethic and coerced labor to accept the discipline of the factory. The effectiveness of this mass propaganda is attested to the fact that despite declining real wages and growing inequality, the myth of the American Dream persists to the present day.

Section Two is on the topic of motivating work. Ms. Beder begins with Taylor and Ford to show how industrialists experimented with various methods for controlling and exploiting the workforce. But as welfare capitalism subsequently sought to create emotional and familial bonds with employees and curb union militancy, the downsizing and job insecurity of the postmodern era has shattered the employment contract. Hence the recent restructuring of government welfare programs has been necessitated to punish the poor into accepting menial jobs that otherwise might go unfilled.

Section Three is about conditioning. The education system molds students for production through overwork and instills the ethos of competition by organizing team sports. Mass marketing leads to increased consumption of the commodities that signify status in a society of mass anonymity. Unfortunately, the stress of working long hours to achieve material success manifests itself in a myriad of social maladies including anxiety, obesity and rampant drug abuse.

Ms. Beder concludes that the work ethic crowds out time for people to reflect on the deeper meaning of their lives and to work collectively towards change. While the author offers little guidance as to how people might move beyond this impasse, those who do take the time to read her book are rewarded with greater insight and understanding. In this respect, then, "Selling the Work Ethic" may help readers begin to deconstruct and challenge the status quo.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

As always, Dr. Sharon Beder presents us with some
mind-altering analysis, which will probably change
your view of the world and, what is valuable therein.

After reading this, a pleasure in itself, you will
come away with a much better understanding of why
our societies run the way they do and, how they
will have to run differently if we want to have a
realistic chance of ending the madness, of creating a more
human world, which our ancestors will be able to live in...

I found this book in a local library a few months ago and was intrigued by its title and table of contents. After reading it from cover to cover I must say I was really surprised to learn much more about capitalism and the unfolding of consumer society than I learnt during Soviet era from Marxist propaganda. Having a big management library myself I would say I never questioned why all these management books were printed. To know why you need to read this book. Funny enough, after reading, I stumbled across the demo of a computer game about Sponge Bob where he was about to start working hard to be promoted to a management position. Walking around his house he met a welfare creature who asked him not to forget him after the promotion. The whole episode now looks from a fresh selling work ethic perspective especially when I learnt that the CD came from a packet of children food bought in Tesco (selling work values to kids?). I liked the book and bought another one from the same author: This Little Kiddy Went to Market: The Corporate Assault on Children and also a biography Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

Dmitry Vostokov
Management Bits and Tips blog

A very lucid description of today's corporate attitude towards its employees and work in general. The book shows how corporations in the Western World are cashing in big times at the expense of both employee and consumer naivity. The book's style is extemely cursive and easy, in fact I could not put the book down, I had to read it in one sitting.