Review of "On The Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane" by Emily Guendelsberger

For Barbara Ehrenreich's 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, the author took a series of low-paying positions so she could research the difficulty of 'making it' on a minimum wage salary. The verdict: it's almost impossible if you have a family. 

Barbara Ehrenreich

This follow-up book by journalist Emily Guendelsberger explores a similar theme.

Emily Guendelsberger

When Guendelsberger's Philadelphia newspaper closed in 2015, the writer took a succession of service jobs so she could examine the day-to-day experience of low-wage work in America. Emily's ultimate goal was to raise the awareness of influential people, most of whom are "incredibly insulated from how miserable and dehumanizing the daily experience of work has gotten." 

Emily's three service jobs were: a picker at an Amazon fulfillment center (warehouse) near Louisville, Kentucky during peak season; a customer service representative at a Convergys call-center in Hickory, North Carolina; and an employee at a busy McDonald's in San Francisco, California.

***

Amazon fulfillment center

The Amazon fulfillment center near Louisville, Kentucky is huge. It covers twenty-five acres, contains more than 2.5 million square feet of storage space, and can hold thirty million items. A picker like Emily collects items from shelves in the warehouse, loads them into a cart, and brings them to a conveyor belt. The goods are then carried to packers who ready them for shipping.

The job requirements for a picker include:
- walking 5 to 15 miles or more per 8-12 hour day
- frequently lifting and moving items weighing 25-30 pounds
- climbing and descending stairs
- regular bending, crouching, kneeling, and reaching above the head

Employees must work schedules that include nights, weekends and holidays; work overtime if required; and work shifts that change without notice. There's no time off during peak periods (so don't plan to attend your niece's wedding), and there are no benefits of any kind (so you'd better not get seriously injured).

Inside Amazon fulfillment center

Fulfillment center conveyor belts

A moment of rest is considered 'time theft', and employees accumulate 'points' for being late, leaving early, taking an extra minute at break time, spending too much time in the bathroom; and so on. If you violate the rules a manager will come talk to you. If you accumulate six points you're terminated.

Amazon knows exactly how your day is spent because the scanner gun that tells you what to pick also uploads your location and how long it's been since your last bar-code scan in real time. So Big Brother IS watching you.

Employee with scanner gun

This scheme of scientific worker micro-management began with Frederick Winslow Taylor in 1856. 

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Emily describes Taylor's ideas in some detail, but essentially Taylor determined "how much a first-rate [factory worker] should be able to do in a day, then used that to calculate a rate for all workers." Anyone who didn't meet this top goal was considered lazy, stupid and untrustworthy (that is, purposely shirking). Employees working under this regimen constantly complained of "overwork, exhaustion, and the mind-numbing monotony of the work", and Taylorism fell out of fashion in the 1930s.

Nevertheless, the premise that "workers are lazy, stupid, and never to be trusted became the undercurrent of American management, from Ford's assembly lines to Taco Bell's decree that every car at the drive-through must be greeted within four seconds of pulling up."

Ford assembly line

Taco Bell drive-thru

Thus the grueling pace at Amazon, whose computer algorithms keep pickers scurrying all day AND arrange routes so employees don't get close enough to say hello or (heaven forbid) chat for a few seconds. Thus the job is physically arduous as well as lonely and boring. 

Pickers in an Amazon fulfillment center have routes that keep them apart

Emily thoroughly immerses the reader in the painful, soul-sucking days she spent at Amazon, but to sum it up in her own words: "At [the warehouse], I pop Advil like candy all day, not even bothering to track when my last dose was. I don't talk to anyone at break or lunch. I'm too tired. My head pounds, and I feel generally dull. By the end of my shift, I'm almost staggering from the stabbing pain in my feet. The next morning, I wake up feeling even worse. The day again goes by in a blur of pain and exhaustion.....then I fall asleep in my clothes again." And so on.

The Amazon picker job is exhausting

According to the Harvard Business Review, people with these kinds of jobs inevitably feel "depleted, diminished, disenfranchised, demoralized, and disengaged at work." Thus depression sets in, and workers - desperate to feel better - engage in self-help like eating comfort food, smoking, abusing drugs, etc. (For Emily, self-help was McDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, and cigarettes.) 

Workers engage in self-help

To be fair, Emily did meet a person or two who thrived at Amazon. Her co-worker Blair, for instance, noted: "I love that I go to work, I clock in, I do my job, I clock out. Every other job I've had I always ended up being the unpaid janitor. I tend to take work home with me, especially in the restaurant industry (her previous job). But I know Amazon would exist fine without me, and I kind of like that. I LIKE being a number." 

Some pickers enjoy the job

Blair laments, however, that she spends very little time with her son, who generally stays with her mother. And Blair worries that robots will replace her one day soon, since the industry is clearly heading in that direction.

After Emily's last shift at the Amazon warehouse, on Christmas Eve, she goes to karaoke night with some of her co-workers. "The next morning," she writes, "I wake up with a tremendous hangover, pack up, and start the twelve hour drive back home. "I GET TO LEAVE", I think as I pull onto the highway.

***

Convergys call center

Call centers like Convergys are often outsourced to India or the Philippines, but the industry also employs about five million workers in the United States. According to Emily, "the sector is profitable and growing, and its labor practices are likely to spread."

Call center representatives follow rigid protocols. A worker observes: Reps are bounded by scripts and rules. We cannot say anything outside or we get the boot. We're so heavily scripted we might as well be robots. And the system reports what reps are doing every second of every shift they work. (Sound familiar?)

Convergys handles calls for many different businesses, such as Comcast, Dish Network, Verizon, and Walmart. Emily is assigned to AT&T mobility sales and service, and starts her employment with 20 other reps in a weeks-long training session. 

Call center training session 

The trainer, called Kimberly, tells the new hires that the job is going to be stressful because it's fast-paced and they'll be pushed to make sales.....even to customers who call in to complain/report problems. Kimberly goes on to say, "You will deal with the worst of the worst. You will have people who call in who are just downright rude, and they are nasty, and they do not care.

Employees are allowed 12 'points' - for being late; leaving early; taking a day off; etc. - and bad attendance gets you fired.

By the end of the training period, almost half of Emily's class has quit. The remaining reps have more or less mastered the various computer programs needed to assist customers, which are "so poorly integrated that not only do you have to copy and paste addresses by hand, you can also only do it one line at a time." 

Call center phone banks

Program juggling takes time, especially for newbies, and a caller may bark a curt "Hey, are you paying attention?" before they escalate to cursing and shouting. Reps are NEVER permitted to talk back or hang up on a customer, and during one aggressive call Emily describes herself as "a stammering, shaking, frog-voiced, teary mess." 

Some callers are rude

When an even more hostile customer unleashes a torrent of furious shouting and cursing because Emily can't open his account without a password (which he forgot), her body goes rigid, blood roars in her ears as rage and adrenaline shoot through her body, and she (mentally) directs a LOT of foul language toward the man. (The language is in the book, but I'm being considerate of sensitive eyes.)

Some callers are furious

These kinds of experiences lead to anxiety about EVERY call, because it just might be a screamer. And logging off your phone between calls to calm yourself - even for a few moments - is considered time theft.

The turnover rate at Convergys is very high, "like replacing every single AT&T rep in the building every five months." The costs associated with this are enormous, so you'd think the company would change it's employment practices.....but no. It's apparently more profitable to constantly train new people than to have satisfied employees.

Emily notes, "The customer is always right policies are common in customer service, and they breed a particularly nasty type of despair. At Convergys, even when a customer was worth almost nothing to the company- the habitual liars trying to get fees waived; the clearly insane; the people months behind on their bills - the worst customer still had more value to the company than the best rep. So you'd better apologize, grovel, and swallow your pride, because your dignity is valued at zero."

Customer service representatives are instructed to be pleasant in all circumstances 

The problem with this particular kind of work isn't physical exertion but mental stress. Emily observes that the stress response, also called fight-or-flight, helped our ancestors survive. If a predator was stalking a cave man, for instance, "his heart rate would increase; his blood pressure would rise; his pupils would dilate; his ears would become more sensitive to sound; and his perception of the world would be dialed up to eleven. He would need to do something right f***ing now".....like run for his life!

Fight-or-flight response

In modern times, our body's stress response - when people repeatedly screech at us, for example - is the same, but we have nowhere to run. Thus we may eventually become anxious and depressed. Emily recalls being depressed at a previous time in her life, and says she "had trouble sleeping; was angry, irritable, and negative; lost the desire to see friends; felt strange and empty; and thought everything was stupid and pointless." Working at a call center for any length of time may cause similar feelings.

Continual stress can lead to depression

After Emily's last shift at Convergys she has a cigarette at the outside picnic table, gets in her car, and as she's driving away thinks, "I GET TO LEAVE, I GET TO LEAVE, I GET TO LEAVE....."

***

McDonald's

The McDonald's Emily works at in San Francisco is especially busy. It's blocks from the headquarters of many gigantic tech companies - Uber, Twitter, Reddit, Craigslist, Airbnb, Pinterest, Yelp, and more. It also attracts a large number of homeless people. One Yelp review comments:
"This location ALWAYS has homeless people hanging around inside the restaurant or lurking/passed out directly outside. It is impossible to enter or leave without stepping over someone or encountering a panhandler begging for change."

At first, Emily doesn't mind the fast food job. She's constantly on the go but says, "I do get genuine satisfaction from making customers happy, and that's a lot easier here than it was at Convergys."

Working the service counter (after rudimentary training), a McDonald's worker is instructed to smile and say: "Hello. How may I help you?" When the customer places an order the employee works the cash register, then has to assemble the meal in a bag or on a tray, with the accompanying napkins, straws, condiments, etc. The worker also makes many items herself - sodas, oatmeal, coffee, ice cream cones, shakes, McFlurries, smoothies....and fits all that in between taking and assembling other orders. 

Employees at McDonald's have to hustle

Other duties include helping people who can't figure out the credit card machine, or who use coupons, or who pay with apps. The employee also deals with the new hassle of delivery services, like Uber Eats, for example. Moreover, she restocks condiments and napkins and cups and straws a couple of times each shift, between taking and assembling orders. And she makes sure she never ever runs out of coffee.

Emily writes, "[The employee] is on various steps of a dance across two or three orders simultaneously whenever she has a line. And I've had a line for all but about five minutes of the thirty-odd hours I've been flying solo at McDonald's." In fact, the line NEVER ends.

A never-ending McDonald's line

The eternal line is purposely built into the system. Computers predict the exact number of customers who will show up at every hour of every day.....and this allows supervisors to schedule the smallest number of employees who can just barely handle the load by going full tilt for their entire shift.

A side effect of the unending line is angry entitled customers who act out - sometimes by yelling, sometimes by cursing, sometimes by throwing things at the server (or all three). Emily describes an interaction with a difficult woman who - when her 'special order' (which takes longer) isn't delivered quickly enough - slaps the counter and yells, "Come on come on come on come on come on, I've got to go!" The customer then threatens to leave before jabbing a finger at Emily and saying, "I'm not waiting any longer! YOU get me my food, RIGHT NOW!" Once the customer gets her bag of food, she barks, "Honey mustard! Get me honey mustard!"

By now, Emily's hands are shaking with fury, and as she leans over to drop the packets of honey mustard into the bag, one pops out and bounces across the counter. The screamer scoops it up and hurls it at Emily's chest, where it explodes.

This is the last straw and Emily curses and rushes off to hide in the freezer before returning to the counter. The author writes, "The rest of the shift sucks. I feel hollow and exhausted, and it's hard to smile. The line stays angry the whole time....and I feel desperate to leave by the end of my shift."

This type of incident isn't a one off, and is repeated again and again.

At the end of Emily's last shift at McDonald's, the ice cream machine goes crazy and spews out a river of soft serve. While trying to contain the mess, the author and her co-worker ignore the line and take a minute "to giggle and shriek and be human."

Ice cream spill

Then Emily "GETS TO LEAVE" for the last time.

***

Emily concludes that "America is so crazy because of the inescapable chronic stress built into the way we work and live. It's the insane idea that an honest day's work means suppressing your humanity, dignity, family, and other nonwork priorities in exchange for low wages that make home life constantly stressful." And on top of that, "mainstream politicians seem totally blind to how dire life has gotten for a whole lot of people."

The author believes big changes are inevitable.....and it will be interesting to see what form they take.

Emily sprinkles a good deal of humor into the book, and includes some compelling anecdotes about her co-workers; living arrangements; husband; background, etc.

This book is a must read for every lawmaker in the country.....and most other people would find it interesting as well.

Thanks to the publisher (Little, Brown and Company) for a copy of the book. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review of "This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Mystery" by Elizabeth George

In this 16th book in the 'Inspector Lynley' series, Scotland Yard investigates two crimes: the murder of a toddler by three juvenile delinquents who are soon caught and the murder of a young woman in a London cemetery by an unknown assailant. The book can be read as a standalone but knowledge of the characters is a plus.

*****


Thomas Lynley

Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, still mourning a sad death, returns to Scotland Yard to help investigate the murder of a woman in a cemetery. His team is supervised by Acting Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, a divorced, pushy, alcoholic micromanager who is anxious to retain the job permanently. Towards this end Ardery makes Lynley, who is talented and popular, her partner in the investigation.


Isabelle Ardery

The female victim is identified as Jemima Hastings, a young woman who suddenly left her home in New Forest in Hampshire, abandoning her cupcake bakery and her lover Gordon - who has since taken up with a new woman. Ardery and Lynley interview Jemima's London acquaintances, including her eccentric landlady, two handsome fellow lodgers, an ice-skating instructor, and a psychic.

Meanwhile, other series regulars, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Sergeant Winston Nkata, are dispatched to New Forest to conduct interviews with Jemima's former boyfriend Gordon and her brother Robbie.


Barbara Havers


Winston Nkata

To add to the melee, Jemima's estranged ex-best friend Meredith, feeling guilty and sad, conducts her own investigation of the murder. Of course Ardery, desperate to close the case, is more anxious to pin the murder on somebody than to investigate properly, and in her haste causes embarrassment to the department and herself.

Some of my favorite parts of the book occur when Barbara Havers, instructed to dress better by Ardery, is assisted in this endeavor by her nine-year-old neighbor Hadiyyah. These scenes are priceless, heart-warming and funny.



George does a masterful job dispensing clues throughout the story and the ending is satisfying, a little surprising, and - in some ways -inevitable. I enjoyed the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Some Like it Hawk: A Meg Langslow Mystery" by Donna Andrews

In this 14th book in the 'Meg Langslow' series, Meg - wife, mother of young twins, blacksmith, and amateur sleuth - is trying to help save her town from predatory lenders when a murder occurs. The book can be read as a standalone.



*****

Meg Langslow and the other citizens of Caerphilly, Virginia are trying to stave off "the evil lender" - also known as First Progressive Financial (FPF) - that holds the mortgage on the town's buildings. Caerphilly, being in dire straits, had taken out a loan using the town's infrastructure as collateral, but the larcenous mayor ran off to Cancun with the money.



Since Caerphilly was unable to pay back the loan, FPF was going to confiscate the courthouse, which it planned to use for commercial development.



There's a fly in the ointment though. On the day of the takeover, Caerphilly's town clerk, Phineas Throckmorton, barricaded himself in the courthouse basement.....and he's been there for the past year!!



This would seem to be an untenable situation, but - unknown to the evil lender - there's a secret tunnel into the rear of the basement from Caerphilly's communal greens. Thus various townsfolk have been ferrying food to Phineas and keeping him company.



FPF suspects there's a hidden entryway to the basement, but can't figure out where it is. Thus they send in paramilitary security guards to patrol the courthouse, search for hidden passages, and keep an eye on the barricaded entrance to the basement. Of course the guards have no luck finding the tunnel.....and neither does the private detective retained by FPF.



Caerphilly and FPF are preparing to face off in court when a woman is shot in the courthouse lobby, right outside the blocked entrance to Phineas's domain. Phineas becomes the prime suspect, but Meg and her friends are sure he's being framed.....and set out to find the real killer.



While all this going on, the town is holding July's 'Caerphilly Days festival', a shindig that features all kinds of entertainment. The gala is held on the town's communal greens, which has a stage for the acts.....as well as tents for volunteers; performers; church groups selling food and beverages; and so on.



One of the tents covers the trapdoor leading to the hidden tunnel, and Meg and her cohorts occupy this 24/7.



A humorous trope of the story is a plan to replace the hidden tunnel's old trapdoor, a noisy enterprise scheduled to take place during the festival performances.....which are purposely VERY LOUD. There are also fun fireworks on the 4th of July, which make a good cover for clanging construction work.



Popular recurring characters make an appearance in the story, including Meg's extended family - who help with the detective work and the twins; the police chief - who's resigned to Meg's amateur sleuthing; the Shiffleys - who do the town's construction work; the family dogs - Tinkerbell and Spike; and more.

The title of the story refers to the fact that FPF brings in a falconer whose hawk will attack Phineas Throckmorton's pet homing pigeons, presumably to flush Phineas out of the basement. (Shame on FPF!)



I enjoyed the novel, but the mystery is given short shrift in favor of chapters about the pigeons; the tunnel; Meg's husband and 18-month-old twin boys; Meg's big new house; Meg's brother - who designs computer games; Meg's attorney cousin - who'll face off against FPF in court; a forensics expert who wears a gorilla costume; a coroner who's claustrophobic; etc. All of this is entertaining, but it makes the book more of a cozy story than a cozy mystery.



Nevertheless, fans of the Meg Langslow books would probably enjoy the book.

Rating: 3 stars 

Review of "Anatomy of a Scandal: A Novel" by Sarah Vaughan

James Whitehouse seems to have it all. He grew up privileged, went to school at Eton and Oxford, and is now a junior government minister with a promising future.



James has a beautiful wife, Sophie, and two sweet children, Emily and Toby - whom he dotes on.





For her part, Sophie adores her husband - a tall, handsome, charismatic man who still makes her heart flutter after twelve years of marriage.



Unfortunately, a costly mistake is about to shatter James' world.

James was a 'player' in his youth, and Oxford University was a particularly rich playground. James and Sophie became a couple at college, but James still hooked up with other co-eds all the time - thinking it was his natural right.



James and Sophie broke up for other reasons, but met again seven years later - and got married. Once he wed, James made up his mind to be a faithful husband and good father - and he stuck to his pledge for a long time.....until five months ago.

At that time James started an affair with his parliamentary researcher, Olivia Lytton - a lithe, blonde, beautiful 28-year-old.



The affair began almost accidentally, but escalated to the point where James and Olivia shared a hotel room at a Tory party conference. James broke off the liaison soon afterward, leaving Olivia bereft and heartbroken. Nevertheless, a week or so later James and Olivia had one last romp in an elevator in Parliament - an equivocal incident that Olivia now views as rape. The authorities agree with her, and James is put on trial.



The story is told from the rotating points of view of several of the main characters, including James, his wife Sophie, and QC Kate Woodcroft, who's prosecuting the case.



The story also has flashbacks to the early 1990s, when James and other characters were students at Oxford.

In the present, Sophie is crushed by her husband's perfidy. But she's a political wife, and feels pressured to put the best face on things. Sophie talks about her raw emotions, her concerns about her children, her belief in James' innocence, and the terrible impact the trial has on her. She also remembers back when she was a co-ed in college, where she was a rower with high hopes for her future.

QC Kate is thrilled to have such a high profile case to prosecute. The lawyer is divorced with no children, and devotes most of her time to work. Socially, Kate likes to visit with her best friend Ali, and has the occasional tryst with Richard, her married former pupil-master.

Kate believes that Olivia was raped, and badly wants James to be found guilty. She's aware, though, that a jury will be reluctant to convict a respected government official - especially one as good-looking and charming as James. Thus, Kate's quite anxious about the trial.

For his part, James feels guilty about the affair with Olivia, and wants to make things right with his wife. Assuming he gets exonerated of the rape charge, James thinks he can survive the scandal and rehabilitate his career. That's because James is best friends with the current Prime Minister, Tom Southern.



James and Tom met at Eton, and attended Oxford together. There they belonged to an elite dining club called The Libertines, who were renowned for their bad behavior.....generally smoothed over with large handfuls of cash.



In 1993, an unfortunate incident at Oxford left Tom in James' debt. In fact, Tom owes James big time!

The book is largely a character study, showing how people are molded by their life experiences - and how they react to a humiliating public scandal. James' trial and its aftermath are compelling, and I was curious to see the ramifications for everyone involved. I'm not a proponent of 'stand by your man no matter what', so I especially wanted to find out what Sophie does. I won't say any more because of spoilers.

The storyline seems quite realistic, since sexual peccadilloes among prominent men are a dime a dozen. Just off the top of my head: Bill Clinton, David Petraeus, Eliot Spitzer, Gary Condit, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, Anthony Weiner, Matt Lauer, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein.....and fictional Peter Florrick (The Good Wife) and Fitzgerald Grant (Scandal). On that note - except for the addition of the alleged rape - the story in 'Anatomy of a Scandal' isn't that original.

It might be an intriguing change to see a book about an unfaithful woman Prime Minister (or whatever) whose husband has to 'stand by his gal.' (LOL) Still, this type of gossipy tale is always engaging and - for the most part - I enjoyed the book.

On the downside the characters inner musings are excessive, and there's too much minutiae in each of their narratives....too much description of every little thing they say and do. This slowed down the story and made me impatient to get on with the action.

All in all, this is a good suspense novel, and I'd recommend it to fans of that genre.



Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Sarah Vaughan), and the publisher (Atria/Emily Bestler Books) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3 stars