Book cover, showing the two faces of the "coin" of work

Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions, by Dr. George M. Alliger

HOUSTON, TX, UNITED STATES, December 7, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- There is a current movement toward anti-work: the idea that all work, in and of itself, is primarily a bad thing. This can be seen in phenomena like “The Great Resignation,” in which large numbers of people are quitting their jobs with gusto, or in forums where a multitude of posters describe and decry bad jobs.

But anti-work has been with us a long time. Scriptures from various traditions provide insights into it. And many modern thinkers from around the world have offered stark propositions on the negative character of employment. In his new book, Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions (Routledge Publishing; original imprint; $34.95; release date November 30, 2021), work psychologist George M. Alliger offers not only the first distillation of anti-work thinking into a set of tenets, but an examination of the psychological dynamics of worker discomfort and resistance.

Topics addressed within this framework include the asymmetric nature of most employment, working from home, precarious work, bosses, the merit debate, unions and cooperatives, initial inequality, and psychological responses available to individuals in confronting the challenges of work.

One interesting position of anti-work is that ALL work suffers from a kind of fatality, whether full- or part-time, blue- or white-collar, public or private, well- or poorly-compensated.

Intended audience includes:
• General readership as well as academic; this book does not presuppose any knowledge of psychology.
• Psychologists and students of psychology will also find it intriguing as they read it in the light of their own particular areas of interest.
• Supervisors and mid-level managers will benefit through better understanding the employment dynamic.
• All those who are employed, as well as those who don’t work will find assistance in thinking about their own life situations.

GEORGE M. ALLIGER, Ph.D. has worked both in academia and as a consultant, helping organizations and workers to better understand the nature of the work they do. He is a fellow of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, an editor of The Handbook of Work Psychology, and author of over 60 peer-reviewed articles.

"Drawing from thinkers as varied and vital as Simone Weil and Frédéric Lordon, Karl Marx and Frederick Taylor, Buddhist sages and Hasidic masters, George Alliger has written an eloquent and insightful series of reflections on the culture of work. Not only does Alliger offer a compelling meditation on how we worked yesterday and how we work today, but also proposes, in clear and cogent language, how we might all, by a more human and humane approach, work better in the future." Prof. Robert Zaretsky, The Honors College, University of Houston

George Alliger
+1 281-436-9541
alliger@anti-work.org
Consulting Work Psychologist
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