A terrifying report about working at the bottom of today's economy

[jsr]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-nickelanddimed-20140321,0,5966170.story

A terrifying report about working at the bottom of today's economy
By Michael Hiltzik
March 21, 2014, 12:42 p.m.

It's a fair criticism of what's written about life as a wage slave -- from journalists and economists alike -- that it's delivered by people who don't have firsthand experience of what that life is like. As a result, a great deal of reporting about worker "behavior" and "choice" has the bloodless quality of laboratory theory, devoid of any hint of the real world.

Joseph Williams has done a service to the field by reporting directly from the front -- and not by his own "choice." His report, which appears in the Atlantic as "My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor," is as scary as a monster movie.

Williams was thrown upon the mercy of the hourly wage sector by losing his job as a reporter for Politico, for reasons he describes in the piece in considerable detail. Rendered unemployable in his chosen field and still unemployed after six months in a bad economy, he finally took a sales job at an unidentified sporting goods retail chain for $10 an hour. He was happy to get it, but:

"Of course, I had no idea what a modern retail job demanded. I didn’t realize the stamina that would be necessary, the extra, unpaid duties that would be tacked on, or the required disregard for one’s own self-esteem. I had landed in an alien environment obsessed with theft, where sitting down is all but forbidden, and loyalty is a one-sided proposition. For a paycheck that barely covered my expenses, I’d relinquish my privacy, making myself subject to constant searches."

[Benton D Struckcheon]

1. Did the same for two months and quit.

Management responsibilities at slave wages. For 70 or so bux a day they want you to take care of a huge variety of tasks, and almost never get a break. And of course your hours are kept deliberately just below the point that would make you a full time worker with benefits.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. When I worked retail, there were official standards for breaks, so that, in theory

if you worked four four hours, you got a 15-minute break; if you worked six hours, you got a 30-minute break, and if you worked 8 hours, you got a 60-minute lunch.

So more often than not, I was scheduled for 3 hours, 45 minutes (i.e. no break), 5 hours, 45 minutes (i.e. a 15-minute break), or 7 hours, 45 minutes (i.e. only a 30-minute break). It seemed like the scheduler was on a power trip.

[Redfairen]

3. "Terrifying"?? LOL This is TYPICAL.

How terrifying it is to have a typical working-class job.

[raccoon]

4. When Williams found a better job and left the retail job, his boss's response was:

“So, your new job,” he said, his irritation coming through the phone as he realized he needed to fill my shift for the week ahead. “They’re hiring you away from here. I guess (you) don’t care about hard work or loyalty.”

Loyalty? Why in Hades should employees nowadays be loyal? Employers will let you go in a Tennessee minute.

[Brigid]

9. Loyalty? Loyalty to what?

Ten bucks an hour and all the respect that implies?

[SharonAnn]

5. Best book yet written on this subject from the worker's point of view. "Nickel and Dimed"

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book written by Barbara Ehrenreich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed

On Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=nickel%20and%20dimed&sprefix=nickel+a%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Anickel%20and%20dimed

[Victor_c3]

7. I read that book years ago

I was just getting out of college and into the Army around 2003-ish. I would consider that book, the book Fast Food Nation which I read while I was in Iraq in 2004, and my personal experiences in Iraq at the same time as primary drivers for my sudden shift from right of center politically to the far left during that time in my life.

[mountain grammy]

6. K & R and thanks for the link to the EHRP.

There's a very important story being told here.

[modrepub]

8. Retail is Not Fun

Did a stint back 20 years ago and seems things haven't changed much. One of the things I noticed was how the company saved money by promoting people to managers. Yes you got benefits, but you also got the privilege of working 60 to 80 hours a week. I'd say 90% of the people I started with were gone in 5 years; either they left because they were overworked or they were let go for some trivial reason once they made too many raises. It's a shame because there are some good people working in retail, just that they are not appreciated by their companies and to some extent the customers themselves.