On the Clock

What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane

De: Emily Guendelsberger

Narrado por: Christine Lakin

The bitingly funny, eye-opening story of a college-educated young professional who finds work in the automated and time-starved world of hourly labor....

After the local newspaper where she worked as a reporter closed, Emily Guendelsberger took a pre-Christmas job at an Amazon fulfillment center outside Louisville, Kentucky. There, the vending machines were stocked with painkillers, and the staff turnover was dizzying. In the new year, she travelled to North Carolina to work at a call center, a place where even bathroom breaks were timed to the second. And finally, Guendelsberger was hired at a San Francisco McDonald's, narrowly escaping revenge-seeking customers who pelted her with condiments.

Across three jobs, and in three different parts of the country, Guendelsberger directly took part in the revolution changing the US workplace. On the Clock takes us behind the scenes of the fastest-growing segment of the American workforce to understand the future of work in America - and its present. Until robots pack boxes, resolve billing issues, and make fast food, human beings supervised by AI will continue to get the job done. Guendelsberger shows us how workers went from being the most expensive element of production to the cheapest - and how low wage jobs have been remade to serve the ideals of efficiency, at the cost of humanity.

On the Clock explores the lengths that half of Americans will go to in order to make a living, offering not only a better understanding of the modern workplace, but also surprising solutions to make work more humane for millions of Americans.

©2019 Emily Guendelsberger (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"When former Onion editor Emily Guendelsberger explores how the non-college majority scrapes by, she uncovers a Darwinian hellscape where the richest man on earth munificently bestows painkillers upon his warehouse serfs, telemarketers pitch products to the newly bereaved, and the customer is always right-even when she's lobbing McNugget sauce at your head. Filled with compassion, fury, and an invigorating dose of hope, On The Clock is the laugh-till-you-cry exposé our laugh-till-you-cry nation deserves." (Daniel Brook, author of The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America, A History of Future Cities, and The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction)

"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." (Publishers Weekly)

"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." (Kirkus Reviews)

Service work conditions are horrifying.

I worked in fast food for years before landing a white collar job. I've been going through a jarring transition as I find myself immersed in a different culture. Here, everyone has hope, nobody is stressed to the breaking point, and the bosses never try to restrict access to the toilets. On the Clock explores this transition in reverse, as the author immerses herself into the world of service work after a life spent in the middle class. All her observations ring true. In particular, the depiction of the first month at a call center was uncannily accurate. It was painful to read, because remembering my experiences also awakened the despair I had been living in at the time. It made me physically ill.

Much like the author, I used to remark that everyone should have to work a service job at least once, so that they understand just how we shit on them as a society. This book honestly captures some of the experience. I now believe that everyone should have to read this book. If our upper classes understood the horrors we're inflicting on our people, things might change. It starts with everyone respecting the people who are being crushed by our systems, and it ends, I hope, with nobody needing to work in such degrading conditions.

Eye opening, worth reading, one error that I noticed

When the author says she got on bart and saw the golden gate as she crossed the river into Oakland, she made a couple errors. Bart goes under the bay, not a river, and there’s no way to see the golden gate in that process because you’re under water. Made me wonder if there are other inaccuracies. I hope not. I think this is an important book. But that’s a silly error.

Excellent check in

Revealing the tangible affect of toxic stress is important. Though I have my own brand of stress as a solo operator of a small business and I subject myself to frequent 17 hour days, the rewards are evident in my station in life. Though my business is feast and famine I forget about my beginnings as a cook constantly in the weeds and my ice cream time constantly in the weeds and my dishwasher days constantly in the weeds. I sympathize with the notion “I get to leave this place”. I always knew those jobs were weigh station placements. They provided books during university and part time income for some discretionary. I never thought it was permanent. The desperation and hopelessness exposed in this examination of everyday life is harrowing. If this book doesn’t offer you some empathic reflection for those you encounter in your day-to-day, you’ve never known ‘down and out’. And it’ll be tough to reach you ever at all. This book is an important reminder for those in the weeds and those out, of those out are receptive to it. Great work.

Informative & engaging

This was a great book. Funny, informative, and validating for anyone who has worked in service or retail. My only criticism is that the accents used by the reader, which feature prominently throughout the book, were so bad as to be offensive in some parts (I’m thinking of the Cuban guy at Amazon in particular.) Would it really have been so bad for the company to just hire one or two more people who could have done those accents justice rather than expecting one person to convincingly do them all?

Insightful

This book was even better than I’d hoped and described a world even worse than I imagined. It also contextualizes the oppressive nature of modern low wage work from a historical and scientific perspective.

Lively and Biting look at low wage labor in America

This is really great journalism and analysis, based on real experience and perspective. A must read to understand the plight of many workers in America, with welcome humor and irony deftly interspersed. To add, the narration of this Audiobook is simply outstanding in every regard.

Stellar reporting and retelling of...

what happen On The Clock. Ms. Guendelsberger shares her experience at Amazon, Convergys and MacDonalds as an undercover author after hearing horror stories of the working conditions/daily work of these companies. The book is parts retelling, comedy, tragedy and extrapolation. The book made me laugh as well as depressed, but still hopeful. She also masterfully works in scientific theories as well as a few studies on depression, history of Taylorism and Henry Ford and capitalism in America. It was entertaining AND informative, AND relatable as a low wage worker. The reader is also great :) she did a fantastic job and I love that she gives all the characters different voices when they are speaking (I know that's childish but I love it) 11/10

So interesting

This book was so interesting. I am always looking for books to provide an alternate point of view and this one fit the bill. One of the final anecdotes about the Szechuan sauce showed so many points of view and how things are covered in the news. Being from North Carolina - it showed so much about the failing furniture market and how cities now fight to survive.

Actually binged this book

I was fascinated by the descriptions and details of the different work environments the author experienced. She beautifully relayed these experiences and I was completely appalled at the conditions these workers dealt with. Haven’t thought a lot about minimum wage conditions since I got out of college. Her descriptions about how rude the customers behave towards minimum wage workers spot on match what my barista daughter tells me, something that I have shrugged off in the past, and this has me reflecting a lot on this trend of abusive customers ( it would never occur to me that I know more than the employees and demand they open a second register, who does that? ) I could have done with a little less analysis in the end, I was happy with the work stories, though I am never going to forget how rats react to being shocked.

Must read

Wonderfully told and important book. The narrator was great as well. Really engaging for nonfiction. Read or listen to this!!!