In social sciences, a lot of work is dedicated to why people become committed to organisations. The classics, like Erving Goffman or Lewis Coser, claim that organisations can separate an individual - partly or totally, socially and sometimes physically - from her everyday environment and provide her with a new life-world and identity. Other researchers, mostly from management studies, say that institutions build commitment through organisational philosophy, goals and principles.
These theories worked well until the second half of the twentieth century when a lot of workplaces experienced dramatic change: precarisation, proliferation of part-time jobs and short-term contracts. The rise of lean firms, short contracts and “creative jobs” went hand in hand with the “new spirit of capitalism” – an ideology which made these transformations meaningful and desirable, prioritising flexibility and self-realisation over social security and stability.
This is how we found ourselves in the world of “do what you love, love what you do and you will never have to work a day in your life”. A world inhabited by life trainers and coaches who help us to “be more effective”; by employees who work while on holiday and try to increase their “energy” with yoga, special diets, fasting, spiritual practices, sport and healthy lifestyles; and by visionaries like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk whose projects often fail, yet they still tend to win at the end of the day, proving to all their detratctors that what once seemed impossible or crazy can, one day, come true. The 1960s are over and this is their heritage: love is everywhere, love is at the core of everything. But what is love?
