The Flight from Work

Goran Palm went to work incognito in one of the factories of LM Ericsson to obtain a better understanding of the life of the manual worker in a large factory.

Goran Palm – a well-known Swedish writer and poet – went to work incognito in one of the factories of LM Ericsson. He did this to obtain a better understanding of the life of the manual worker in a large factory, and to gain from that understanding a more mature political view. Going into a factory and joining a particular work group enabled the author to see beyond the monolithic idea of the working class and to know and appreciate his fellow workers as individuals. The writing is more literary than scientific, the language is concrete, and portraits, satire and dialogue are mixed to provide a full and lively picture into which the development of Palm's ideas is inserted. His particular concern is the worker's tendency to regard work as a depressing overture to the leisure time constantly in his thoughts. This is what Palm means by The Flight from Work.