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stepgg's review
3.0
I really felt like the author thought he was better than min wage workers and thier jobs. yes they may not be a job someone chosen but you can get joy and fulfillment out of these jobs too. I know grocery cashiers and tims workers who love it and chose not to do something higher paying. I also am not sure if I believe all the charactors/bosses he has and feel like he just scared everyone from getting thier home renoed or built. I know many contractors, not a single one would have an employee they don't keep track of pay wherever they want and jut don't show up. But than again I am reminded of the difference between Canada and the US regarding min wage. I felt the author focused more on trying to be funny and picked odd times to be informative, it doesn't help in Canada we don't have hospital techs but I had to look that up, nothing in the book actually told me what they really do and I'm not sure how shadowing a Dr is the same as actually working as a tech. as for his Dr friend, good job his name is not mentioned! What doctor performs an invasive procedure when it is not needed what so ever!!??!?!! I could hardly handle the hospital section. I also was confused about the wagon train, in the end I'm assuming it was a horse ride vacation and there was horse pulling a wagon with everyone's stuff, again no explaination, but the author decided to give a whole history of Mormon which I'm not too sure the story needed.. so very disappointing book..
robinsbooks's review
4.0
The author quits his regular job to work at minimum wage jobs such as pizza delivery guy, burger jockey, ice cream scooper, and other sundry jobs. I thought this was similar to Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, only the author quit his white-collar job to immerse himself in the minimum wage quagmire. Intersting although it did get a little old after a while and I'm not sure I totally liked his attitude and politics--but then that's just me.
familiar_diversions's review
3.0
Prioleau Alexander used to work for an advertising agency before he got tired of it and quit. He was tired of having to kiss up to clients who thought they knew his job better than he did - actually, he was tired of having to kiss up to clients, period, because none of them ever seemed to appreciate the work that he and the others in his advertising agency did for them. For a while after quitting, he just sat around like a lump and apparently made his wife angry at him (I'd probably be angry, too, if my family were suddenly depending on just one person's income because someone decided they were tired of their job). Then he got an idea - he'd start doing minimum wage jobs, just to see what they're like. The jobs he did were pizza delivery guy, ice cream scooper guy, demolition guy for a construction company, tech at a hospital, cashier guy at a fast food place, and cowboy. He also tried to get a job at a big-box store, but no one would hire him.
For each of these jobs, Alexander talks about how he got the job (in some cases, very quickly, without even the need for an application or interview), how the job began (usually with little to no training), what the job entailed, and what the benefits and drawbacks of the job were. The book was strongest when Alexander talked about normal minimum wage jobs that many people take - pretty much anything except for his time as a hospital tech and a cowboy. While those two jobs were interesting to read about, they felt like they didn't really belong in this book and were maybe just there because Alexander had a page number quota he needed to fill.
Although I imagine people who are working in minimum wage jobs right now will probably find a lot in this book to agree with Alexander about, this book seems to have been written more for those who are currently in white-collar jobs and haven't ever worked in anything but jobs like that. I found myself wondering about Alexander. Hadn't he ever taken jobs like these when he was younger, either in high school or during college? He mentions that he used to be a Marine, so maybe he went straight from high school to the military, without stopping to get a crappy, low-paying job along the way. At any rate, he sure writes like he's never had jobs like these before.
Alexander's earliest chapters are his best. I enjoyed reading about what it was like to be a pizza delivery guy, an ice cream scooper guy, and a demolition guy. Alexander had interesting observations to make about the people he worked for and with and any customers he might have served. In his chapter about being a pizza delivery guy, Alexander explains why he now never tips less than $5 when he has a pizza delivered, and why others should do the same. In the ice cream scooper chapter, he writes about the categories of customers he observed, whereas in the demolition guy chapter he writes about the types of workers found at a home renovation.
Considering that the stereotypical minimum wage jobs are at fast food places, it takes a long time before this chapter shows up and then it's way too short - by this time, I think Alexander has gotten a bit bored with minimum wage jobs. The hospital tech job, while disgusting and sometimes depressing, cannot really be considered a normal minimum wage job - after all, Alexander only got it because he had a friend who was a doctor at the hospital. The cowboy job was also something that felt out of place because most people would not have had this opportunity - Alexander got this job because a friend of his knew a guy, and the guy was willing to pay to fly Alexander to a new state to do the job. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't happen to most people who are looking for minimum wage work. These oddball chapters are my biggest complaint about the book.
My other complaint is that in a few places near the end of the book, Alexander gets pretty political - I had problems keeping my hackles from rising, even though I didn't necessarily disagree with everything he wrote. Also, Alexander is occasionally amazingly idealistic when it comes to America and how well it and its various systems work. In his mind, America is the greatest country on the planet, because even the poorest of its poor have clothes. Also, anyone who perseveres and gets a college education won't end up with a minimum wage job like one of the ones he wrote about - apparently, Alexander hasn't looked at the job market lately and hasn't considered the fact that so many people have college degrees that having one isn't necessarily worth much. I should know - I've got a BA and an MLS (Master's in Library Science) and I still haven't managed to get a full-time job in my field after more than a year of sending out applications [At the time I wrote this review, I was still job hunting. I now have a job I enjoy that pays all my bills and then some, but my original point still stands.]. Minimum wage jobs aren't just for people lacking college degrees.
One final complaint: although Alexander starts just about every chapter with information on the history of whatever it is his job is about (ice cream, big-box stores, etc.), he rarely ever looked at a book while doing his research. Most of his history sections start with the phrase "I Googled it." When Google fails him (as it does in the case of big-box stores), does he go to his local library and talk with a reference librarian? No, he contacts a Wikipedia writer. In case you're unfamiliar with Wikipedia (however it may sometimes seem, there are still people out there who haven't used it), it's an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. This means that when he said he contacted a Wikipedia writer to ask about big-box stories, he could've been talking to a 12-year-old kid or a conspiracy nut. The "nut" option seems like a possibility, since his history of big-box stores has them starting with a gangster whose idea was stolen by Sam Walton. Apparently, Walton sent a whole squadron of corporate lawyers after the guy, as well as, eventually, a bounty hunter. Since this all sounds like it might potentially be just anti-Wal-Mart fiction, I would've appreciated it if Alexander had actually used cite-able sources so that his readers could check his information. However, there are no citations whatsoever in the entire book, and the only book Alexander mentions is [b:Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal|1097|Fast Food Nation The Dark Side of the All-American Meal|Eric Schlosser|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348889590s/1097.jpg|2207547]. Granted, this is a popular non-fiction book, and not a scholarly work, but it's still incredibly sloppy.
Overall, though, this was a funny, scary book - funny if you can approach it objectively, scary if you think of all the people who have to have jobs like this. Very scary if you have to have a job like one of these yourself, or if you, like me, are facing the possibility of a life with jobs like these, because you can't manage to get anything else.
(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
For each of these jobs, Alexander talks about how he got the job (in some cases, very quickly, without even the need for an application or interview), how the job began (usually with little to no training), what the job entailed, and what the benefits and drawbacks of the job were. The book was strongest when Alexander talked about normal minimum wage jobs that many people take - pretty much anything except for his time as a hospital tech and a cowboy. While those two jobs were interesting to read about, they felt like they didn't really belong in this book and were maybe just there because Alexander had a page number quota he needed to fill.
Although I imagine people who are working in minimum wage jobs right now will probably find a lot in this book to agree with Alexander about, this book seems to have been written more for those who are currently in white-collar jobs and haven't ever worked in anything but jobs like that. I found myself wondering about Alexander. Hadn't he ever taken jobs like these when he was younger, either in high school or during college? He mentions that he used to be a Marine, so maybe he went straight from high school to the military, without stopping to get a crappy, low-paying job along the way. At any rate, he sure writes like he's never had jobs like these before.
Alexander's earliest chapters are his best. I enjoyed reading about what it was like to be a pizza delivery guy, an ice cream scooper guy, and a demolition guy. Alexander had interesting observations to make about the people he worked for and with and any customers he might have served. In his chapter about being a pizza delivery guy, Alexander explains why he now never tips less than $5 when he has a pizza delivered, and why others should do the same. In the ice cream scooper chapter, he writes about the categories of customers he observed, whereas in the demolition guy chapter he writes about the types of workers found at a home renovation.
Considering that the stereotypical minimum wage jobs are at fast food places, it takes a long time before this chapter shows up and then it's way too short - by this time, I think Alexander has gotten a bit bored with minimum wage jobs. The hospital tech job, while disgusting and sometimes depressing, cannot really be considered a normal minimum wage job - after all, Alexander only got it because he had a friend who was a doctor at the hospital. The cowboy job was also something that felt out of place because most people would not have had this opportunity - Alexander got this job because a friend of his knew a guy, and the guy was willing to pay to fly Alexander to a new state to do the job. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't happen to most people who are looking for minimum wage work. These oddball chapters are my biggest complaint about the book.
My other complaint is that in a few places near the end of the book, Alexander gets pretty political - I had problems keeping my hackles from rising, even though I didn't necessarily disagree with everything he wrote. Also, Alexander is occasionally amazingly idealistic when it comes to America and how well it and its various systems work. In his mind, America is the greatest country on the planet, because even the poorest of its poor have clothes. Also, anyone who perseveres and gets a college education won't end up with a minimum wage job like one of the ones he wrote about - apparently, Alexander hasn't looked at the job market lately and hasn't considered the fact that so many people have college degrees that having one isn't necessarily worth much. I should know - I've got a BA and an MLS (Master's in Library Science) and I still haven't managed to get a full-time job in my field after more than a year of sending out applications [At the time I wrote this review, I was still job hunting. I now have a job I enjoy that pays all my bills and then some, but my original point still stands.]. Minimum wage jobs aren't just for people lacking college degrees.
One final complaint: although Alexander starts just about every chapter with information on the history of whatever it is his job is about (ice cream, big-box stores, etc.), he rarely ever looked at a book while doing his research. Most of his history sections start with the phrase "I Googled it." When Google fails him (as it does in the case of big-box stores), does he go to his local library and talk with a reference librarian? No, he contacts a Wikipedia writer. In case you're unfamiliar with Wikipedia (however it may sometimes seem, there are still people out there who haven't used it), it's an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. This means that when he said he contacted a Wikipedia writer to ask about big-box stories, he could've been talking to a 12-year-old kid or a conspiracy nut. The "nut" option seems like a possibility, since his history of big-box stores has them starting with a gangster whose idea was stolen by Sam Walton. Apparently, Walton sent a whole squadron of corporate lawyers after the guy, as well as, eventually, a bounty hunter. Since this all sounds like it might potentially be just anti-Wal-Mart fiction, I would've appreciated it if Alexander had actually used cite-able sources so that his readers could check his information. However, there are no citations whatsoever in the entire book, and the only book Alexander mentions is [b:Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal|1097|Fast Food Nation The Dark Side of the All-American Meal|Eric Schlosser|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348889590s/1097.jpg|2207547]. Granted, this is a popular non-fiction book, and not a scholarly work, but it's still incredibly sloppy.
Overall, though, this was a funny, scary book - funny if you can approach it objectively, scary if you think of all the people who have to have jobs like this. Very scary if you have to have a job like one of these yourself, or if you, like me, are facing the possibility of a life with jobs like these, because you can't manage to get anything else.
(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
daringreader13's review
4.0
Overall this book was good. It kept me engaged and I wanted to see where each new job took him because of the humor. However if I didn't have to read it for school I'm not sure I would have picked it up so good but not one that I will dying to pick up over and over again.
yooperann's review
4.0
You've probably read Barbara Ehrenreich's [b:Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America|1869|Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America|Barbara Ehrenreich|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312044755s/1869.jpg|1840613] Everyone has. This is the same book without all the pious sociology. Mind you, I was a sociology major and liked Ehrenreich a lot. But this covers the same ground and is so much more fun. It's not particularly politically correct--I kept thinking of people I probably couldn't give it to--but the message is really the same as the ultra-correct Ehrenreich's. Minimum wage work in really stinks. It's not enough money to live on even as it sucks up all your time.
It may be that the management consultants have really taken over America since Ehrenreich did her foray into this world, but some of the details I found most fascinating had to do with the way that corporate America avoids spending a penny more on labor than it has to. This was especially vivid in the story of being a pizza delivery man, where everyone gets sent home as soon as it looks like it might be a slow night.
I will never again tip a pizza delivery person less than $5. I will never again sample a whole bunch of ice creams at the ice cream store. Life lessons learned!
It may be that the management consultants have really taken over America since Ehrenreich did her foray into this world, but some of the details I found most fascinating had to do with the way that corporate America avoids spending a penny more on labor than it has to. This was especially vivid in the story of being a pizza delivery man, where everyone gets sent home as soon as it looks like it might be a slow night.
I will never again tip a pizza delivery person less than $5. I will never again sample a whole bunch of ice creams at the ice cream store. Life lessons learned!
agadbois's review
2.0
Surprise! White collar ad exec finds out that minimum wage jobs are hard... Thankfully this was somewhat funny and they kept the best story for last... Otherwise I never would have finished this.
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