I really need everyone to be very wary of the idea that continuing to make work "flexible" is a good thing and any kind of progress. This position makes it easier for bosses and corporations to deregularize work, pay people less and literally steal wages.

When I worked for the university, I was on a "casual worker" contract which meant I had to do my own prep whenever I had time. Sounds good, right? What this meant practically is that I often did most of my prep unpaid cos the 2 hours of prep they paid for wasn't enough.

Even worse, one year the department decided we were being paid TOO MUCH for marking, so they just rewrote the contract next time it needed to be renewed (roughly every 3 to 4 months) with a third of our pay gone.

Bc it was "casual" and with a "flexible" schedule, where the worker has to manage their own time rather than clock in and out, they were able to not even pay a living wage... we all had masters degrees and were doing PhDs.

Another example: a few months ago I was furious because in Brasil there's now an app that sells the service of cleaners /by the hour/ at simply ridiculously low prices, completely eroding workers' rights like paying extra for transportation and pay for a full day's work.

Like uber and apps like it, this was framed as "taking control of your schedule" and being a "micro-entrepreneur" but in reality, it allowed upper class and middle class people to pay a pittance for the services provided by the working poor.

the same logic works for uber drivers and delivery services, and the liberal response to that is to always tip more than usual because uber doesn't pay workers a living wage either. but the truth is that corporations should be paying a living wage to their workers!

The hyper-individualization of work & the idea of "taking control of your schedule" means that corporations and/or bosses will only pay for allocated hours or services--while this sounds like a win-win, it's not! it's cheaper labour for bosses & more work for workers to make rent

imho we should get more than living wages simply for existing and keeping society working--yes, ALL OF US, not just a few privileged ones!--and walk away from the idea that work consists in any kind of liberatory politic!

we need to be brave and radical, and imagine a world where our inherent worth is not tied to our work or how much money we make (this idea in inherently tied to classism and the class structure!), but to our humanity and community and how we take care of each other.