Abstract
It is well researched that ideals of freedom and self-fulfillment through work are perpetuated by the neoliberal ideology that permeates subjective reasoning, meaning-making, and everyday practices. While these ideals may seem attractive and enticing to the subject, their pursuit usually leads to less secure working contracts and conditions. Thus, organizations can continue to enforce economic principles and increase pressure on workers while, at the same time, the mechanisms of liberalization and individualization make subjects — not organizations — responsible for their own success and existential survival, and for creating meaningful and happy lives. Striving to design and optimize their own personal and professional trajectories, subjects perpetuate these ideals and thus adopt the socially-validated view that opting out of a salaried job in favor of self-employment is the zenith of self-actualization. Existing research on the phenomenon of opting out emphasizes gender differences around this issue, i.e., women opt out to stay home, whereas men — if their role is even considered — do so to enhance their careers. However, this research is sparse and lacks a contextualized understanding of the phenomenon, such that we still know very little about who opts out and why. Following an explorative approach, this study looks at 20 single-case stories of subjects who opted out from corporate career tracks. We find that the decision to opt out worked out well for diligent subjects with high self-esteem, who already had successful career trajectories and who — independently of gender — viewed it as an act to free oneself from, and a fundamental critique of, corporate working conditions and values. We analyze this finding through the theoretical lens of critical psychology in order to shed light on the phenomenon of opting out and the extent to which individuals can pursue meaningfulness in life and work within the scope of neoliberal conditions, i.e., in contexts where liberal principles remain applicable to the living and working conditions achieved by subjects after they have left the corporate world.
Highlights
Characterized by general conditions of neoliberal ideology, contemporary work is rooted in the market-driven acceleration and utilization of human labor, which hide behind seemingly positive fantasies such as the positive liberalization of the self and work (Gergen, 2011, 2014; Rose, 1996)
The second category, “opting out as a fundamental critique of corporate conditions and values,” demonstrates how the subjects negotiate with the social context and free themselves from suction effects and strings, and explores how they constitute opting out as a critique of working conditions and their living conditions while they were employed
The overall stance of the subjects in our study suggests that family-friendly values, the search for meaning, and the avoidance of masculine traditions are proven possible while maintaining neoliberal ideals; The subjects continued economic success after opting out and implementing values as true flexibility and “female” work styles shows, these traditions are obsolete to maintain objective economic success, a proven case that radically is questioning working traditions in corporations by their means
Summary
Opting‐Out in Contemporary NeoliberalismCharacterized by general conditions of neoliberal ideology, contemporary work is rooted in the market-driven acceleration and utilization of human labor, which hide behind seemingly positive fantasies such as the positive liberalization of the self and work (Gergen, 2011, 2014; Rose, 1996). This neoliberal focus on personal responsibility as the key to survival impacts every aspect of existence: one’s work, and one’s personal life becomes oriented towards measurable economic outcomes and competition as the justification for being and a measure of individual worth (Binkley, 2014; Rose, 1996) Within this logic, subjects are deemed responsible for their own life courses and living conditions, resulting in a need to optimize themselves and an individual quest to control one’s own life course by creating one’s own opportunities, endowing one’s everyday life, and working with meaning, and doing so in ways that enable one to meet the competitive pressure to survive and to thrive (ibid.). Subject to the neoliberal ideology that pervades contemporary society, they must invest heavily in their careers and workplaces if they are to meet the inter- and intra-subjective pressure to achieve individual success (e.g., pressure to achieve individual success, financial stability) by engaging in meaning-making processes and making appropriate and fortunate career decisions
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