ABSTRACT

Long working hours have become a normal and expected characteristic of employment in many sectors in the Global North. In this paper I examine subjective and affective experiences of overwork that define students’ discussions of internships pursued as mandatary aspects of cooperative undergraduate degree programmes. I interviewed current and former students at the University of Waterloo who completed internships at digital media firms, the majority of whom experienced overwork at these firms. Internships are settings in which young people’s expectations of employment begin to solidify, while digital media jobs are often considered particularly desirable – evidence of successful employment at the apex of a globalized and competitive labor market. I argue that exploring experiences of overwork shows how and why overwork has been and continues to be normalized, while radical alternatives to overwork (e.g., work refusal and anti-work politics) become hard to imagine and enact.

摘要

长时间工作已成为全球北方许多部门就业的正常和预期特征。在本文中，我研究了过度工作的主观和情感体验，这些体验将学生对实习的讨论定义为合作本科学位课程的强制性方面。我采访了滑铁卢大学的现任和前任学生，他们在数字媒体公司完成了实习，其中大多数人在这些公司经历过过度工作。实习是年轻人对就业的期望开始巩固的环境，而数字媒体工作通常被认为是特别理想的——这是在全球化和竞争性劳动力市场的顶点成功就业的证据。