The Real Reason We Do More

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“Why do we work 8 hours when we created a society where we only have to work 4 hours?”

The era of 'fake labor' where people don't work
The Real Reason We Do More

"Fake Labor: The World of Burnout You Create Yourself" is a story about "fake labor," the work that has been taboo in our society, where people just waste time doing nothing but being busy and meaningless.
The two authors of this book delve deeply into what fake labor is and how it has led to our overwork.
In addition to practical statistical data, you can uncover the distorted reality of labor through conversations with labor experts and candid interviews with people who have recognized fake labor in various organizations.


In this book, anthropologist Dennis Nørmark and philosopher Anders Fogg Jensen, who have written some of the most cited works in Danish anthropology, present a new philosophical perspective on labor based on their extensive knowledge of labor, culture, politics, history, and society.


It is largely divided into three parts: ‘Lost Time,’ ‘Lost Meaning,’ and ‘Recovering Time and Meaning,’ and highlights various labor issues that any working person is likely to encounter at least once.
Moreover, it goes beyond simply highlighting the problem, and presents courageous alternatives that can help people break free from fake labor, find real work, and rediscover the essence of labor and the meaning of life.
Through this book, we will have the opportunity to dispel the distorted perceptions and doubts we have had about labor.

This book gave them a different perspective.
In other words, the real problem lies within organizations, management, leadership, and society.
Many people also suggested the term 'fake labor' to describe the vague feelings they had been harboring for a long time.
Readers now have a concept for a situation that is not only a massive waste of time and energy for society as a whole, but also a catastrophic and existential waste for individual lives.
So to speak, like the naked king and his ministers, they realized that they had been deceived all along and learned how to effectively deal with this pathetic procession.
---From the "Preface"

The COVID-19 crisis has been a strange kind of trigger.
It has become a catalyst for us to reevaluate what we do all day long during a time we considered 'normal.'
But reflection on such fundamental questions as what we do should not be a flash in the pan when a pandemic rages.
We need to engage in meaningful reflection like this periodically.
A life without reflection is blind and foolish.
Not only is it a waste of time and resources at work, it's also a waste of our precious lives.
I hope this book will be of some help in leading that process of reflection.
---From the "Preface"

We needed an alternative to the concept of "empty labor," which encompassed work that was not at all difficult but extremely stressful, work that could not be explained to anyone, and work that no one could understand even if explained to them.
So we came up with a suitable term: 'pseudowork'.
Fake labor encompasses a wider range of situations.
This includes tasks that are ordered, tasks that are paid, tasks required by the organization, and tasks that look like labor but are not labor.
Fake work keeps us busy without us feeling like we're doing any real work.
Or, if there is any work among the things we know that we suspect is meaningless, that is fake labor.
---From "Chapter 3: The Nature and Change of Labor"

For example, if you assign a large project that everyone knows is a waste of time to a relatively young employee just to give them something to do, that's fake labor.
Meetings where you hear about things you already know are also fake labor.
A presentation that is forgotten as soon as the projector is turned off, or supervision or management that fails to prevent things from going wrong, are also fake labor.
Also, doing things like redoing all your paperwork to cover up the fact that you have nothing to do or to maintain your self-esteem by maintaining the feeling that you are a working person is also fake work.
---From "Chapter 3: The Nature and Change of Labor"

Some people have come to see through the false formation and its alienating nature, and they recognize that what they were doing or are doing is fake work.
We decided to find these people and ask them what they actually do in the workplace.
Such people were surprisingly easy to find.
When they contacted us after seeing our ads on social media or just happened to run into us, they were delighted and rushed to us.
He was openly frustrated, knowing full well that much of his work was a waste of time, a pointless spin on the plate.
---From "Chapter 3: The Nature and Change of Labor"

If any of you reading this book are hearing about Parkinson's Law for the first time, you've been missing out on one of the most fascinating and important theories about how organizations operate.
Parkinson's law was discovered and developed by British maritime historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson.
He summarized his thoughts in an article published in The Economist in 1955.
The series of ideas and hypotheses presented in that paper included concepts that would live on for generations and bear his name.
"Work expands to fill the time allowed for its completion." What does this mean? Parkinson was referring to the infinitely expanding capacity of bureaucracy.
---From "Chapter 4: People Who Don't Give Up Fake Labor"

If people are given 10 hours to do something, they will use those 10 hours.
But if you were given 25 hours to do the same thing, surprisingly, it would end up taking 25 hours.
It's not that people are lazy, deceitful, or intentionally trying to deceive, it's simply that "the tasks we have to accomplish grow in importance and complexity in proportion to the time we have to devote to them."
No one wants to be left behind.
Therefore, working hours must be used for something.
So people work as slowly as possible, triple-check, and distract themselves every now and then.
---From "Chapter 4: People Who Don't Give Up Fake Labor"

In many ways, Toke's way of working is a reverse version of Parkinson's Law.
“Traditionally, lectures are held for four hours, and no one raises questions.” But after three hours, students lose focus, making the last hour pointless.
So he rebelled against the norm and shortened his classes to three hours.
But other instructors fight the opposite battle.
It's about allocating more time to your subject.
“That’s because it matches the number of PowerPoint slides they’ve designed, and it’s difficult to reduce that,” Toke thought.
---From "Chapter 4: People Who Don't Give Up Fake Labor"

“We were submitting way too much, way too much.
Since the management actually only needed the core information, we were able to reduce it to about 10 pages.
The management team was also well aware of this fact.
In fact, one of their regular duties was to edit the bulky reports our team submitted to the board and create a 10-page summary or so.” In other words, the board never saw the 60 pages of Kirsten’s annual report.
“Nobody told me that one-seventh was enough.
They always complimented our work and said it looked really cool.”
---From "Chapter 6: Stop Imitating Others"

According to Cal Newport, companies have been defending ideas like "connection," "synergy," and "co-creation" for decades, creating a culture that subtly instills in us the idea that we always have the right to disrupt other people's work.
This is a tempting rationalization.
We subordinate ourselves to that directive and use various technologies: email, chat, cell phones, frequent meetings, and open-plan offices.
In such offices, we can hear our colleagues chattering, coughing, and answering their phones, and we can be interrupted at any time by questions or casual remarks.
---From "Chapter 9: Reducing Meaningless Working Hours"

When you go to work and don't do anything, time feels seriously long.
Eventually, boredom transforms from existential suffering to shame.
Because it doesn't do anything useful and doesn't interact with the world through work.
Being worthless and yet being paid for it leads to self-loathing, shame, and a feeling of owing something to those around you.
People around me also find it easier to understand that I have too much work than too little.
Those who have experienced unemployment will probably have felt it.
Inaction brings isolation.
For many people with illnesses, sick leave may be an appropriate course of action, but not in this case.
It's like prescribing lethargy to lethargy.
---From "Chapter 10: Letting Go of the Idea of ​​Working Hours"

After all, you only live once.
Time is limited, and that's why we've decided to pay each other for our time.
Because we know the value of time, we have agreed to compensate those who sacrifice something for others by paying them an hourly wage.
Also, because there was no way to measure the quality of labor by other criteria, they had no choice but to pay hourly wages.
As we will see in the next chapter, organizations sometimes desperately try to find other criteria by which to measure labor.
And misfortune
This also forces them into more fake labor.

---From "Chapter 10: Letting Go of the Idea of ​​Working Hours"

According to Hegel and Marx at least, humans can find a sense of belonging in the world only through labor.
But this also means that work can make people feel alienated from the world.
The creation and collapse of humanity both depend on labor.
Therefore, the question of why we work so much is much more fundamental.
Although the question of how time is spent and whether it is appropriately compensated is also somewhat important.
In this sense, the problem of fake labor is related to the nature of human beings.
---From "Chapter 12 Labor and the Nature of Man"

One of the reasons it's so difficult to recognize fake work is because so many people work within the mirrored hall of "alienated normality."
Fake labor is constantly reflected back upon itself, creating more fake labor, fake projects, and fake positions.
In this way, marginalization gradually becomes the norm.
If that's really the case, it would be hard to believe any answer to the following question:
'Is what you're doing important to your customers, citizens, your company, your country, the world?' Perhaps you're so used to writing reports that no one reads that you'll say yes.
---From "Chapter 12 Labor and the Nature of Man"

When you leave work and go home, interact organically with the world.
Prepare and experience that interaction in a way that is meaningful to you.
Instead of quitting fake work, let's start looking for other jobs.
That's just as bad as fake labor.
If it's soccer coaching, volunteer work, or lumberjacking, it doesn't matter.
All you have to do is externalize your inner self and interact with the world.
Let's fix things rather than change them.
It's also a great way to get to know things better.
I get to know myself better in the world I helped create.
Unlike fake labor, real labor resonates.
---From "Chapter 13: Our Strategy for Change"

Humanity must develop and invent more.
To do this, we must stop wasting time on fake labor, follow Russell's advice and allow time for play and leisure, and promote deep thinking rather than superficial thinking.
With exploding population growth and impending climate catastrophe, humanity faces enormous challenges that require careful reflection rather than simply producing more annual reports.
In other words, we need to free up time from fake labor and devote it to self-development.
We need to give ourselves the space and freedom to think, play, and experiment.
---From "Chapter 15: A Society Without Fake Labor"

Our proposal is quite simple.
The idea is to change the prerequisites for taking a break from work.
In other words, the idea is to replace some of the non-stop work with vacation time.
It will take some time to learn how to live that way, to find time to relax and rediscover activities you enjoy engaging in whenever you feel like it.
Many people would be at a loss as to what to do when suddenly freed from their hectic work schedule.
Employees should be able to take leave for reasons other than childcare or sick leave.
We are civilized people, not savages, we are cultured people and we need vacations to develop ourselves.
The Pythagorean theorem was not discovered in an open-plan office.
We do not want these vacations to be used for education and training.
Because education and training are also part of the problem.
Let's use it for 'self-development'.

---From "Chapter 15: A Society Without Fake Labor"