Book Review: "On The Clock" by Emily Guendelsberger

Summary: "On The Clock" by Emily Guendelsberger tells you about the lives of hourly wage workers. It is a stunning book. Please read it.

Most of the books I read come recommended from friends or book reviews. Most of them get glowing reviews, so it is no surprise when the books are great.

Every so often I pick something up at random, and am pleasantly surprised at its quality. Very rarely, I pick something at random and it is profound and enlightening. This book was a random pick, I expected little.

"On The Clock" by Emily Guendelsberger is profound, enlightening and much more. Emily (I'm Californian, we're on first name basis with everyone) writes about the lives of front-line wage workers in three different companies. She works for a month at an Amazon fulfillment center, then a month at a customer call center, then a month at McDonalds, all in the US. She is honest about her past as a journalist, and observes her life, and the lives of her co-workers.

A lot of ink is spilled on the unfairness of capitalism, most of it from a safe distance, and from a high perch. Most people talking about low-paying jobs have never worked in those jobs themselves, or worked in those jobs decades ago, when conditions were better. CEOs who talk about how well their companies are run have never worked as wage-workers in any company, let alone their own companies. Most consumers have never done these jobs. Emily is the first person who braves these jobs to tell you how terrible they can be. Here's a sample of her message, via an article she wrote on the topic of fast-food worker burnout. The burnout is both metaphorical and literal. A 2015 survey found that 79% of fast-food employees had been physically burnt on the job in the prior year, some more than once.

Burnout is a trendy, rich-person luxury. In these jobs you see far worse. You see income insecurity up close. You see employees choosing to work when sick, you see employees support each other during difficult times, and the unending misery of the work. Workers pushed to their physical limit, on their feet, and walking all day. But hey, single-packages of painkillers are provided by the employer. For free! Or workers stretched to capacity, handling support call after support call, with short breaks in the middle, handling verbally abusive callers.  Overworked, pushed, paid too little.  No health insurance, no money and no time, with their life revolving around their job. No savings, no retirement, it is a bleak life, and one that most of us don't have an experience with.

Ok, so obvious question, "If these jobs are so bad, why don't these workers do something else...?" The short answer is that all jobs are like this at the bottom. No employer has to provide wholesome, nourishing jobs, so they don't. You can choose between a physically demanding job, or a verbally abusive job, but they are all terrible in some way. Attrition is high, workers are expected to 

I'd bet you hate your cell-phone or Internet provider? Why haven't you switched providers? Because the other company is just as bad, or you don't have a choice of providers. Same concept.

This book made me ponder and lament, well past I had read it. I am reminded of Emily's idea of doing a tour-of-duty as a wage worker. Every manager, every CEO, every elected representative should have do a contemporary hourly job. Having flipped burgers in 1980 is not enough, the US employment market has come a long way since then. This book is similar to "Nickel and Dimed", by Barbara Ehrenreich, which is mentioned in the introduction. Things are different this time around, as more companies outsource their dirty work. So while Emily works for McDonalds, Amazon and AT&T, she is never directly employed by them. This way the companies can, correctly, claim that they treat their employees well. The Amazon delivery person is rarely employed by Amazon too. It's the invisible tier of jobs, too shitty to even mention in a company's press reports. Everyone wants a photo-op with "Real America", and then go back to their mansion, their enormous paycheck and their private jet.

This book has the potential to shape the national debate on capitalism, income disparity, and difference in compensation between front-line workers and CEOs.

Please read this book, it is a revelation.

The Oversubscribed American Child

Kids in the Bay Area are oversubscribed, both in summer holidays and on evenings and weekends of school-days. During the school year, children spend time in after-school activities, coming home shortly after 5pm, when the parents are done with their work. Sorry, I misspoke. Children don't even come home themselves, they are driven back by parents.

In the evenings, kids are busy with soccer, football, basketball, piano, chess, martial arts. Sometimes all of the above. The parents are shuttling the kid back and forth to these events, and are themselves unavailable for any social commitments of their own. As a result, the parents social life is restricted to meeting the parents of other kids at all these events.

All these activities are enriching. When you were a child, you did not have access to a tennis court, and your child loves tennis. There is no harm in this one activity. Then again, your child also has an interest in singing, dance, basketball, and swimming. Which activity can we deny them, possibly closing the door to a life-long joy?

Near the swimming pool, you see parents coaxing, encouraging, threatening, cheering as the kid swims laps. The 10 year old is getting ready for the swim team. This happens thrice a week, after school, or before school. There are swim meets, there are practices, and the parent tugs along for the ride.

Sure, the kids have friends, but how deep can a friendship be when you are only available on specific time slots, a few times a week. The swim kids are the kids' friends. Your child needs to make the swim team, to retain their social life.

No longer a tiger mom, there is now a tiger child. In fact, tigers all around: the parents are themselves ambitious, chasing a promotion at work, and a soccer victory for the child, sometimes from the same soccer field. Where do you draw a line between the ambition and desires of the child and that of the parent?

A family just moved in and their kid would play on a few occasions with other children in the neighborhood. A few weeks later, the school year starts. In the evening, this kid was invited to join in a game. Alas, the kid is busy, and is only available from 4:30-5:30pm. On Fridays. That was the only time in the entire week that this kid is free to be a child. My full-time job keeps me busy, and yet, I have more free time.

Ah, but you are independent, and think for yourself. Your kids are free-range. Tell me, how free-range can your children be, when all other children are at camp? During summer vacations, your children are bored stiff at home; as everyone around them is busy all day, unavailable, away at soccer camp, swimming camp, then music camp, week after week for the whole summer? You child begs you to enroll them in the same camp as their friend, that is the only time they can both be together. Parents mail out schedules to see if kids' friends can enroll in similar camps over the summer. Stay free-range and your child has nobody to play with. Enroll your child in some camp, and at least they'll have some social life. And all that enrichment.

Soon, there are no children to be seen. Can you can tell if school is in session from walking around your neighborhood? Does anything change from May to July?

Everyone knows the suburbs are criminally empty. Distances are vast, and every friend is twenty minutes away on foot. The library, the ice-cream shop, ... everything is far. Your child cannot cross that six-lane arterial road by themselves! No bike lanes, and anyway they'll get hit by an SUV that cannot see them. Soon enough, they have to be driven. There are some lucky cities and some fortunate locations, but the vast majority is not navigable by 12-year olds.

"When I grew up", ... starts every critique. This is the usual refrain because parents have access to just two childhoods: their own, and their kids. All conclusions are drawn from these two data-points, until a grandparent comes by to cast a tie-breaking third. Was your generation different from this? What about the grandparents?

I have no doubt that this will lead to many world-class artists, musicians, and athletes. The next Michael Phelps is swimming near you, as their parent yells from shore. But this small amount of Great comes at the cost of a lot of Good. That one Olympic winner will cost us a generation of lost childhoods. Thousands of children will grow up to be detached from others: lonely, anxious, uncomfortable in their skin. Cellphones, social media, TV, gaming will get blamed. Why are kids so lonely these days? Because they don't have friends, and have never learned to cultivate real life friendships. They were ferried around in the backs of SUVs, in comfortable car seats, from the chess club to the soccer meet, and then to ballet. Everything was regimented, sanitized, clinical.

The real world is messy. Being an adult requires comfort with this mess. True friendships grow over time, born in experimentation, nurtured by shared experiences and bad collective judgement. You make a friend when you help the kid with a sprained ankle. When you disagree and fight over how you were treated. You realize you have a true friend when he helps you jump the fence and lies about it. You don't need 'play dates', you need play. You grow to be an adult through the risk-free life of a child, discovering the contours of the world.