Sep 8, 2025 4 min read

The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Jen Liu

Welcome to Soft Labor, the namesake publication of Soft Labor, a strategic consultancy for organizations, designers, and the culture industry led by Sarah Hromack-Chan. Soft Labor is a publication about creative labor—what it is, what it looks like, and how it has and will continue to change. Did someone…

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Sep 2, 2025 5 min read

Vol. 1, No. 10: Imposter Syndrome

Dear Soft Labor, I’m a writer who uses a pen name—a best-selling writer, in fact—and even better, I write young adult fiction that teeters on the edge of fantasy.…

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Aug 25, 2025 1 min read

Labor Day Subscription Sale

Comrades, Soft Labor is running a Labor Day subscription sale commencing now and ending next Monday, Labor Day. Annual subscriptions are $40 between now and the holiday—$10 off the annual subscription rate of $50. Subscribe for $40 Soft Labor is written by a human, Sarah Hromack-Chan. Longtime editorial collaborator…

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Aug 25, 2025 5 min read

Vol. 1, No. 9: Back to School Special

Dear Soft Labor, I’m an untenured film professor at a large west coast university with a particularly pernicious colleague. He openly harasses faculty and students right up to the very edge of what he can get away with, then continues a furtive campaign after that.…

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Aug 11, 2025 3 min read

The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Haris Fazlani

Today's respondent is Haris Fazlani, a creative director and co-founder of WØRKS, a NYC-based studio working at the intersection of strategy, creative direction, and design.…

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Jul 28, 2025 2 min read

The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Julia Dault

Today's respondent is Julia Dault. Julia Dault is an artist whose paintings and sculptures have been featured in the New Museum’s triennial and the Marrakesh and Gwangju Biennales, with group shows at institutions including MOCA Toronto, MCA Chicago, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami.…

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Jul 21, 2025 5 min read

Vol. 1, No. 8: Feeling Drained

Dear Soft Labor, About a year ago, I suffered a major health crisis that left me physically functional but emotionally, financially, and worst of all, creatively drained.…

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Jul 14, 2025 5 min read

The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Roddy Schrock

Today's respondent is Roddy Schrock. Roddy Schrock is founder and lead homeopath at Ultradilute.…

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Jul 7, 2025 3 min read

The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Rob Giampetro

The Soft Labor Questionnaire, is simply that: A brief series of questions we’ve asked comrades in the field to answer about their own working experiences. Today’s respondent is writer, creative director, and current Head of Creative at Notion, Rob Giampetro, who is based in New York.…

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Jun 30, 2025 4 min read

Vol. 1, No. 7: Post-Career?

Dear Soft Labor, I enjoyed a significant run of art world success earlier in my career—degrees from major schools; gallery representation and strong sales; copious amounts of press—but the action has started to taper off as I’ve approached middle age.…

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Jun 23, 2025 4 min read

Introducing The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Hilary Eden

We’re introducing a new feature, The Soft Labor Questionnaire, which is simply that: A brief series of questions we’ve asked comrades in the field to answer about their own working experiences.…

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Jun 16, 2025 5 min read

Vol. 1, No. 6: A Nepo Baby (and a reader's response to AI)

Dear Soft Labor, I work as a partner in a major architecture firm, a job I ultimately got through nepotism as my father is the firm’s (well-known) founder. I’m writing mostly out of guilt.…

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Jun 9, 2025 5 min read

Vol. 1, No. 5: Fashionably Humiliated

Dear Soft Labor, I work as an entry-level gallerist in New York City. As one might imagine, there is a major disparity in pay between my position and those of, say, the gallery’s directors and partners. Everyone I work with seems to be independently wealthy, as expressed through stunning wardrobes.…

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Jun 2, 2025 4 min read

Vol. 1, No. 4: Overlooked

Dear Soft Labor, I have been working as an administrator for a mid-sized cultural nonprofit for about a decade—long enough that I’m embedded into the fabric of the place.…

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May 27, 2025 4 min read

Vol. 1, No. 3: Tapped Out

Dear Soft Labor, I run a small . . . let’s just call it a creative agency and am therefore a relentless self-marketer by necessity.…

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