In his new book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work British Author Alain de Botton applies his meditative intelligence to the subject of the modern world of work. The title of the book is probably a misnomer. Botton doesn’t really explore the psychological health and wellbeing of Western employees, toiling away more often than not in dry, beige coloured offices. Rather he explores the complex skein of interweaving threads that make up our endlessly intricate economy.
The Complexity of the Modern Economy
In a market economy which relies on ever greater efficiency to provide ever greater convenience, modern consumers are at a loss as to the provenance of the items they buy and then throw away so thoughtlessly.
Food is grown on supermarket shelves, not on farms. Electricity is generated by turning the switch to ‘on’, rather than through the burning of coal. Marketing gurus design advertising campaigns to keep these illusions fresh and vibrant in the consumer’s imagination, keeping the complications of reality at bay.
De Botton lifts the veil on this glossy advertiser's picture to peep at the extraordinary machinations that keep society's endless line of products and services being made, transported and marketed. He follows some fishermen and watches one violently club a tuna on the head, swearing at it as he does so. At a biscuit factory he meets a ‘design director’ who created the Moments biscuit, but confessed to being unable to bake a biscuit himself. One intriguing man the author meets is obsessed with following electricity pylons, a journey De Botton follows.
An accountancy office De Botton visits is a worker's paradise of creature comforts, with mission statements and business slogans embossed on plaques throughout the building in an almost Orwellian touch.
“Employees can look up the cafeteria’s specials on the Intranet’, we are told. Another convenience is added to this: “To spare prospective diners any unanticipated delay, a webcam transmits live images of the queue.”
The only part of the book that deals most directly with the notion of ‘the pleasures and sorrows of work’, is when the reader is introduced to a career counsellor. Yet this man, who tries to build up self-confidence in his clients, himself seems a miserable failure. Repeated attempts to get his book, The Real Me: Career as an Act of Selfhood, meet with failure. No less than twelve literary agents have rejected his manuscript.
Some Shortcomings in De Botton's Analysis
The conclusion De Botton reaches on the value of work is not an entirely satisfactory one. He sees our careers and aspirations as a necessary diversion from the reality of impending death. If we thought too much about the uselessness of much of our work, he says, we would all succumb to paralysis and inertia. The author forgets to mention in all of this that, despite the many trivial aspects of the modern economy, people work to survive. Indeed, most workers have no time or inclination for such existential doom.
While De Botton makes for an engaging essayist, he fails to examine the human relationships that make work enjoyable for so many people (think of how many friendships and marriages are the result of our working lives). This gives his book a dry and somewhat detached aura, lacking the immediate resonance such a subject would otherwise suggest.
That's not to say The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is not a fine book, carefully and perceptively written. Yet ultimately De Botton's meditations on work have an empty feeling, like the austere modernist architecture he admires.
Published by Hamish Hamilton, 2009.
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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