Educational Media Reviews Online

After Work is a wide-ranging look at the concepts of time and work: How do people spend their time and how WOULD they spend their time if they didn’t have to work to live? Filled with interviews with people around the globe, this subtitled film is a fascinating meditation on how humans fill their days and how the term ‘work’ is defined.

In an early segment of the film, a philosopher from the United States discusses performative workaholism and the origins of the work ethic. Before the 17th century, people thought leisure was the blessed state. Work was a condition imposed on people who weren’t blessed. The Puritan work ethic reversed this. Calvinist theology brought about the origins of a work ethic: Invented by Puritan ministers in the mid-17th century, the work ethic stemmed from an anxiety of being saved. Puritans thought that relentless work saved people from damnation.

The film compares the United States with South Korea regarding work culture. South Korea’s workaholic culture has resulted in the highest suicide rate in the world. A South Korean government initiative called PC Off is explored; PC Off is a countrywide policy where office computers are automatically logged off at 6pm each workday. As part of this policy, South Korea has produced a countrywide marketing strategy which the filmmakers highlight by showing some of the government public service announcements.

An Amazon delivery driver in the United States is profiled. As an introvert, she likes working alone and takes pride in helping people get their deliveries quickly. But she doesn’t appreciate the constant surveillance: Amazon vehicles are all equipped with AI cameras and drivers are monitored for their entire shifts.

The Kuwait Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to work. This may sound like utopia, but in effect has created a society with plenty of money and time but no purpose according to Kuwaiti citizens who are interviewed. The work guarantee has resulted in 20 people doing the job of 1 person; one interviewee had a government job where he had no desk and did nothing for 6 years. He calls this work theater, a play, a game; it’s all playacting with no consequences for behavior such as tardiness.

The concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) is discussed; Italian sociologist Luca Ricolfi would like to reframe the concept of UBI as a trust fund for ALL of our children. In contrast, the filmmakers interview an heiress whose father asked her to give him a number for her annual living expenses so he could gift her that amount each year. She mentions being uncomfortable with the request, but she complied and now has true freedom in a financial sense: she is 100% free to explore anything she is curious about and fills her days with travel, working with her horses, literally anything she wants to do. The heiress equates laziness with boredom and thinks any curious person will always have plenty to do and fill their time with. This is in direct contrast with Ricolfi’s research on Italy and Greece. He states that 30% of young people in those countries do nothing: No job. No school. No training. He calls this voluntary unemployment and theorizes that it is linked to “expected inheritance”. If young people expect to inherit a large amount down the road, why bother filling their time with work or higher education?

How does the need to work in capitalistic societies crush creativity and curiosity? What kind of world could we inhabit if we weren’t required to work to live? What other economic systems could allow humans to have more leisure and cultivate their creativity? Do the terms work and job mean the same thing? Is it lazy not to work? Is it lazy not to have a job? These are some of the questions I was left contemplating at the end of After Work.

After Work is beautifully filmed and weaves the many interviews together seamlessly. It’s tightly edited and packs a lot into its 80-minute run time. The filmmakers aren’t trying to push an agenda; they are following threads and ideas and fleshing those ideas out by interviewing a wide variety of people. After Work is a provocative film that raises many questions. The viewer won’t find answers per se but hopefully WILL become curious about their own perception of time and work and can follow a path to defining both concepts for themselves.

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