The ‘work smarter not harder’ slogan masks budget-driven restructuring as opportunity

Evidence

Managers have frequently suggested there is no alternative (TINA) and have perhaps suggested that what we need to do is ‘work smarter, not harder’. This seductive slogan, introduced to dampen staff resistance to further change which in their (our) experience has a devastating effects on working conditions, attempts to couple the need for ‘change’ (restructuring and innovation) in order to meet the budget pressure and increase ‘competitiveness’, with staff’s resistance not only to worsening of their condition of work, but also to the educational and academic ‘meaninglessness’ of the ‘changes’. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 106

Categorization

• XREF: TINA echoes the book’s own title theme and connect to the thesis of Fisher’s economics of ‘efficiency’ framing at other points. — connects to: New Economy rhetoric framed corporate labor as creative self-actualization to secure unpaid overtime. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 144; Creative work rhetoric shifted capitalism’s promises even where work stayed mundane — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 441
• DEFINE: Useful unpacking of how TINA rhetoric operates in actual labor disputes as a managerial speech act.

Broader Connections

• New Economy rhetoric framed corporate labor as creative self-actualization to secure unpaid overtime. #corroborates (0.88) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 144
• Creative work rhetoric shifted capitalism’s promises even where work stayed mundane #corroborates (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 441