I love to work!

Lately, I've read here and there that young people today are less interested in working. In May, a special issue of El País argued that generations like mine prioritize the possibility of balancing work with free time and avoid taking on positions of responsibility that consume life time. It's true: I have people very close to me who have given up on promotions because they preferred to have weekends to rest than to earn two hundred euros more. And I think the explanation is quite reasonable: nowadays, more education does not mean more economic remuneration, which indicates that the promised meritocratic system is failing somewhere.And it would be great if meritocracy failed because there was more democratic access to resources, but that's not the case: what fails is a meritocracy, the one that holds that more dedication and more training imply more reward. However, the jobs with the highest salaries continue to be held by the same people (origin, class, even gender), as if the prize had been distributed in advance. That's why I say that a meritocracy fails: the one based on the law of maximum effort, the law of renunciation, the law of suffering. And so young people, little by little, are giving up on it: "I'd rather not," they say, as if they were Bartleby in the New York office. Up to here, I agree with the discourses that project this kind of disillusionment — even cynicism — among the youngest. However, something doesn't fit. If this is really the case, why are most of my colleagues on the verge of burnout? Why do I have friends who have applied for competitive exams as soon as they had the opportunity, as if their lives depended on it? Why does work continue to be a kind of mecca for self-realization and personal satisfaction? That there is disillusionment does not mean that there is a radical transformation around the idea of work.

On the one hand, I could start by talking about creative jobs, where the promise of future success still operates strongly: it would be impossible to sustain oneself in the world of culture without the spurious belief that one day everything will be fine. Furthermore, the narrative of enthusiasm —"How lucky I am to dedicate myself to what I am passionate about"— allows one to endure real atrocities. Everyone who works in the cultural, artistic, literary, and film industry dedicates their lives to work, especially the youngest: we are the promises, those who have to prove we are worth more than others, those who have to guarantee that we know how to work under pressure, whatever it takes. Without this dedication (let's call it that), these industries would not survive.But the cult of work is also part of those trajectories that have nothing to do with the world of freelance or creative production companies. She was talking about friends who applied for civil service exams very early on, seeking in public employment the stability that the job market does not offer. Work has been a kind of life raft, where they have begun to build the foundations of the desired life. (It would be necessary to study the links between these work options and normative life structures: nuclear family, mortgage, car, and dog.) The civil service exams allow one not to look back, not to doubt: believing that a secure job in an uncertain world eliminates frustration and regret ("Did I really want to dedicate myself to this?"). That is to say: security and permanence are values that take precedence over exploration and error.And indeed, who can doubt? Who can afford to fail? Today, a narrative prevails that prioritizes money and security over desire and pleasure: it doesn't matter what you work at, as long as you work. In this sense, what the private sector offered a few years ago, the public sector now offers. There is no radical change: only a modification in the means to achieve similar ends. With all this I mean that I do not believe it is true that work, for young people, no longer matters to us, or that the value system regarding the labor market has changed radically. Unfortunately, working continues to be the pillar of our lives: a tool to achieve our personal promised land and, depending on the size of the dream, a different relationship with work. We are still very far, very far, from saying that the generation that has managed to deny salaried work has arrived. Kilometers remain to conquer this utopia. I, who belong to the group of enthusiasts (read in the negative) of the world of culture, still have to say that I love working. And, apparently, I will have to say it for many years.