Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream

by Jamie McCallum

An award-winning sociologist reveals the unexpected link between overwork and inequality.



Most Americans work too long and too hard, while others lack consistency in their hours and schedules. Work hours declined for a century through hard-fought labor-movement victories, but they've increased significantly since the seventies. Worked Over traces the varied reasons why our lives became tethered to a new rhythm of work, and describes how we might gain a greater say over our labor time -- and build a more just society in the process.

Popular discussions typically focus on overworked professionals. But as Jamie K. McCallum demonstrates, from Amazon warehouses to Rust Belt factories to California's gig economy, it's the hours of low-wage workers that are the most volatile and precarious -- and the most subject to crises. What's needed is not individual solutions but collective struggle, and throughout Worked Over McCallum recounts the inspiring stories of those battling today's capitalism to win back control of their time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Economics, Politics, Business, Labor, History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2020

Reviews

[Amy Maddess · Rating 5 out of 5]

In short, this book saved me. I was so steeped in the cultural meaning of work that I did not realize it had become all I had. I work more than sixty hours a week, and thought that this was defining me - making me worthy of legacy - but it was only and simply ruining my mental health. I did not even consider myself the 'workaholic' in my peer circle; I had convinced myself I was more committed to my goals than them. It's hard not to ruminate about this book when you are away from it, it's hard not to be deeply unsettled by the status quo presented here.

This book uses three main perspectives to look at the cultural approaches to work, time and meaning through the use of well-timed anecdotes and thorough research. The structure most particularly sets me at ease in the way that it lays out how things will be presented so that we can flow seamlessly from one chapter to the next without any surprise about what is coming - not one sentence feels out of place. While the structure gently guides us through the facets of this topic, there are themes (time, justice, meaning) woven through like thread. These come up continuously and poignantly enough that we as readers are left to create our own ideas about them long after this book has been closed. The main theme, in any journalistic work of nonfiction, is pervasive hope. This book is hopeful but also shows the cynical irony of hope in an economy built to destroy, and I enjoy that balance. The authour is quite good at playing his own devil's advocate.

Cool topics that I have to list in point-form or else I will recreate the book. If anyone else has read it PLEASE discuss these with me:

- the problem of leisure and how we were once at risk of this becoming the most perplexing problem of the future
- neoliberalism (not overly discussed in here but mentioned. I had to do a lot of side Googling to understand this concept fully).
- peripatetic lifestyles and general precarity
- monospony
- long hours at hard labour as a moral attitude
- Have fun at work and thus get confused about what is actually fun! Yay!
- Books I want to read now: Counterproductive by Melissa Gregg and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich


In general, the book is sprinkled with modern solutions to this problem that do, and could more thoroughly, exist.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m writing this book review on a vacation day that I wasn’t supposed to have. I work at a large tech company, and we have the standard holidays off, as well as generous vacation days (by American standards) that (mysteriously) people don’t actually use. We are encourage to “take time when we need it,” but no one really wants to seem like they “need it.”

A couple months before the Memorial Day holiday, a guy at my company started a grassroots campaign to convince everyone to take a vacation day on the Friday before Memorial Day (today)—giving ourselves a four-day weekend. Part of the downside of daring to take vacation at a fast-paced tech company is that you have to work extra hours to get work done before you leave for vacation, and extra hours upon your return to catch up on everything that you missed. The more of my coworkers that take a vacation day at the same time, the less work there is for all of us to catch up on when the vacation is over.

So some random guy at my company started a clever campaign to get everyone to take the day off on May 28th. Within hours, many hundreds of us had already applied for the day off. A few days later, the company overlords—wanting to take control of the narrative and downplay the effectiveness of direct action—suddenly decided to give the entire workforce the day off, a paid holiday without taking any PTO. They also gave us a long 4th of July weekend.

But the company didn’t do this merely out of the kindness of its heart. When they saw how many people were going on a de facto vacation strike, they had to defang the momentum and present the time off as a gift, rather than something that we demanded.

This kind of organized direct action to reclaim our time and reduce our working hours is at the heart of this book. We are immersed in a culture that fetishizes hard work as a good unto itself. We give so much of our one precious life to our employers. And we never question the assumption that this slavish devotion to work is inherently a good thing.

Some of us work insanely long hours. Some of us have to beg for more hours at work to get the money we need to survive, or string together multiple precarious jobs just to make ends meet. Why is work so unevenly distributed in our society? Why do some people have too much work and others not enough? And what can we do about it? These are some of the central questions that the author attempts to answer in this book—and he makes a compelling case.

I enjoyed this entire book, so much so that I could write a book-length review of it. To prevent that, I’ll focus on a few things that especially resonated with me.

This book does a great job illuminating the precarious work of the gig economy and the service sector at large. There are some excellent stories from individual workers in here (including a woman who drives all night for UberEats with her disabled child in the passenger seat). The book details the “temporal instability” of service industry jobs, where workers find out their work schedules mere days—or sometimes hours—before their next shift is set to begin. You never know when you’ll be working or how long you’ll be working; the schedule could change at any moment based on factors as fickle as the weather or the number of customers in the store. This makes it impossible to have a life outside of work; your time always belongs to your employer, even if they aren’t paying you for it. Research has shown that temporal instability is a bigger factor in feelings of unhappiness, poor sleep, and psychological distress than low wages are.

I also enjoyed the book’s skewering of time management programs and productivity apps. I’ve always despised this productivity porn because of the implication that every waking moment of your life must be used to its maximum efficiency. It should be okay to be lazy and inefficient. In a society where so many people are burned out and exhausted from work, the question is not “How can individuals use their time better?” but rather “How can we create a world where we all aren’t so fucking tired all the time?” As this book points out, we need a systemic solution to these problems, not a fancy phone app or endless To Do list.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the author’s story of how he briefly worked as a (non-union) longshoreman. (For context, the longshoremen are some of the most badass, radical union members in the US. These dudes will go on strike if you look at them wrong. They are so metal.) The author explains how he was clearly ill-suited for the physically demanding work of a longshoreman, but that he badly wanted to impress his new colleagues. He volunteered for a task that required him to repeatedly climb up a ladder and clear away debris. He scurried up and down the ladder while his coworkers watched, working as fast as he could to try to win their respect.

One of the longshoremen took him aside and told him to take it slow. Assuming this was out of concern for his safety, the author assured the longshoreman that he was fine and he could do the job quickly.

The longshoreman explained that they were being paid by the hour, not to do a certain amount of work. They would do the job, and do it well, but there was no need to rush. Hustling hard just set unrealistic expectations for the other workers. So it’s important to chill. Don’t be a sucker.

I absolutely love this story because it is the antithesis of the work culture at my job, where people are constantly pushing themselves to work harder and faster, competing with each other to be the most impressive and earn the biggest bonus. I wish that my job had the cultural norms that the longshoremen have. They recognize that their own well being and their solidarity with each other comes before their employer’s profits. How amazing it must be to do the work that needs to be done, but be able to take the time to do a good job, without trying to outshine your coworkers or killing yourself in the process. Workers in every workplace should have this attitude.

The chapter I was most looking forward to reading before I started this book was the chapter on meaningful work. I don’t really find any fulfillment or joy through my job, nor have I ever felt this at any job—but this is one of those taboo things that it is not okay to talk about, especially in the tech industry, where everything we do is “changing the world.” Finding meaningfulness and fulfillment through work, the author argues, is a relatively new phenomenon. No one really talked about “meaningful” work until the 1970s—coincidentally when wages and benefits began to fall and working hours began to rise. The idea that work should be “fulfilling” and that you should do work out of love became a popular idea just as the material benefits of working began to decline.

Finding meaning in work is used as a tool to extract more labor for less money. Getting personal fulfillment from work is used to justify longer hours and lower wages (ex: teachers, social workers, caretakers of the elderly). If you love your job, you shouldn’t be motivated by something so crass as a living wage. If you love your job, you should be willing to work longer hours. And if you don’t love your job, maybe there is something wrong with you. (For a great discussion of the expectation that work will be done out of love, see Sarah Jaffe’s excellent book, Work Won’t Love You Back). The drive to find “meaningful” work, the author argues, pushes us to look for individual fulfillment through our jobs, rather than fighting for an economy where every person has their basic needs met and can find fulfillment inside and outside of work.

That’s not to say that getting enjoyment or enrichment through your job is bad; on the contrary, we have a right to meaningful work. Rather, work should not be our only source of meaning, and our desire for fulfilling work should not be weaponized to get us to accept low wages, long hours, and bad working conditions.

I do wish that the book had done more to explain how we should balance our desire for fulfilling work with our desire not to be exploited for wanting a fulfilling job. The author discusses how we should demand better wages, shorter hours, and meaningful work at the same time—as a total package. That’s great, and I agree. But I’m not in a union, and my workplace is not organized. Day to day, I still struggle with the question of whether I should try to find a fulfilling job, or if I should accept that I won’t get personal fulfillment from my work, and I should treat work only as a necessary evil for a paycheck. The author makes a great argument for systemic change around the meaningfulness of work, but I would have liked to see more on how individuals should navigate this problem.

Overall, this is an excellent, very approachable book that will give you a lot to think about—and make you think twice about working overtime.

[Lauren D'Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't take a genius to know that the American labor system is fundamentally broken. It seems that no one is happy, but the reasons behind this unhappiness and insecurity come from a variety of reasons, not just one thing that might seem "easy" to solve. This book will change the way you think about jobs and labor in the U.S., laying out the roots of why Americans have this uniquely twisted attitude toward work, Taylorism and business changes that have spiraled out of control, policy that hasn't kept up with the changing nature of work, and how this whole environment has screwed everyone over.

McCallum describes scenarios that are symptoms of our labor crisis:
- Workers having to juggle multiple jobs in order to make ends meet, even workers in typically skilled or education positions like nurses and teachers
- Workers struggling for more hours and not getting enough to make ends meet
- Workers having trouble balancing home responsibilities (eg. elder care, child care) because of "just-in-time" shift scheduling
- High earners working upwards of 80 hour weeks and feeling chronically overworked despite making high wages

This book is an excellent companion to one of my favorites books from 2019: On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane. Worked Over and On the Clock both address the plagues of low-wage work, with Worked Over going a bit farther to talk about how even high earners suffer from chronic overwork. Reading these two books in tandem is powerful, however, because Worked Over is more of an academic or objective text, whereas On the Clock is sort of a memoir/biography, detailing Emily Guendelsberger's lived experience working in three different but equally horrible low-wage jobs, humanizing these positions much more than short anecdotes can.

I highly, highly recommend this to anyone interested in labor and working-class reforms - this is a must read for our modern day labor market. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!

[Sarah Jaffe]

Work sucks, we know this, but this was a fun (and infuriating!) read and particularly enjoyed seeing many of the same conclusions as I came to but through different processes. And a few of my favorite people making appearances, too.

[John Spiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the evolution of culture of work in the US over the past 120 years. In the middle of the last century, a major concern was what workers would do with all the additional leisure time they accrued as they became more productive. Over time, with the withering of labor unions, the concern has now shifted to getting enough work hours to make ends meet or enduring grueling work schedules to keep afloat. In effect, workers have now been conditioned to want what they get, instead of get what they want. McCallum provides some inspiring examples of individuals who have pushed back and made substantive changes to their work environment.

[Jack Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me briefly describe to you my job, which some people would call a "good job." I work at a courthouse in Columbus, Ohio. Five days a week, I get up at 6:30 to be at work at 8:00, and I spend eight of the next nine hours (I get an hour long lunch break) doing a series of clerical tasks, most of which are fairly simple, but all of which require a considerable amount of concentration-- a mistake from me could lead to, oh, un-necessary jail time for others. My work is intensely monitored to the minute: we are "encouraged" to clock in and out at exactly the right time, with a variety of rules limiting when and how we can take breaks. In exchange for my labor I receive fifteen dollars an hour. I get weekends off and holidays but I can't take vacation for a year-- once I complete a year of service I will be rewarded with ten days of vacation time.

My job is interesting in parts and very stressful in others. But most of the time, when I'm doing it, I can't help but think it's the sort of thing that should be done by a robot, or a hyper-intelligent dog. It's a government office job and it's packed full of psychic and physical burdens that I find pretty hard to endure for forty hours, every week, until I die. The level of productivity that's expected of me, in exchange for wages and amounts of free time that I considered low, seems sort of ridiculous. To me, it is, in short, an American job! And it's a job that's like five times better than any of the gigs Jamie McCallum profiles in "Worked Over."

It took me a while to read this one because every time I'd pick it up, I'd fall asleep (I'm tired now all of the time, because of my job!). But man, this is some essential shit, right now. Like Barbara Ehrenreich, McCallum uses an accessible style and sort of classically American title/subtitle to disguise what's in a fact a pretty radical critique of modern work. We've talked a lot about wages, he says, and rightfully so-- they are dreadfully, devastatingly low in America-- but an even more meaningful critique of capitalism must also talk about TIME. Americans work all the time! Like, far more than countries comparable to us in other ways, countries that provide paid leave and mandate vacation days and put caps on hours per week. Some of this work is the sad, necessary consequence of shit wages, and some of it is the sad, unnecessary consequence of a culture that puts a peculiar concept of "work ethic" at the absolute summit of its value hierarchy (there are several sad polls in here where, asked what's wrong with this country, a majority of Americans posit that PEOPLE DON'T WORK HARD ENOUGH. WHAT THE FUCK!!!). But a lot of this work, McCallum argues, only exists to line the pockets of the extraordinarily wealthy, and even worse, gets in the way of human flourishing-- the extra-work stuff that helps make our lives rich and our communities more livable. We are working all the time at the expense of our families, friends, and political commitments... and it's fucked up!

McCallum's chapters explore this phenomenon from many angles-- from the history of Taylorism to the onset of automation (and the mania surrounding it); from the cruelty of austerity politics to the necessity of collective action and unionization to overcome-- and in a way that incorporates sophisticated social science and political theory with moving testimony from actual human beings who are getting dicked over by a terrible system. It turns out that a lot of these things that were designed to set workers free-- "with Uber, you work your own schedule!"-- are just especially fiendish, backhanded ways of creating a permanently trapped under-class. Amazon and Disney get hit extra-hard, and I'm fucking here for it. I'm fucking here for all of this book, in truth. I think "Worked Over" is describing something that a lot of people feel but are maybe afraid to articulate, and I hope McCallum's trenchant but empathetic book finds a wide and curious readership.

[Clara Coulson · Rating 3 out of 5]

[ Cross-posted to Comments by Clara ]

Having read other well-known books about America’s problematic work culture, like Nickel and Dimed, I decided to pick this book up to read about the more recent issues that have come to the forefront as America’s gig economy has grown over the past decade. Worked Over covers the history of work and employee management by employers, the gains and losses that American employees have experienced in job quality over the past several decades, and the current state of the job market along with the organized movement to improve its function and outcomes.

Overall, the topics covered in Worked Over represent most of the key issues that underlie America’s job market and the various socioeconomic and sociocultural issues that have sprung from the ever-increasing inequality between business executives and the workers who are trying to get by. The book covers the history of the effort by employers to improve employee productivity and carries through to the effort by employees to reduce their work hours and increase pay and benefits throughout the twentieth century. The book then discusses the erosion of all the gains by workers, due largely to the decline of unions and the big business focus on profit over everything else.

In terms of information, the book delivers some excellent lessons that are critical to understanding how America’s work culture degraded into its current state, but I did think the book had a few flaws. The text was a tad dense for my taste and some of the topics discussed drifted away from the main themes of the book at times, causing me to lose interest in certain sections. I thought the book could’ve been a bit shorter and still delivered the same impact in terms of its core ideas.

Overall, however, I thought Worked Over was a decent overview of the main problems facing the working class in modern America.

Rating: 3/5

_____

Thanks to NetGalley and Basic Books for providing me with an eARC of Worked Over.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamie McCallum writes in the vein of David Graeber and James Livingston, with on-the-ground observations as a sociology prof.

One fascinating idea broached by McCallum is “universal basic services.” Think basic income on steroids, including national health care, but also child care, adult social care and more.

McCallum also rightly notes one other power of national health care — employers lose leverage over employees when they can’t use the puppet strings of “benefits.”

The book also made me suspicious of people on Twitter and elsewhere, claiming to be Uber and Lyft drivers, who oppose California law reclassifying them as employees. Per the book, it’s clear that they currently have no real control over their schedule. So, are they that brainwashed, or are they company moles, part of management, or company shills/Oreos, paid to be traitors to their class?

Also of note is the sheer volume and number of times where union management, whether blue collar like the UAW or white-collar like state teachers unions, have been toadies to management on strikes and related issues.

One other thing of note is that McCallum looks at least a bit of how this micromanaging by technology is playing out not just on factory floors or the gray collar/service world of ridesharing and retailers, but is in the white collar world. COVID has only exacerbated companies trying to electronically peer over the shoulder of “creative” freelancers and now, work at home white-collar staff. That’s in addition to the “work more” as a competition that’s invaded the white collar world, too.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the tug of war between employers screwing over employees and employees ripping off employers, who is winning? This guy makes the argument that it is employers using every tool in their arsenal, from labor optimizing a la Frederick Winslow Taylor to tracking employees with wearable technologies to buying politicians, in order to work people to death while paying them just enough to get by. The people at the top rake in all the profits and the workers at the bottom struggle to get by, with lives overturned by algorithmic scheduling or automation eliminating their jobs altogether. The issues that were originally a working-class problem have started to invade certain sectors of the middle class, too.

Author is opposed to neoliberalism (capitalism, trickle-down policies) and is in favor of strengthening labor unions and worker protections. Is not afraid of automation. Does not like Andrew Yang or Charles Murray and doesn't think Universal Basic Income is an end in itself. Thinks we need to revamp company/work cultures (for example, seeking "meaningful work" is a scam by employers to extract more profit from workers while making them hate life less). Believes second-wave feminism is responsible for welfare reform (the myth that women can do it all, and if they can, then they should be working outside the home in order to get any sort of welfare benefits... author calls it "workfare"). Workers should be unionized and should receive Medicare for All as it "saves employers expensive healthcare costs" and doesn't tie health insurance to an employer. Companies shouldn't falsely consider employees to be "independent contractors" as a way of failing to pay benefits and taxes (think FedEx, strippers, and gig-economy companies). Interesting insights about weird app interfaces/constructions (eg; you have to agree to a job before finding out the details and are penalized if you decline). Work schedules need to be reliable, predictable, and not 83 or 9 hours per week. Overall he thinks people should work far fewer hours than they currently do, but for the same total amount of pay. In favor of work-sharing, a Universal Basic Services safety net, unionizing and striking to improve social conditions, and using robots and automation to improve the common good.

Author is far-left, Keynesian, socialist, etc. Doesn't seem to care about moral hazard among labor, and in fact illustrates instances when people deliberately work slowly when paid by time instead of output. More importantly he never discusses how to pay for his various ideas, nor does he give specific targets like a xx-hour workweek, but rest assured, the problems are the fault of rich guys, Republicans, and/or Trump. I'm conflicted, because yes, there are definitely people who are exploited in this country, labor-wise. And it's well past time to decouple healthcare from employment. I've personally had an employer who quietly urged employees to work off the clock as an hourly employee so he wouldn't exceed his payroll target, and I stopped working there. But I also think the author oversimplifies some of the problems. Not all employers are huge corporations with hundreds or thousands of employees, and the same policies that could improve life for Wal*Mart employees won't scale down to Mom & Pop's comic book shop. Also there's the question of what is "enough." A livable wage is different in rural Ohio than it is in Boston, for example; a full-time employee making enough to cover a modest dwelling, food, transportation, and medical care would need wildly different amounts in each place. One thing I did find troubling was NYC's WEP program (where poor people work for slave wages in order to receive welfare benefits), though it has since been abolished. The fact that certain workers can undercut other workers (here I'm referring to off-the-books/illegal immigrant labor) is a problem that got zero ink at all. And if there were Universal Healthcare and Childcare, as he mentions, he fails to mention how that will be allocated, especially if healthcare or childcare workers are held to the same short-duration working hours that he idealizes.

As always, I wonder how this book would be different if rewritten in light of the economic impact of Covid.

[Ari Stillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this harrowing and very readable book, Jamie McCullen seeks to answer the question of why Americans by and large lack so much control over their labor time? American entrepreneurs such as Taylor and Gilbreth pioneered practices in efficiency – both at work and at home, respectively – that became the norm into the 30s. These are the forebears of today's personal productivity apps. But with the rise of labor union membership and influence, including sharing labor time among more workers to deter lay-offs and curtail unemployment, workers began to want more from their jobs – they wanted meaning. McCullen doesn't satisfactorily explain this transition, but the result was that management was happy to exploit the desire for meaning in exchange for lower wages. This in turn contributed to workers wanting more hours – either because they weren't getting paid enough and needed to survive (for the proletariat) or because they wanted to make more money and meaning (for the managerial or white collar class).

At the core of the book is the idea that the American Dream – the idea that hard work will pay off (literally and figuratively) – is in shambled thanks to neoliberalism and the predation of the managerial class. McCallum makes a compelling case for how workers can reclaim control over their time, but it requires cooperation in solidarity with numerous actors across the field.

[Sara Broad · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Worked Over" by Jamie McCallum is a nonfiction work about the history and current state of work and employment in America. He highlights how many factors like low wages, inconsistent scheduling, scheduling algorithms, and the physical demands of a work environment (think Amazon warehouses) burden low-wage workers. Unfortunately, because wages are so low, low-wage workers have no choice but to continue to put up with all the above factors while often working the same hours as a more highly paid white-collar workers. That being said, McCallum points out that office environments have cultivated a feeling among white-collar employees that they also must work hours for fear of not feeling like they can prove themselves if they work more "realistic" hours. McCallum offers a meaningful analysis about how American society has moved into the sphere of constant overwork, and he provides some great ideas for how to make work life more balanced and bearable for all people. As he points out, we need time to fulfill our civic duties! This is a really interesting read that will make you reflect on your own participation in the world of being "Worked Over."

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two books released recently “Worked Over” and “Beaten Down, Worked Up” deal with very similar themes regarding workers rights, worker organizing (or lack thereof), and the history of labor rights in the US. Of the two, “Beaten Down” has a much more thorough history of the fight for labor rights in the US, up to and including ongoing issues and activities today. Worked Over has a smaller portion of roughly the same ground and more theoretical opining on what work is, but is ultimately a bit less satisfying.

[Mary | maryreadstoomuch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that will make you truly mad at the state of work in this country. McCallum gives the problem of overwork a human face, starting with the story of Maria Fernandes, who worked shifts at 3 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants to pay her bills before her death. His expert intertwining of statistics and trends with heartbreaking human stories made it hard to put this book down. While he focuses primarily on the problems of individuals working low-income jobs, he also discusses overwork among elite white-collar professionals who feel they have to prove their value through total hours worked.

McCallum’s deep look at the subject and his suggestions for how to reshape capitalism to make it work for workers are definitely worth a read. I would recommend this book to another interested in labor history, sociology, inequality, and automation.

Thank you to Perseus Books/Basic Books for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book put into words what I've feeling for awhile now. Corporation are purposely controlling your time. Swing shifts, "pick your own hours" and low wages aim to control your time. by controlling your time you have less time to focus on issues that effect your everyday life. Politics, safety standards and quality of life fall to the wayside when you are struggling to make ends meet.

[Matt Speer · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not worth reading and some of it was highly offensive, crude, and vulgar. The ideas this author is spreading are a lot of what is wrong with this country these days. Hopefully this author will cease to write and quit his job as a professor because his ideas absolutely suck. He is part of why problems exist in this country.

[Donn Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who’s worked only white collar jobs with little interaction with others outside my professional circle, this book provides some great perspectives on the issues facing people working jobs not quite like mine. Made me think, a lot, about my relationship to work and that of others to theirs.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. While about the business world, this book could easily be about education. While some of the most liberal policies suggested in this book will never happen, he does make a very cogent argument for a UBI. Fascinating overlay to the riots over Trump in DC. Audio.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting and readable book about work and labor in the United States. I appreciated that the main focus was on lower-income workers and the struggle to survive in the current work environment. Some of the first-hand stories were simply heartbreaking.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book held my attention with interesting stories about the various problems related to labor in the US. However, it was frustrating that the book didn’t end with one or more chapters about how to fix these problems.

[Beverly Hallfrisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just an okay book. It goes into theories well but generally lacks engaging personal stories to highlight the theories presented. It felt piecemeal in a way.

[Syon Bhanot · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are good ideas at times, this book leans too hard on anecdote and ideology. I would have preferred a more data driven argument.

[Benjamin Taddesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ McCallum paints a masterful, insight portrait of the dire situation that the American worker faces in the new age of Big Tech

[uosɯɐS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good points - recommend!

[Stijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Changed my perspective on the work ethic religion.

[Kelly Fitzpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good book. Highly recommend for those wanting to view labor and loabor organizing from a leftist perspective.

[Alexx Bragg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A timely book that is the truest it has ever been in American history.

[Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important and oh my god we’re (Americans) so fucked

[Manisha]

Listened to audiobook.
DNF @ 16%

Just lost interest.