How to Succeed in Anti-Capitalist Business: Workplace Learning Module

Do you work long hours for little reward? Do you find yourself at odds with conventional professional and business advice? This course will help you achieve your professional goals without sacrificing your life and values.

Originally designed for the Portland Underground Graduate School (PUGS), this training workshop can be tailored to address the specific needs and concerns of your organization's employees or members.

Commerce is as old, if not older, than humanity itself. Capitalism has only been here for about 300 years. As a business-minded person, you have probably been called a capitalist, or even taught that capitalism is the best economic system for someone like you. But if that's true, why is it that capitalism so often pushes us to do things completely against our personal values?

In this course you will:

• Confront the capitalist myth of "hard work"
• Explore the concepts of self-worth and self-care
• Learn exercises to help you reconnect with and be lead by your body and spirit
• Go back into your professional life with the tools you need to resist capitalism and center your values in the workplace
• Develop an ongoing practice of awareness and self love that will have an impact on your business

This workshop was designed and born on Zoom and utilizes all of the advantages of a digital platform to maximize participant experience. Participants can choose their level of engagement and use Zoom private messaging to ask anonymous questions in an otherwise public venue.

Module 1: What is Hard Work?

We examine the concept of hard work, which kinds of hard work are rewarded and which are ignored, and we talk about how we have been encouraged to tie our self worth to those aspects of work that earn money, usually for others.

Module 2: My Body, My Business

We introduce some body-awareness exercises and learn how to apply them to our work-week in ways that benefit us.

Module 3: Anti-Capitalism in Practice

We talk about what anti-capitalism looks like in the context of our roles as business leaders. We examine business policies and best-practices and talk about how these principles can be applied to our working environments today.

Module 4: Continued Learning

We convene a final time to talk about what our experience has been applying this knowledge, what we plan to carry with us after the class is over as well as any wins or challenges. Many of the concepts we learn here are extremely new or, only recently re-introduced and we are all always growing in our awareness.