The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and Overworked- 21st Century Edition

There are a lot of great books that deal with creativity. This is not one of them. Average, at best, it might fit the bill is someone was looking for a superfluous treatment of creativity.
Rating: 3 / 5

I bought this book shortly after I retired from education in 1999, based solely on the title. Having lived several different life styles, the idea of leisure was not too far-fetched. I highlighted and underlined and then forgot about the book, but recently heard about another book by the same author, "Real Success WITHOUT a Read Job", and I just ordered it but haven't read it yet. I know I will agree with the author but will have to figure out how to make it work for me!

Phyllis Heaberlin, retired educator
Rating: 5 / 5

This book is interesting and had some very good points, but not worth the price I paid. It is more philosophically orientied than practically – bad. This book is far cry from How to Survive Without a Salary by Charles Long or Living Well on Practically Nothing.
Read these books first.
Rating: 2 / 5

The suggestions in his book are misleading. Not for the motivated young people who want to make a difference in the world. No one can argue with his conclusions about workaholics. However, no one is going to achieve much success with a goal of living and raising a family on $6000 a year. I read his book in about 3 hours – really a waste of time as far as practical advice is concerned.
Rating: 2 / 5

You're not going to find a book that truly discusses education, retraining, work, the workplace, leisure time, retirement, financial reward, and empowerment, among others – at least not in the self-help genre. It is far more likely to find a book that makes utterly simplistic assumptions about these matters and basically puts it on the back of each individual to overcome the dysfunctionality found in many of our primary institutions. And this is such a book.

No – people do not work long and hard at their jobs because they are workaholics, need imposed structure, are non-creative, are afraid to lead balanced lives, and insist on living an extravagant lifestyle, as the author claims. Perhaps the most ridiculous contention of the author is that due to the willingness of boomers to be workaholics, employers can downsize their workforces – no mention of coercion, no lack of employee empowerment to set limits. For the author, the inability of someone to accept being laid off for its potential for individual growth is a sign of lack of character. He gives glowing accounts of several non-workers living on six thousand dollars a year – of course, where that money comes from is not detailed. Perhaps the author, a Canadian, is unaware that an American family could not so much as purchase health insurance for that sum. Should one forget about food, housing, transportation, clothes, etc? He fails to come clean on his target audience. At times he seems to be talking mostly to vagabonds, not families. Maybe we should all pedal around New Zealand on our bicycles for six months and live on the dividends and interest from our portfolios of stocks and bonds that he does not mention or on the proceeds of lousy books. Or, in another case, become a singer on a street corner.

Find out who you are – what is your essence. Do what you really want to do. That all sounds good. If you can't do that, the author lists 300 things to do, most of which are so utterly trite as to be silly. Virtually none of them would result in any kind of payment. Too bad we all can't have jobs that give great independence and self-satisfaction. Most of us need our jobs that are not some kind of ultimate experience. That does not mean that we are workaholics, are incapable of leading balanced lives, and insist on being extravagant. And yes, for us multi-dimensional people, the loss of a job is life destabilizing, if not threatening. And that has nothing to do with character flaws. But then the author would contend that those in that boat should have been preparing for their new idealistic career presumably using all of that free time, extra wages, and insight.

The principal advice of the author to be fully engaged in what you do, whether that is inside the workplace or outside of it, is not bogus, if given in the context of realities. It is not necessary to chide people for their insecurities – there is a basis for them. The workplace does not have to a bastion of power, even of tyranny, where arbitrary acts against employees are the prerogative of management. The European system of works councils and a realistic safety net is empowering to employees. It prevents the most egregious forms of scrap heaping that American employers insist upon.

I doubt if this author is capable of writing the kind of book that needs to be written. It is obvious that he feels immensely happy with having escaped from the system in some sense. He does not recognize his unique position, or sheer luck and the impossibility, in the current political and legal climate, of most people being able to follow in his footsteps. The author even invokes Tolle's "Power of Now" to suggest that most of us worry too much about our stultifying lives and should become present-oriented in our new harmonious situations. I do know that all of the gloating, preaching, distortions, and nonsensical and simplistic suggestions are more than annoying.

Rating: 2 / 5