Worked Over
How Round-the-Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Middlebury College sociologist McCallum (Global Unions, Local Power) delivers an informative examination of the strains placed on American workers by "overwork, unstable schedules, and a lack of adequate hours." Linking decreased unionization to rising income inequality and work hour instability, McCallum notes that in the past 40 years, "CEO pay soared by an inconceivable 1,070 percent, and productivity increased by 70 percent, but hourly wages of average workers limped forward just 12 percent." The "gamification" of work has exacerbated the situation, according to McCallum, who notes that Target ("a.k.a. Walmart for liberals") uses color-coded screens to display the productivity rates of checkout clerks in real time. He also contends that a cultural shift toward expecting one's job to be meaningful and fulfilling has made it harder for workers of all stripes to maintain a healthy work-life balance. His suggestions for reform include increased family and medical leave, across-the-board working hour reductions, and Medicare for All. Interweaving anecdotes from the history of American labor with profiles of contemporary workers, union organizers, and social service administrators, McCallum lucidly explains how the current system came to be and offers hope that the resurgence of socialist principles can lead to improved working conditions. The result is a cogent, persuasive, and witty call for change. (Sept.)