Love’s Labours: - Good work, care work and a mutual economy

In the first report of the series, The Ties That Bind, Tim Thorlby focused on the rise of lone and insecure work and argued for a new covenant for work – one which balances the interests of employers and employees in a renewed a sense of mutuality. [...] However, decisions made on the basis to benefit of financial efficiency are also unlikely to benefit the working the working conditions of those in the sector, and neither do they account conditions of those in the for the non-monetary value of good care. [...] in hand with the love and In the course of our interviews, death emerged as an commitment important point where the dynamics of love, care and work they show towards those converge and where the emotional labour of care work is they care for. [...] In the words of psychologist Colin Murray Parkes, later popularised by Queen Elizabeth II, “the pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment.”7 It is thus understandable that for many care workers, the weight of grief involved in their work goes hand in hand with the love and commitment they show towards those th. [...] Against the odds, caring for and about what one does and the people one does it for (paradoxically) becomes a way of protecting oneself from feelings of alienation or despondency.”12 Integrating and valuing the idea of love across the breadth of the care sector has much to offer the policy conversation.