At Play in a Post-Work World

Explores the potential threats and benefits of the future of work in light of increasing use of A.I. technologies, mass “quiet quitting” and wide-scale resignations after the covid pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally shifted our relationship with work. After years of lockdown, and with many employees working from home, this was the first time in nearly two centuries that people below the class divide found themselves with just as much time for leisure, recreation, and quality time with loved ones as those above. The time away from work changed priorities and opened minds across the working-class, and new demands were now being made in much higher numbers and in far more workplaces than ever. In cases where bosses refused to comply with these demands, a large quantity of the workers quit their jobs, giving way to a movement now referred to as “The Great Resignation.”

In this book, Micah J. Fleck questions whether work will ever go back to the way it was, or whether this fundamental change could lead to us completely rethinking our approach to labor. Exploring also the rise in the use of A.I. to replace jobs, Fleck's book dives into the culture and concept of “work” as a virtue to determine how we see "work" today, whether it was an organic evolution of a system of labor, and how much of it has been enforced by an outdated and crumbling economic status quo.