How to achieve workplace wellbeing under capitalism

Workplace wellbeing kicked off in Silicon valley with ping pong tables, bean bags, and on 'campus' Michellin star restaurants. With Google, Facebook, Amazon et al. raking in the dollars, it wasn't long before other companies were exploring the theme themselves. Some of the outcomes seem sinister: employers encouraging you to see the firm as your family, your work as making a difference to the world, and you mental health as something to make resilient, but mostly so that they can squeeze more productivity out of you. Deeper issues like autonomy, culture, and relationships seem missing from the rhetoric. But not from the scholarship! In th bumper 90-minute episode, regular host Dr Mark Fabian from the University of Warwick is joined by Nina Jordan from Cambridge University and Cherise Regier and Will Fleming from Oxford University to discuss the latest research on workplace wellbeing, from the 4-day work week to worker voice and industrial relations policy. We even discuss the prospects for workplace wellbeing under capitalism. 

Cherise's personal webpage: https://www.spi.ox.ac.uk/people/cherise-regier

Will's personal webpage: https://wellbeing.hmc.ox.ac.uk/people/will-fleming

Nina's personal webpage: https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/about-us/person/nina-jorden/

Nikolova, M. and Cnossen, F. (2020). What makes work meaningful and why economists should care about it. Labour Economics. https://docs.iza.org/dp13112.pdf

Budd, John, W. (2011). The Thought of Work. Cornell University Press: https://www.amazon.com/Thought-Work-Cornell-Paperbacks/dp/0801477611

Sharif, M. A., Mogliner, C., and Herschfield, H. E. (2021). Having too little or too much time is linked to lower subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspp0000391.pdf

OECD (2013). Guidelines on measuring subjective wellbeing. https://www.oecd.org/wise/oecd-guidelines-on-measuring-subjective-well-being-9789264191655-en.htm

Fabian, M. (2022). A theory of subjective wellbeing. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-theory-of-subjective-wellbeing-9780197635261?cc=gb&lang=en&

Alexandrova, A. (2017). A philosophy for the science of wellbeing. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-philosophy-for-the-science-of-well-being-9780199300518?cc=gb&lang=en&

Luc Boltanski & Laurent Thevenot, On Justification: Economies of Worth. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691125169/on-justification

Argument that capitalism is about shifting returns to production towards capital: https://markfabian.blogspot.com/2020/09/what-is-capitalism.html