NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW: The factory manager of the Landmark Plastic Company in Akron, Ohio, once told me that he was so concerned about high turnover among workers that he began holding exit interviews to find out why they were leaving. The answers surprised him. It wasn’t the meager pay, the noise, the mind-numbing assembly lines or the mist of plastic dust in the air. Instead, most employees complained “that they didn’t feel needed, necessary or wanted,” the manager reported, and were treated like “just another body.”
Linda Tirado will not be amazed to read this little anecdote, because the craving for personal dignity is a force that drives her caustic commentary, “Hand to Mouth.” In the low-wage jobs where she has worked, bosses don’t ask subordinates what they think. Humiliation is the rule. “Poor people” are dehumanized by “rich people” wielding contempt and hypocritical moral judgments across a stark divide. The society she portrays is bipolar, with practically nobody between wealth and destitution…
Few working poor have the luxury of indignation. Enervated by swing shifts, cash shortfalls and too little sleep, they are badgered by the American creed that anyone who works hard can prosper, and many internalize the belief that those who don’t prosper are themselves to blame… (more)
EDITOR: This book probably should be required reading for every executive and manager. If they care more about their workers than meeting numbers, they likely would find their enterprises more profitable.
