More books to read

[ennierda]

Today in the mail I got "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream" by Barbara Ehrenreich and started reading it, because I loved "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America." The premise of "Nickel and Dimed" was that she went undercover and worked a series of minimum wage jobs in three different cities, attempting to survive on a mix of her wages and government help. Shockingly enough, she found that you can't do it. In "Bait and Switch" she essentially tries to go undercover in the corporate world and report on why white collar unemployment is on the rise. However, most of the book is taken up by the silliness that goes on in the job hunt (job coaching, personality tests, writing a resume and network, network, network!) I think that she would have been better off taking the interview strategy of reporting (as used in "The Working Poor"), which would have netted a far wider range of experience, rather than going undercover herself. First of all, she's forty and has never worked in the corporate world. Second of all, any companies that run a credit check are going to see that she is not who she says she is (she legally changed her name back to her maiden name in order to hide her identity as a journalist.) Thirdly, she set her sights too high for a starting position in a company - she's aiming for a $50,000 a year job when her resume clearly states that she is currently unemployed.

I'm seriously bored by this book so far. That doesn't happen often. Very disappointing. :(

Anyway. Anyone who's interested in this sort of stuff is better off with her other book, "Nickel and Dimed." Much more interesting. Especially the chapter where she works at Wal-Mart.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, go see the anti-Wal-Mart movie! I'm going to, once the thesis is done. ^_^

Comments

[ninomit-arol.livejournal.com]

hrm yes, we heard her interview about this on npr
i think the point of the book was supposed to end up being the obsessive culture of positive job hunting for white collar work. like don't take blue collar work to put food on the table.
so why should there be a credit check...and what does it matter if you have an old degree? life experience counts for nothing? some places won't promote from within.
i mean, if you can't make ends meet with minimal work, 50k isn't that much, is it?
does it talk about the white/blue/pink collar imbalance?

but i suspect i will overly identify with her first book, which was written on a whim, as i understand, because the white collar stuff wasn't biting. i mean, who hasn't worked at walmart? *sigh* at least mike has enough experience and training for his chosen career that he doesn't have to admit to it anymore. except for humor value.

[ennierda.livejournal.com]

The problem is more that I feel baited and switched by her title - like the book was going to be more about her trying to interview for jobs, when in reality, the point of the book is that she couldn't GET an interview. If she really wanted to explore this issue, I think it would have been better done by getting out there and interviewing some of the unemployed and some of the employers who are very deliberately discriminating against people who are older and have gaps in their resumes.

She is right about upper corporate America being a social club, and she is right about corporations treating their workers like they're disposable, but it doesn't really come across in this book because she doesn't give a view from the inside. Seriously. If you can't actually get in, interview people who are in. I just think she could have gotten a stronger case by doing that rather than going for the amusement factor by talking about the job-hunting circus.