A real day in consulting

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This piece is meant to be a response to the article “A Day in Consulting,” published on Idiot on February 11, 2026.

What is said about consulting is all true. Days in consulting are made of exploitation and hyper-productivity, heads bowed under the weight of the gargantuan system looming above. Consulting is the very structure of speculation. It rests on underpaid and overworked workers: interns, trainees, people at their first job. The production of value is pushed down to the lower levels, where the logic of profit reigns: employ the fewest people possible, pay them the least, and make them do as much as possible.

The oppression of workers is a daily companion, solid and tangible, present in the lives of those who had the misfortune of throwing away their dreams in the name of a guaranteed paycheck. Speaking about consulting in allegorical terms only plays into the hands of those at the top of this system. The problem of consulting is a real one that must be fought with concrete tools; there is no room for literary digressions or epic-poem scenarios. There is no point in putting a veil of powder over it: fighting for your rights is dangerous.

Consulting takes on the contours of a cult: once you enter it, it makes you believe that everything is possible, that if you work hard you will be rewarded, that good work will bring visibility and better pay. It enchants you with the myth of meritocracy while asking you to obey blindly, under penalty of never obtaining what they promised you. Competitiveness is an integral part of consulting culture: in order to squeeze every last drop out of the individual, it is essential that they believe they are in competition with others for the sweetest fruit — promotion and the approval of their superiors. Theory does not enter consulting, except in the way it is used to consolidate the exploitation of its workers.

In the value vacuum created by capitalism and consumerism, consulting flourishes: selling nothing in exchange for money, creating needs that do not exist for the sole purpose of keeping millions circulating. It is therefore no surprise that consulting feeds on the most rotten aspects of the culture of capital: work comes before everything and there is no efficiency that does not require an enormous investment of time. In a society where morality has become purely material, it has been easy to instill the idea of producing as a virtue. Working a lot brings a lot of money (or at least that is what they want us to believe), and a lot of money means a new car to flex on Instagram or a trip to the Caribbean during the August company shutdown.

I understand that it is easier to settle than to fight. That it is easier to package a story in which the consultant is the oppressed victim of the bad guys, condemned to endure everything for the sake of a salary. With the destruction of social movements and class consciousness, the burden of analyzing reality has fallen onto the individual, and it is easy to lack the courage to act in defense of one’s own rights. But this culture must be fought with actions: it is not dystopia but the harsh daily reality of hundreds of thousands of people. It is not abstraction, it is not an existential pain that afflicts us and from which we cannot heal, but something we can change by rolling up our sleeves and doing our part.

Fellow consultants, fight. Talk back to your boss when they once again ask you to work late into the night, perhaps even unpaid. Tell them that your time is yours and, if they threaten you, remind them that despite their insane ego, they are not in command. They must respect the agreements, respect the rights that those who came before us fought for with blood. Remind them that they must respect you. That they must do what is their responsibility and cannot delegate their duties. Remind them that work must be paid, and quality work must be paid even more.

Remind them that they too are nothing but a cog in a larger machine that devours everyone; that the power they believe they wield does not exist and is only the refuge of those trying to convince themselves they have become immune to exploitation.

And if you encounter walls, if they resist you, do not despair. Talk about it with your colleagues. Stir the waters. Resist. And work less — they will think twice before replacing you.

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A real day in consulting