Amidst exhaustion, indignity, and rage, Guendelsberger presents an unpretentious overview of labor economics, with useful sidebars on human behavior, union organizing, and automation. With conversational asides and italicized internal monologues, Guendelsberger paints a down-to-earth, accessible primer on how dehumanizing and exploitative American wage labor can be—and what can be done to change it.
... a book that could have come across as terribly elitist, as if Guendelsberger were an anthropologist studying the lower classes like Jane Goodall studied the chimps ... What makes On the Clock work is how careful she is to never fall into that mindset. In fact, she goes out of her way to highlight those who have contributed to the grueling plight of the wage worker and their lack of empathy or basic consideration toward workers ... the sort of exposé Upton Sinclair would have been proud of ... With luck, maybe On the Clock can help spark a change.
We work and work and barely get by, while wealth pools up in obscene quantities out of view. Pile more pig iron, but don’t imagine you’re high-priced. What ... is this colossal insult doing to our heads? No wonder, Guendelsberger observes, the country is collectively 'freaking the fuck out' ... Seen from Guendelsberger’s point of view, America’s working class is quivering in stress and fear, hurting from torn-up feet, and all covered in honey mustard. The economic miseries inflicted on working-class people are bad enough, but here Guendelsberger has identified something deeper and arguably worse: 'Chronic stress drains people’s empathy, patience, and tolerance for new things.' We’ve been brutalized, bullied, and baited into being trained work-animals and not even afforded a corresponding pay bump. No wonder our society fell apart.
In her finely related chronicle of experiencing this work first-hand, she incorporates histories of labor, scientific management, and trade deals, as well as the psychology of work and stress. Guendelsberger can go from light-hearted to dead-serious on a dime, writing with a conversational, contemporary, and heavily footnoted bent. (There are also extensive notes and further reading.) This clear inheritor to Barbara Ehrenreich’s seminal Nickel and Dimed (2001) is bound to open eyes and change minds.
... investigate[s] the sheer implausibility of living on minimum wage and the Kafkaesque features of service industry work ... give[s] historical background on how the plight of today’s overburdened working class came to be. Guendelsberger’s narration is vivid, humorous, and honest; she admits to the feelings of despair, panic, and shame that these jobs frequently inspire, allowing for a more complex and complete picture of the experience. This is a riveting window into minimum-wage work and the subsistence living it engenders.
Detailed, intelligent, and well-researched, the book provides a sobering look at the inhuman world of blue-collar work while suggesting that creation of a better world starts by connecting to others who also believe 'the status quo is cruel and ridiculous' ... An eye-opening, unrelenting exposé that uncovers the brutal wages of modern global capitalism. A natural choice for fans of Nickel and Dimed.
