Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives: Amazon.co.uk: Madeleine Bunting: Books

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Guardian, 3 July 2004
'brilliantly thorough and thoroughly brilliant attack on the contemporary work ethic'

Times Literary Supplement
'highly readable and informative'

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
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3.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, and possibly life-changing, 20 Jul 2004

By	"phillips_81" - See all my reviews

This is an excellent book. Well researched, brilliantly argued, and, it rings horribly, savagely true. It's a kind of 'Fast Food Nation' for the overwork culture that the silent majority (in the UK) have been conned into, and come to expect as 'the norm'.

If you've ever wondered whether it was really meant to be this way, this book will at once reassure you that it's not, and kick-start you into making the required changes to get your life back.

It is not a 'self-help' / 'personal growth' book - there are enough of those. And, as the author brilliantly asserts, this focus on personal responsibility for achieving 'work / life balance' etc. is all part of the problem - cultural change, she argues, requires collective action (time to join the union!)

If you find yourself habitually slumped on the sofa on a Sunday night, after a weekend's recovery from a knackering week at work; if you've watched in silent despair as the hobbies you used to love are sacrificed; if you find yourself unable to sleep because your mind is buzzing with an overflowing 'to do' list, order this book without delay. You won't regret it.

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43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What's It All For?, 1 Jun 2005

By	ianrmillard - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book is valuable because it offers a rare challenge to what (in England) seems to have become the accepted "norm" since the 1980's Thatcher years, i.e. that people should get up at maybe 6 a.m., get to the office as much as an hour EARLY, work through the "lunch hour" (or eat, repulsively, at the desk) and stay way beyond (maybe hours beyond) "going home time", only to face a crap 1-3 hour commute back to some little overpriced box to sleep in. What a rotten society this has become! And as the book says, in effect citing the Le Carre character, "I've paid all right--I don't know what the hell I've bought with it!" Indeed, what is "bought" with those (largely unpaid) extra hours of work and, increasingly, travel to and from work? Cheap weekends in Prague or Paris? A shiny little car to try to show off in (on roads which are crammed with other shiny little cars, so that driving is less and less of a pleasure anyway)? But many, especially the 20-40's who grew up in the 80's and 90's are indoctrinated like robot minds with the idea this life is not only normal but a good life! What a farce!

The book offers a range of anecdotes, official reports etc, showing that England is largely alone among the developed states in promoting --mostly unpaid-- extra hours of work, to combat very poor productivity and management. Yes. The only society which comes close is the USA, but from this reviewer's experience, employers in the US take their pounds of flesh another way, i.e. by giving very short holidays. On a daily basis, most Americans do not seem to do these pointlessly long hours (most of the office tower lights in Manhattan are off by 7 pm at latest, mostly by 6 pm).

It is a disgrace, as the book says, that the Blair government in the UK is still demanding the right for "the UK" (i.e. employers in the UK, often American-owned transnationals) to "allow" employees to opt-out of the 48 hours Euro maximum. What century is this? Why are white Northern European countries trying to compete with China and India? Europe should put forward its own societal model, if necessary by imposition.

The result, again well shown in the book: a collapsing society composed of stressed employees (especially the managers and professionals), fearful of losing their jobs, who pay for government waste (Millenium Dome, fake "human rights" activities, Olympic bids, foreign wars) and a vast underclass of "chavscum" etc who live parasitically off the crumbs from the table via social security. Marital breakdown, children cynical and criminalized by their teens are all part of the same story, along with the end of any leisured social life (cf. binge drinking on Friday and Saturday nights, unbelievably vulgar hen parties, mass drunkenness etc to wipe out for a few hours the futility of their existences).

A recommended book. True enough to make one into an anarchist or revolutionary. Maybe that might be a good thing. This situation in the UK cannot continue.

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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you know anyone who whinges about overwork give 'em this!, 19 Jul 2004

By	James Richards (Scotland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In general the book is excellent. It is easy to read, well structured, and well referenced.
The best part of the book is that it describes what appears to happening on an all-too-often basis.
However, it does not fully explain why employees behave like they do.
In other words, what it does is look at the symptoms of our so-called modern work ethic and not so much focusing on what forces are shaping the self.
We need to know more about how powerful groups influence behaviour, sustain their influence over time, and absolve themselves of the aftermath from overwork.
This I feel cannot be explained through reference to secondary resources or personal accounts.
In short, this book is provocative to the point where I would expect the book to be mentioned for some time yet as we ponder over effects of work on our non-work lives. But, the momentum needs to be continued or taken up by someone who can better explain the forces that shape behaviour in the workplace and outside the workplace.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth a read
The book is definitely worth a read - primarily for me because the different perspectives/ experiences of people cited allow one to build a wider picture of what is actually going... Read more

Published on 6 Aug 2006 by Negotiator

3.0 out of 5 stars Yes, it's not good, but UK workers still take it easy!
The basic thesis of this book is sound - since Thatcher there is no longer any such a thing as a stable job or long-term employment (except if you are one of the vast army of... Read more

Published on 10 Jun 2005 by timothymarrable35

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read
I largely agree with the previous reviewer, but would also say that there was (as perhaps expected from a Guardian journalist) an over-emphasis on the public sector and womens... Read more

Published on 3 Aug 2004 by Clive Pacey

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Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives (Paperback)

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