Maybe it’s the rebirth vibes in the air, but it’s becoming tradition that in May I get all “Big Picture Energy” about Big Quit Energy: has its meaning changed? Am I still called to explore the same things?
Looking at last year’s entry, the way I define “Big Quit Energy” holds: a state where we’re less vulnerable to workaholism and exploitation because we’re not shaming ourselves about productivity and achievement. This blog still aspires to serve as a support resource for anyone (including me) trying to alleviate the grip of their “inner boss.”
As far as categorizing the posts and art here, this year I’m drawn to think in terms of “big questions” I keep grappling with when thinking about work culture. This was inspired by Rob Hardy
‘s “Containers of Aliveness” exercise, in turn inspired by Rainier Maria Rilke’s advice to a young poet to “[love and] live the questions” instead of answering them. It’s always felt “imposterous” to presume that I’ll “solve” the thorny and complex questions at the heart of our cultural workaholism. But I believe the mere act of exploring impossible questions can be healing and insightful in itself.This year’s re-definition of Big Quit Energy, then, is structured around the following core “big questions”
What are the cultural work-humper stories and assumptions that drive us to workaholism?
This remains core to the project, by far what I think and write about most. I’ve guided my “canon reading” toward disarming toxic but common ways we think about work ethic and leisure. Sometimes I don’t immediately buy into new framings I come across, but I find them interesting enough to “try out” for a while, and see if they fit.
One of my favorite examples is how Devon Price helped me stop glorifying our grandparent’s work suffering. Sometimes, new framings will come to me on their own through journaling or daydreaming, and I’ve enjoyed sharing some of these as well.
What are better stories and assumptions to cultivate?
This gets at cultivating a positive vision of what we’re “quitting into” when we develop Big Quit Energy. If I didn’t love the name of this blog so much, I’d rue it. It focuses us from the jump on what we don’t want, and I think it’s important (and healthy) to have a vivid vision of a positive alternative to work-humping that we can embrace.
I don’t have a clear sense of this yet, but some “sub-questions” feel promising:
How does one get a sense of satisfaction, dignity, and well-being outside of “producing” and “achieving?” – If part of the problem is that we put undue stock in productivity and career achievement, then it’ll be helpful to study people who source personal satisfaction and self-worth from other areas–something not often modeled to us by dominant culture.
What’s a healthy balance between boundaries and being an asshole? – One misconception about antiwork is that it encourages dropping all sense of accountability to others. On the contrary, I think our low accountability to one another (in favor of unquestioned accountability to our employer) is a defining facet of our current entrapment. But it’s hard for me to tease out where solidarity toward others ends and losing ourselves begins.
What does media with “healthy” messages about work and leisure look like?
Having found a set of remedying stories and affirmations to melt the sociopathic work assumptions that our current media (including a lot of media I love) beats into us, I’m interested in spreading them through art, video, poetry, and other engaging mediums.
This is why I goof around with poetry, illustration, and media criticism. On a larger scale, it’s what’s behind my attempt to tackle a new, broadened entry into the slacker movie genre.
Is our desire for status—the urge to rank ourselves and others— “naturally” human? Or can we transcend it?
Throughout life I’ve had the privilege to see many things I considered “natural” (cultural practices, gender norms, our very sense of self) exposed as simply agreed-upon conventions. I’d love to know if this also applies to our reliance on hierarchies and status. At least for me, status desires motor my workaholic tendencies–and it’s not just megalomania. I fear the consequences of losing status in the eyes of my peers, imagining ostracism, starvation, and sometimes physical violence will result if I do. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was common.
I haven’t written substantially about status with the exception of exploring “horizontal relationships” as a cornerstone for BQE life. But I’ve been slowly compiling notes to write what will likely end up being a series exploring it. I’m excited and daunted by it.
How to solve the practical problem of ethically sustaining oneself outside the job institution?
I’m very hesitant to write about this because there’s already so much out there (ex. the minimalism and FIRE movements) and I’m not well-versed in it, being a chump dependent on a job and all. However, this is a question I ask myself a lot (like virtually every other American), and would personally love finding a solution that doesn’t involve imposing the job tyranny on others.
Maybe it’d be interesting to survey the different avenues people have tried to find their sustenance outside an employer-dominated job structure, with the benefits and challenges that come with each. Beside FIRE and minimalism, I’d add co-ops (a democratic job structure), part-time freelancing/gig work, and mutual aid mechanisms.
If there are any other approaches I don’t know about, I’m all ears!
What can a functional society look like if it doesn’t center jobs as the most important institutions?
Another one I’ve shied away from, this one because it’s huge in scope and political (i.e. charged AF) in nature. That said, writing BQE has made me realize that, especially in America, employers are elevated above almost everything else by both sides of the political spectrum. We take it as fine and normal that affiliation to a job is a prerequisite to participate in much of society–even working independently as a freelancer or entrepreneur is systemically discouraged.
Are there different ways to organize ourselves that makes us less dependent on being in a subservient relationship to an employer? There’s a lot I’ve been intrigued by but still need to dive into, including proposals for universal basic income and various anarchist visions for society. I’ve recently begun publicly musing about some of this, but I’m still on the fence about whether I’ll write anything more thorough on the topic.
What’s the best way to cope as ethically as possible within the current dominant job institution?
As a good friend of mine said recently, “you gotta start where you’re at.” Tricia Hersey emphasizes the importance of finding small actions that bring rest into your life even in the most trying situations, and finding my own small repeatable practices has had a positive compounding effect on my well-being and my spinal strength vis-a-vis employers.
Since societal reorganization and solving the problem of the “job” (probably) won’t be solved soon, any way we can make things more bearable for ourselves and others within this inadequate system is worth considering. I’ve touched on this a bit already, from ways to pressure hiring managers toward better policies to one of my favorite posts exploring what a (somewhat) ethical management philosophy can look like.
Those are the questions currently guiding Big Quit Energy. Anything else you’re exploring or grappling with that you’d love to see tackled on here? Reach out!
And, as always, thank you for your continued readership.