Rating
The Pequod Review:
There are a lot of misconceptions about the nature of low-wage work (to say nothing of the attitudes of low-wage workers; it always comes as a shock to elites how they vote in elections). With On the Clock, the journalist Emily Guendelsberger recounts her two-year immersion into this world as she took on low-level jobs with three different employers — an Amazon fulfillment center in Louisville, KY; a Convergys call center in Hickory, North Carolina; and a McDonald's restaurant in San Francisco. Her book is filled with a lot of extraneous details, but it provides a useful view of what really happens on the ground on a day-to-day basis (in ways both better and worse than our popular conceptions) and especially how recent advances in automation and surveillance have led to increased stress levels — all in the name of efficiency.