Book cover of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone

Book description

A deeply-reported examination of why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives.

You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Work Won't Love You Back as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This whole book is mindblowing, laying out the ways that the success of our current economic system of work is built on the unpaid labor of women and people of color. The section on nonprofits is essential reading for anyone working or volunteering in the sector. This is not a treatise for not working or quiet quitting; it is a case study of why we work and how we can work better, and surprise surprise, it also comes back to understanding the economics of power and privilege, who is benefiting, and who is being left behind. This book gave me…

From Kristen's list on changing the way you change the world.

If you love Work Won't Love You Back...

Ad

Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Want books like Work Won't Love You Back?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Work Won't Love You Back.

Browse books like Work Won't Love You Back

Book cover of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Book cover of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Book cover of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,210

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like Work Won't Love You Back, you might also like...

Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of Lane and the Inventor

Lane and the Inventor by Amy Q. Barker,

A grumpy-sunshine, slow-burn, sweet-and-steamy romance set in wild and beautiful small-town Colorado. Lane Gravers is a wanderer, adventurer, yoga instructor, and social butterfly when she meets reserved, quiet, pensive Logan Hickory, a loner inventor with a painful past.

Dive into this small-town, steamy romance between two opposites who find love…

5 book lists we think you will like!