 Do you ever feel like work is bullshit? I am overwhelmed, underappreciated and overworked. We are repeatedly promised new and better ways of working, but still forced to swallow the same bleak reality day in and day out. If anything, things are getting worse. We've been sold flexible working, co-working, portfolio careers, work-life balance, algorithmic management, freelancing, permalancing, hot-desking, reverse finance internships, job perks, office yoga and all these other coping mechanisms in the desperate pursuit of self-direction and fulfilment. But instead, what we've got is long hours, or zero hours, crap pay and precarious employment. All that and the feeling of powerlessness, hopelessness as we continue to sell our labour to make money for shareholders and bosses. Work sucks. But does it have to be this way? Could worker co-ops fix our broken economy? Well, maybe. There are over 440 businesses in the UK that are owned and collectively controlled by the people who work there and run for their benefit. Worker co-ops are organised democratically, so there is no boss. Workers who are also company directors get equal say in how the businesses run, how much everyone gets paid and what happens to the profits. From magazine co-ops like New Internationalist, where I'm one of the co-editors, to baker's co-ops, ceramic artists, tech startups, filmmakers, cafes, basically any workplace can be a co-operative. Worker co-ops go against the grain in a world where jobs are often focused on competition and individual success and where workplace hierarchies are institutionalised. But do they work? So research shows that working in a co-op often gives people a very strong sense of solidarity, of care, of mutual support. A dominant neoliberal culture tends to suggest that one person's success needs to depend on somebody else's failure. Co-ops give an opportunity to reject that logic and instead for people to support one another and to thrive together. At the same time we do still find patterns of overwork, work stress and low pay within the co-operative economy. Co-ops alone certainly are not enough to eradicate precarious working conditions, they can however be a practical form of resistance against individualism, against competitiveness. Humans have always survived through co-operation, by collectivising our resources and sharing any surplus. Co-operatives, as we know them today, can be traced back to the industrial revolution. In 1844 the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, a group of artisans in Greater Manchester, opened their own shop to cut out the middleman and provide more affordable food. Modern co-ops today are still guided by the principles the Rochdale pioneers developed. Most importantly, co-operatives go further than giving workers a stake in the companies they work for. The workers own the whole thing, they are not just given a share of the profits, the profits are theirs to distribute how they want. While work without bosses sounds attractive, it's still work and being part of a worker cop can be a tough gig. Making decisions collectively can be difficult and time consuming and involve many, many meetings. And those decisions are important because there are no managers with fat salaries to blame if things go wrong. If the co-operative doesn't make enough money, you have to decide whether to pay yourself less, nothing or shut down entirely. The overall turnover of the UK's co-operative sector is up to £37.7 billion, but there are some co-operatives that are barely scraping by. Surviving under capitalism, while sticking to your politics, can sometimes feel impossible. So why do worker co-operatives even bother? As a freelancer, you often have to take jobs that pay rent rather than jobs that you find meaningful. And when you can't get enough gigs and enough to pay your bills, you feel kind of like a failure and that's really isolating. We decided to be a workers' co-operative because we didn't want to recreate the same exploitative structures and instead wanted to create an alternative that provided us with secure, fulfilling jobs in a collaborative environment. So my colleagues and I are in a survey among culture sector co-operatives in the UK, Canada and the US, where workers reported that among the biggest challenges faced by the co-operatives are consistent cash flow, rapidly changing markets and access to affordable office space. But over 90% of participants reported that they were either somewhat or extremely satisfied with their working conditions. They said that among the biggest benefits of working in a co-op are supportive work relationships, a friendly work environment, opportunities for creative self-expression and the work culture that encourages teamwork and cooperation. The co-operative model is resilient. Almost three out of four co-operative start-ups are still going strong after their first five years of existence, compared to just 4% of conventional companies. But the importance of co-ops goes beyond their ability to provide secure and ethical jobs. Our economic system is structured around some people's contributions being considered of higher value than others. At their most radical, co-ops can be at all in bringing about social change, skill development and empowerment. If we can organise our own workplaces differently, we can change other things too. For example, in Mississippi, a group called Cooperation Jackson is using co-operatives to start building an economy based on solidarity, focusing on the needs of the black and Latino working class in their community. Ultimately, they want to replace the current socioeconomic system of exploitation, exclusion and the destruction of the environment with a democratic alternative. Many of us spend more than half of our waking lives at work. Why should the profit generated by our labour be distributed outside of our control to shareholders and senior managers? Why should they get to call all the shots? It's our lives we're working away. Maybe it's time we started taking them back.