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gulshanbatra 's review for:
On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane
by Emily Guendelsberger
Emily Guendelsberger's On The Clock is a shockingly, yet disarmingly simplistically told, cautionary tale of what it means to be a blue collar worker in modern Capitalist America. Many of the readers here on this site perhaps don't belong to that bluest of working class. If we have the time to read, not just out of compulsion but out of an active abundance of choice, and then go on to share our thoughts by writing precise (or sometimes, not as precise!) reviews of those books, we are certainly not who this book is trying very hard to describe, and more importantly, explain. To us.
This book of investigative journalism emanates from a layoff, and goes on to explore what does it mean to draw the short stick when it comes to menial labor - in the service sector. There are some mentions of true, hard labor - construction site, engineering projects, salmon processing and packaging - but those are memories, and often much more cruel comparisons of past lives, for the blue workers of Emily's current subject employers.
Though based on her true interactions, and therefore non-fiction, it reads as well as any page turner by Grisham or Child. The easy flowing conversation, the speed of events, and the clever way by which she leads her readers to her realizations, findings, discoveries and conclusions is eye opening - to say the least. More like eye-popping. The section on the Amazon warehouse is especially poignant, where the workers supposedly have the choice to take breaks, take time off, take leave or just leave - they never really do any of those; or can't, without real consequences, and in each case can quickly lead to termination of employment. While it no shock to anyone who is aware of the existence of Amazon how much money it makes, and how many items it sells, and how many it ships - on any given day of the week or year, it is nevertheless shocking to realize the real human cost of what it really takes to get that product, locate it in this behemoth of a warehouse, pick it, and lead it to the conveyor belt for packing. Since the author spent all her time in picking, we're spared the other side of the story. But make no mistakes - I have absolutely no doubt it is equally as hard, painful and physically torturous, if not more so.
Frederick Taylor's theories on measurable Management is taught in Grad Business schools, but it is incomplete, without also showing the human toll of exacting that kind of throughput from a real person - a person who has to go home to a family, to a spouse, children, a warm refuge. The only time in the book and the only people for whom this work is shown to be good, is the ones who have done much more demanding work, in much worse conditions - often, literally, as bonded labor. And those same companies have the gall to take out full-page ads touting their businesses as using Responsible Harvesting, or Responsible Fisheries, or Environmentally Aware Mining Practices. I won't go so far as saying all profit is bad and always at the expense of someone else, it need not be based upon exploitation. The problem, however, with imagining a more responsible Amazon is - it would simply mean its place would be taken by some other corporation, out to suck the last drop of blood and sweat and tear from its employees. Amazon is by no means the worst employer, given it's nowhere compared to the worst examples cited fleetingly in some of the stories shared.
"Amazon has modesty wrapping - and it knows it", writes Emily.
"And it uses it well", I add to that.
Her experiences in Convergys are equally stunning, if not more so. It is unfathomable (I daresay, to many of us) how cruel customers can be, but the truth is - people are cruel. Sometimes, intentionally, but also often without realizing or unintentionally, or they simply feel they've been pushed into a corner. But that doesn't take away any of the burden of responsibility from these corporations that are the pillars of capitalism in our modern society. I mean, it took a conscious effort and a change in rules to allow to NOT try to cross sell DTV packages to customers if they were calling about cancelling services for a dead family member. How inconsiderate must we be as a society, to not allow that smallest space for grief, and instead insist on making sales pitches to such callers?
In my mind, the author makes a very interesting transition in the three work experiences. There is a definite trend one can see - the cruelty and hardships in the first assignment are all remote, everything is nameless, the corporation is faceless and she doesn't interact with the end customers at all. Next, at the call center, she gets to interact with the ultimate customers but there's still no face or name - it's just a voice on the other end of a phone line, and while it keeps the physical aspect out of the equation, the brutality is abundantly visceral. In the last section, at the fast food counter, she faces the the ultimate customer, and comes face to face with the barbaric treatment that many of those customers pile onto the employees. To the customers, the staff behind the counter represent the corporation, and they are venting their anger at all the perceived and implied mistreatments they believe they have been meted out. They don't know any other way.
I can't find words to describe what must be driving them, and I'm sure they give themselves enough justifications for throwing food at the employees, yelling at them and calling them names. That of course, is my naivete, at best - ignorance, at worst.
The portion describing Wanda seemed circuitous to begin with, but eventually is brought in context - and repeatedly in the narrative, and made good use of. The example of the Schezwan Sauce is disgusting, and to me was an epitome of how trite and futile and self-centered many of today's (and tomorrow's) customers are (going to be).
This book is a must read for its simple language, yet powerful and evocative reflection of that strata of society that works under-deck to keep the engines running, while the Titanic continues to list more and more.
Of course, for those who have not read Nickel and Dimed, you must.
The Atlantic, on America's work culture, an excellent article that led me to this book in the first place: Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore, from the November 2019 issue
Good recent reporting on Amazon's practices, commissioned by ProPublica and NYT from May 2019: Amazon Pushes Fast Shipping but Avoids Responsibility for the Human Cost
A podcast issue from NYT's The Daily on the true cost of instant delivery: The Human Toll of Instant Delivery
This book of investigative journalism emanates from a layoff, and goes on to explore what does it mean to draw the short stick when it comes to menial labor - in the service sector. There are some mentions of true, hard labor - construction site, engineering projects, salmon processing and packaging - but those are memories, and often much more cruel comparisons of past lives, for the blue workers of Emily's current subject employers.
Though based on her true interactions, and therefore non-fiction, it reads as well as any page turner by Grisham or Child. The easy flowing conversation, the speed of events, and the clever way by which she leads her readers to her realizations, findings, discoveries and conclusions is eye opening - to say the least. More like eye-popping. The section on the Amazon warehouse is especially poignant, where the workers supposedly have the choice to take breaks, take time off, take leave or just leave - they never really do any of those; or can't, without real consequences, and in each case can quickly lead to termination of employment. While it no shock to anyone who is aware of the existence of Amazon how much money it makes, and how many items it sells, and how many it ships - on any given day of the week or year, it is nevertheless shocking to realize the real human cost of what it really takes to get that product, locate it in this behemoth of a warehouse, pick it, and lead it to the conveyor belt for packing. Since the author spent all her time in picking, we're spared the other side of the story. But make no mistakes - I have absolutely no doubt it is equally as hard, painful and physically torturous, if not more so.
Frederick Taylor's theories on measurable Management is taught in Grad Business schools, but it is incomplete, without also showing the human toll of exacting that kind of throughput from a real person - a person who has to go home to a family, to a spouse, children, a warm refuge. The only time in the book and the only people for whom this work is shown to be good, is the ones who have done much more demanding work, in much worse conditions - often, literally, as bonded labor. And those same companies have the gall to take out full-page ads touting their businesses as using Responsible Harvesting, or Responsible Fisheries, or Environmentally Aware Mining Practices. I won't go so far as saying all profit is bad and always at the expense of someone else, it need not be based upon exploitation. The problem, however, with imagining a more responsible Amazon is - it would simply mean its place would be taken by some other corporation, out to suck the last drop of blood and sweat and tear from its employees. Amazon is by no means the worst employer, given it's nowhere compared to the worst examples cited fleetingly in some of the stories shared.
"Amazon has modesty wrapping - and it knows it", writes Emily.
"And it uses it well", I add to that.
Her experiences in Convergys are equally stunning, if not more so. It is unfathomable (I daresay, to many of us) how cruel customers can be, but the truth is - people are cruel. Sometimes, intentionally, but also often without realizing or unintentionally, or they simply feel they've been pushed into a corner. But that doesn't take away any of the burden of responsibility from these corporations that are the pillars of capitalism in our modern society. I mean, it took a conscious effort and a change in rules to allow to NOT try to cross sell DTV packages to customers if they were calling about cancelling services for a dead family member. How inconsiderate must we be as a society, to not allow that smallest space for grief, and instead insist on making sales pitches to such callers?
In my mind, the author makes a very interesting transition in the three work experiences. There is a definite trend one can see - the cruelty and hardships in the first assignment are all remote, everything is nameless, the corporation is faceless and she doesn't interact with the end customers at all. Next, at the call center, she gets to interact with the ultimate customers but there's still no face or name - it's just a voice on the other end of a phone line, and while it keeps the physical aspect out of the equation, the brutality is abundantly visceral. In the last section, at the fast food counter, she faces the the ultimate customer, and comes face to face with the barbaric treatment that many of those customers pile onto the employees. To the customers, the staff behind the counter represent the corporation, and they are venting their anger at all the perceived and implied mistreatments they believe they have been meted out. They don't know any other way.
I can't find words to describe what must be driving them, and I'm sure they give themselves enough justifications for throwing food at the employees, yelling at them and calling them names. That of course, is my naivete, at best - ignorance, at worst.
The portion describing Wanda seemed circuitous to begin with, but eventually is brought in context - and repeatedly in the narrative, and made good use of. The example of the Schezwan Sauce is disgusting, and to me was an epitome of how trite and futile and self-centered many of today's (and tomorrow's) customers are (going to be).
This book is a must read for its simple language, yet powerful and evocative reflection of that strata of society that works under-deck to keep the engines running, while the Titanic continues to list more and more.
Of course, for those who have not read Nickel and Dimed, you must.
The Atlantic, on America's work culture, an excellent article that led me to this book in the first place: Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore, from the November 2019 issue
Good recent reporting on Amazon's practices, commissioned by ProPublica and NYT from May 2019: Amazon Pushes Fast Shipping but Avoids Responsibility for the Human Cost
A podcast issue from NYT's The Daily on the true cost of instant delivery: The Human Toll of Instant Delivery