On the Shelf: 'The Good Enough Job'

Sep 15, 2023

Reviewed by Jesse Lobbs

“The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work” by Simone Stolzoff, Portfolio Penguin, 2023, $28.00.

The coronavirus pandemic challenged many of our assumptions about work. Across the country, Americans (and our employers) are starting to reimagine jobs, careers, and the future of work. In “The Good Enough Job,” Simone Stolzoff imagines a world where work is not the center of our lives. We shift from asking others “what do you do” to “what do you most enjoy”.

To confess, I didn’t have a lot of hope for this book. I expected a book with the tagline “reclaiming life from work” to be banal advice, a weak plea to prioritize boundaries. That is to say, more of the same old recycled wisdom. This book is that, but it is briefly more.

Stolzoff uses their background in journalism to interview a variety of folks who, for one reason or another, are either workaholics or recovering workaholics. These interviews are paired with summaries of research and personal anecdotes to expose lies our employers tell us and the myths we have internalized. “The Good Enough Job” examines the myth of status, the “we are all family” trope, and America’s culture of workism. The big takeaway: what if work does not have to be fulfilling? You do not need to enjoy it. Is it great if you are one of those who have really plugged into their passion and love what you do? Sure. Even that passion, however, can have its pitfalls. Librarians, nurses, and educators are likely no stranger to vocational awe. If your profession is a noble one, then employers can frequently tap into that sense of nobility to exploit you. There is a reason why these professions are often low paying or full of long hours without reasonable breaks. In a sense, it’s your idea of having a calling that takes advantage of you. These are the myths that Stolzoff takes head-on in his book.

The subjects of the interviews have in common a unique ability: they were making enough money to rethink it. They could resign or risk termination because they had the money or connections in their back pocket. That’s not true for the majority of Americans. I’m glad I only grumbled about this and stuck with the book. In the last chapter, Stolzoff acknowledges these shortcomings and admits that the personal dimension only goes so far. At the end of the day, reimagining work in a way where we can reclaim our lives is going to take employer initiatives and, to a greater extent, federal policy. Stolzoff also toys with universal basic income (or UBI) and playfully considers if, after reknitting our fractured safety net, what would our focus be if we had a little more time to do what matters to us.

The book was an interesting, smart, and, playful look at what our lives could be like if we accepted that our jobs only had to be good enough and what getting there might look like.

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