Crisis at Work

This book explores how we make sense of ourselves when work is precarious and intrinsically alienating. We know little about how this experience of work impacts the lives of men and women, and less about the way individuals understand themselves in the face of institutions and organizations from which they feel marginalized. Based on the narratives of men and women who underwent extraordinary work life changes, Crisis at Work examines how we negotiate greater meaning and fulfilment when our productive lives fail to sustain and satisfy. Reflecting a growing fracture between what we value, believe in, and are committed to and the degree to which work and career have become incapable of assuaging those desires, Potter examines how individuals attempt to assemble working-lives they find rich and rewarding and how that work is negotiated within the constraints and possibilities of the contemporary moment.

Crisis at Work examines the impact work, as a precarious entity, has on the intimate and intrapersonal lives of individuals. It examines how we negotiate our identities, the trade-offs we make, and how we achieve greater meaning and fulfilment when our productive lives fail to sustain and fulfil.

1. Introduction 2. Work, Self, Identity 3. Changing 'Careers' 4. Being 'in between' 5. Exiting the Organization 6. Trade-offs 7. The Politics of Self-Determination 8. Self Understanding and the Changing Self