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Team Building: A Memoir about Family and the Fight for Workers' Rights
From the author of Clean Time comes a firsthand account of the organizing effort inside one of the world's largest tech companies and its impact on one Pittsburgh family. In 2019, Ben Gwin played an integral role in organi
202 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2024
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 11, 2023
This book is amazing. The author has a very crisp and direct voice speaking to his personal experience at the intersection of the opioid crisis, childcare crisis, gentrification and dismantling of labor rights. The booked progressed quickly and I was on the edge of my seat rooting for these folks! His story is so well told and poignantly illustrates such important themes.
June 18, 2024
Well-written, honest, and poignant. Ultimately a book about choices and luck. And the luck that emerges from one’s choices and the set of choices that emerge from one’s luck. And the set of choices and luck that emerge from the choices of others. And, most importantly, the necessity of moving forward when it seems consequences and luck have you beaten. In a world that sacralizes the liberty of choice while pooh-poohing, ignoring, or bemoaning the patterns of consequence, the author reveals, via the lens of personal experience, the inevitability of those patterns asserting themselves and the challenges of course correction.
Most interesting to me was the juxtaposition of the unionization efforts and softball/baseball. In one chapter the author bewails collectivism being seen as a weakness. But of course, it is indeed a fear response to felt weakness - the driving emotional force of the book. In observing the collectivist response to corporate tyranny, we witness the emotional, physical, and personal toll on the author as he struggles to do the right and best thing for his daughter, himself, and his colleagues. In contrast, he and his daughter find solace and joy in the games of softball and baseball. Games where the rules provide a framework for balanced play and where the authority (umpire) weighs in to enforce the rules only when play ends. Games where individual flourishing builds to team success. Games that remind us we can be in competition without being enemies, a member of a team without losing our individuality, an individual without diverging from the framework. A hopeful note in antagonistic and hedonistic times.
Finally, the book was a reminder to me that one never knows the full depth of another’s story. We think we know but we never know. There are layers we can’t see and doors we can’t open. Perhaps the best we can do is aim to make the choices that open the best set of consequential choices for ourselves and others. The least we can do is be kinder to our barista, our driver, our boss, and the idiot who just cut us off. It may be a bit of sunshine in their otherwise cloudy day.
Most interesting to me was the juxtaposition of the unionization efforts and softball/baseball. In one chapter the author bewails collectivism being seen as a weakness. But of course, it is indeed a fear response to felt weakness - the driving emotional force of the book. In observing the collectivist response to corporate tyranny, we witness the emotional, physical, and personal toll on the author as he struggles to do the right and best thing for his daughter, himself, and his colleagues. In contrast, he and his daughter find solace and joy in the games of softball and baseball. Games where the rules provide a framework for balanced play and where the authority (umpire) weighs in to enforce the rules only when play ends. Games where individual flourishing builds to team success. Games that remind us we can be in competition without being enemies, a member of a team without losing our individuality, an individual without diverging from the framework. A hopeful note in antagonistic and hedonistic times.
Finally, the book was a reminder to me that one never knows the full depth of another’s story. We think we know but we never know. There are layers we can’t see and doors we can’t open. Perhaps the best we can do is aim to make the choices that open the best set of consequential choices for ourselves and others. The least we can do is be kinder to our barista, our driver, our boss, and the idiot who just cut us off. It may be a bit of sunshine in their otherwise cloudy day.
June 19, 2023
An incredible book by my friend Ben about his life and his experience unionizing a group of HCL workers at Google in Pittsburgh. I wasn't part of that union but I did work in the same office. I learned so much from Ben and his fellow organizers, which I later applied to organizing Bandcamp United. Now you can learn those lessons in book form - then go organize your own workplace, which I highly recommend!
There's much more to the book than labor organizing - Ben's stories of being a single parent and losing his co-parent to addiction are both heartbreaking and inspiring. It's an amazing read - admittedly I'm a bit biased but I can't recommend it highly enough.
There's much more to the book than labor organizing - Ben's stories of being a single parent and losing his co-parent to addiction are both heartbreaking and inspiring. It's an amazing read - admittedly I'm a bit biased but I can't recommend it highly enough.
August 17, 2023
A touching and needed story about the importance of organized labor in America. Woven against the backdrop of family life and single parenthood, Gwin's storytelling brings you to the cubicle, baseball field, and into his home. A must read for anyone who feels like they can't get a fair shake, and wants to think more about why that is.
August 29, 2023
Tight, powerful memoir on the struggles of the gig-economy worker and the state of the labor movement today. These institutions should be ashamed of themselves. A must-read for anyone who works in the tech industry. You will never look at it the same way again.
January 12, 2024
There was a lot more personal "memoir" to this than I was hoping. Too much about his relationship with his daughter and not enough about the actual experience of forming a union and some of the specific obstacles that were faced.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews