I think this episode of JDS is perfect for this sub, especially since it mentions this sub and Jimmy Dore is a comedian and his guest in this episode is Kurt Metzger, also a comedian, so they crack a lot of sarcastic jokes. They discuss an article published at Wired on Sep 27, 2022 (link below) promoting the so-called “overemployed” movement which purports to be a method for workers to get revenge on uncaring corporations by actually working more: getting a 2nd full-time job or working several side gigs. The Wired article mentions this sub and compares it to r/overemployed. In the discussion they suggest that this is establishment propaganda, but also how “insane” and “crazy” it is that this is actually being published in mainstream outlets, plus bring up other good points.
We absolutely have to have a discussion on this sub about this JDS discussion and the points they make and questions they raise.
I'm putting a partial transcript of the discussion about the article in here because the discussion is that funny, horrifying, and important for us to know about.
Link to funny/horrifying video discussion (~18 minutes):
- The Dumbest Advice For Workers Ever! The Jimmy Dore Show. Youtube. Oct 9, 2022.
Link to the article in question:
- The Unlikely Cure for Burnout? A Second Job – “Overemployment” sounds like more of the same old grind, but its underlying philosophy is critical of work. Fadeke Adegbuyi. Wired. Sep 27, 2022.
A partial transcript I made of this episode, with some approximate time marks, but which has most of what they talked about. Three people involved in the discussion: Jimmy Dore, the host and comedian. Steph Zammorano, Jimmy's wife and show partner. Kurt Metzger, frequent guest and comedian:
Video starts out with President George W. Bush like 15-20 years ago praising an older woman for working 3 jobs just to make it, and Jimmy Dore saying that's not something to celebrate. Bush called it “uniquely American” like we're supposed to praise it. Then Jimmy moves on to the Wired article and goes through the more interesting paragraphs
1:25 Kurt: so it's counterintuitive, being burned out from my job, the cure would be 'more cowbell' as they say. I gotta have cowbell!…Is it called “Wired” because I have to do meth to work my three jobs?
2:52
So first of all, there's no such thing as 'the overemployed'. They're trying to talk away 'white people got to have three jobs'. Remember the Reddit 'we don't want to work' forum?…So this is the antidote to that, that's what this is.
And 'oh cool term, overemployed!' You should call it 'breakthrough employment'.
Jimmy: So Kurt, this is a phenomenon.
Kurt: Everyone's talking about it around my three job water cooler.
Jimmy: well at least I'm being hydrated because I have 3 water coolers now.
Kurt: There's lead in my sink water so it helps to get clean water at work.
Around 4 minutes, Jimmy starts to question whether anyone actually works so many jobs due to only 16 hours available per day to work while getting enough sleep. “You can't do that as a human being, you're going to break down.”
Kurt: My girlfriend did that but she was Mexican.
At about 4:20, Jimmy reads stats on the “overemployment” communities on social media, including on Reddit at /r/overemployed.
4:30 Kurt: You see the Reddit “screw work” or whatever, I was just throwing that out, subreddit /r/overemployed. And Reddit, by the way, you think Twitter's bad and compromised? Nobody talks, Reddit got compromised a long time ago.
Jimmy: Yes.
…
Jimmy: This is bullshit. This is a bullshit article.
5:15
Steph: Jimmy I want to let you know that this was written by Fadeke Adegbuyi , and he's a writer for Cybernot, so this is his second job, too.
(Jimmy and Kurt laugh out loud)
Jimmy: So working more jobs for longer hours, that's how you really stick it to the man!
Kurt: Thanks Wired! Boy I feel like I'm a 'hacker' or something cool now. 'Life hack'!
You tired of your job, try working 3 of 'em!
Jimmy: Get another one, but don't quit the first one!
Kurt: And don't tell them you have another job. Tell them you're sick, but you're really with another job.
Steph: It's very American.
Jimmy: That's how you stick it to them.
Kurt: So let me get this straight: people were saying you're not allowed to have, we're not gonna pay you enough to live, but also don't work another job so you secretly, “I'll show them”? Oh my god!
6:05 Jimmy then reads a paragraph from the article that says, “In an economy that's gone awry, it's no wonder doubling or tripling your income through overemployment is the new cheat code to financial freedom “, and Jimmy facepalms.
Kurt: I thought that was selling drugs. Oh!
Jimmy: You're not cheating if you're working full-time triple!
Kurt: You know how much America has fallen if like to make extra money at your real job, instead of selling marijuana you go get 3 other crappy jobs. You see how bad it is?
Jimmy: How many teachers who work side jobs in retail are minimum wage workers who have fast food jobs and also drive for Uber, would consider getting a second job a 'cheat code'? Do you think that? You think that when a teacher has to go work a second job driving an Uber, doyou think they think that they're 'cheating the system'? Or that they're being exploited yet again because their primary job doesn't pay them enough fucking money?
Kurt: I though 'financial freedom' means 'I don't work 3 goddamn jobs.
Jimmy: That's right!
(now at about 7 minutes in)
Jimmy shows another extract from article:
Overemployment embraces the lure of earning additional steady income from the comfort of your own home while circumventing the precarious side hustles and gig work that fail to meet the needs of many
But he can't get past the word “lure”, which bothers him.
Steph: Oh my god!
Kurt: This is a PR thing, man
Jimmy: This guy is mental who wrote this.
…
Jimmy: You don't need to go drive an Uber, you stay home and get another full-time job. It's from the comfort of your own home, Kurt!
Kurt: You know what? Just become a stripper. That's a cheat code to financial freedom. I don't know if you know that.
Jimmy: There's your cheat code.
Kurt: Only Fans: cheat code to financial freedom.
Jimmy: And even this article is admitting that the cheat code, this genius cheat code, not even available to most people, unless you're working in the information economy.
Kurt: What I resent that overemployment has not been putting quotes in every portion like it's right there, it's just an established thing we all use now. Also, the cheat code I think is for the corporations? I think that's their cheat code and not your cheat code, the employee?
At about 8:30, they're trying to pronounce the author's name. Kurt says, “there's the only reason I was asking, because if he's from like the United Arab Emirates or something, you know where they ship in Filipinos and 'overemploy' them and take their passport, I think I'm starting to get what's going on.
Steph: somebody just said Kurt is some kind of name-whisperer.
…
Around 9:30, Jimmy read 2 more paragraphs containing euphemisms and says, “this is fucking sick, man. You're just telling people to work 3 jobs”.
Steph: you know I'm waiting until he comes back with another article about 'you can sell your blood and organs'.
Kurt: Hey! Life hack! You know they buy blood? And you can get a second job giving hand jobs!
Jimmy: I decided to do the cheat code. I suck cock for money.
At about 10 minutes, they get to a sentence that reads, “But many of the wins aren't material”.
Kurt: Will I get Christmas spirit, the true meaning of Christmas from it? Will I be able to help Tiny Tim after all?
Then Jimmy reads the paragraph:
Counterintuitively, proponents say the idea of working more – and the obligation to, in theory, work 80 or more hours per week – is not just financially freeing, but emotionally and profesionally liberating as well.
Kurt: 'Arbeit macht frie', I said to Christ Hedges when you said that. That's what that is. That's above Auschwitz! But they're just longer. 'Work will set you free'. That was on the gate to Auschwitz.
Jimmy: Man, this is crazy.
Kurt: They're literally, is that not the same message?
Jimmy: If you just work another 40 hours a week, you'll be emotionally and professionally liberated.
Kurt: That's what they're saying to the people they march into a camp: 'work will set you free, I know it sucks'. That's what it means. “Arbeit macht frei”. So Wired just, unbelievable! I was right. I made a joke about it to Chris Hedges, that's what they're saying.
About 11 min, Jimmy reads another 2 paragraphs that read:
The overemployed are rarely seeking self-actualization and meaning-making at work.
Many eschew career ambitions, adding additional jobs that are relatively junior and allow them to complete their work without the obligations that come with more senior roles”.
Jimmy: Holy shit!
Kurt: this is written towards, you know, those kind of jobs like that, same as the Forbes 'you must never do your own research', that's not to like the poor people they're pretending, that's to the middle class 'I got the 3 jobs and I'm not in the middle class' person, who reads this.
Jimmy: This is crazy. This article is nuts.
12 minutes, Reads more from article.
Kurt: it seems like it's freeing you from the very concept of a self-identity.
Jimmy: Yes, now you're just a worker bee, 24/7.
Kurt: Do they at least get stripy suits to do thier three [jobs]?
Jimmy reads:
Overemployment provides a sense of newfound confidence and positivity amid uncertain times, a feeling of taking back power
but can't get past the word “confidence”.
Jimmy: I can't write this good. Can you write this funny, Kurt?
Kurt: No. The confidence that comes from working 3 separate jobs but not enough hours to get healthcare. That kind of confidence?
Jimmy: That kind of freedom.
Kurt: The freedom of, 'you know you're working one job because healthcare is tied to it', you ain't getting that. But now you've got the freedom, oh a feeling, of taking back power.
…
Jimmy: You are taking back your power by working instead of relaxing.
Kurt: Does this guy have other articles? I want to read all of them.
Jimmy: So if you just work 16 hours a day and then sleep, because you have to sleep, so you sleep 8, you have absolutely no time to do anything else.
Steph: Do you have to sleep?
Kurt: You know what? That's a fair point that Steph just made.
At about 13 minutes, the article talks about what it calls “quiet quitting” which just means workers not being motivated to do a good job.
Kurt: I love that they thought they invented a crappy job and not doing it good. 'Hey I just came up with a new idea!'
Then they show a paragraph which compares the subreddits r/antiwork and r/overemployed:
In a thread on the Overemployed subreddit, one poster who pondered the divide between anti-work proponents and the overemployed received a response saying, “Antiwork and OE have an overlap. Antiwork talks about how the system is against the workers and we should tear that system down. OE thinks the system is against the workers and says 'let's exploit it'.
Jimmy: Let's exploit it by working twice as hard?
Kurt: I can't believe I called it. I called it 100%. This is about antiwork that's why they said the Reddit. They're counteracting that with a thing that's insane, right?
Jimmy: This is insane.
Kurt: Hey you guys, why don't we exploit it by working extra hard at multiple jobs?
Jimmy: Stick it to 'em!
Kurt: This is propaganda because of antiwork. That was the name of the Reddit I couldn't remember. That's what this is.
…
Jimmy: I don't want to read any more of this. It's too much work. I'm actually already overworked.
Kurt: I have to read three more articles at other shows right now.
Then around 15 minutes, Jimmy reads a part about the founder of r/overworked, Isaac P, and questions the claim by the founder that business owners have something to lose from the overemployment movement.
Jimmy: Owners don't want people working? This is the craziest.
Kurt: How do they lose on any level with that?
Jimmy: Did you know that black is also white and up is also down?
Kurt: I thought they literally plan out for you to quit their crappy jobs and go somewhere else and get a new work husk to wear out.
Jimmy: This is fucking crazy!
Then Jimmy questions the article claim that overemployment is “an ideology of individualism and self-reliance”.
Jimmy: You know, the one where you completely lose your invidualism? It's that kind of individualism, where you are totally dominated by the corporate state, and you are a slave to it.
Kurt: This even 'start your own business' kind of stuff.
Jimmy: No! This is work for someone else!
Kurt: They don't want to have any full-time employees to pay benefits. You don't have any money. Why don't you trick 'em by getting 3 different jobs? It's crazy, dude.
…
Jimmy quotes paragraph:
It's an ideology of individualism and self-reliance held by many who feel that corporations have turned their backs on workers.
Jimmy: So we're gonna get back at them by workin twice as much!
Kurt: This is a propagated thing.
Jimmy then questions Isaac P's claim about having multiple jobs freeing him up to spend time with his family.
Jimmy: No, you already said that they're not declining extra work, they're actually working a second job. Wow! This guy, he could devise a torture program and the first one is the mindfuck because that's what this is. Holy shit!
Kurt: Every time I read a thing this bad, I end up going into a hold where I look up everything I can find about because I'm just dying to know what in the hell they're thinking. Because this is like really blatantly clear what this is.
Jimmy: Yes. Blatantly clear.
Kurt: I would think why, I mean all these magazines are awful now, or maybe they always were and I didn't notice until it got this obvious, but who's this for?
Jimmy: right? I don't know. Well that's it for me.
Steph: Why, do you have to go to another job?
Jimmy: I have to go to my next show.
They then tell a couple jokes about working multiple jobs.*
Jimmy: Do you think I'm gonna go out and play softball and have a beer? No,
I'm gonna go to another job, from the comfort of my own home.