The Jobs Americans Do

February 24, 2017 8:59 PM

Popular ideas about the working class are woefully out of date. Here are nine people who tell a truer story of what the American work force does today — and will do tomorrow. [slNYT]
posted by ellieBOA (13 comments total)

If the link doesn't work as you've read too many articles, use incognito/private browsing.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:00 PM on February 24, 2017

Spoilers:

1. Ofelia Bersabe • Santa Clara, California • The Home Health Aide
2. Sonia Ufot • Brooklyn, New York • The Hair Braider
3. Adriana Alvarez • Cicero, Illinois • The Fast-Food Worker
4. Stuart Culver • Brooklyn Park, Minnesota • The Delivery Driver
5. Sandi Dolan • Las Vegas • The Customer-Service Rep
6. Ruhatijuru Sebatutsi • Columbus, Ohio • The Meat Cutter
7. Guadalupe Guido • Dalton, Georgia • The Carpet Whisperer
8. Wendy Almada • Las Vegas • The Hotel Cleaner
9. Nate Awan • Boston • The Pipe Fitter

posted by Going To Maine at 9:08 PM on February 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

Doesn't really talk much about the shift away from full-time, long-term jobs; or how technology has changed monitoring of workers. This blog made some interesting points:

We forget history. Go back to the 18th century and you would find a place like London was one big gig economy. Few people had jobs as we know them now; most were hired intermittently and were paid by the “piece” or task. There was an eclectic mix of payment arrangements depending on the nature of the work. The carpenters who maintained the timber starlings on London Bridge were paid per tide, according to Judy Stephenson, an economic historian...

Manufacturers replaced putting out with the factory system to control and standardise processes thereby ensuring quality control and driving down costs. The only problem was that when workers were together they tended to do awkward things like take collective action and demand employment rights, a process which eventually saw most piecework being replaced with regular wages . The factory system can therefore be said to have created employment in the way that we now understand the term, complete with its legal obligations.

New technology, though, enables companies to control their processes without their workers being in the same place. You can therefore combine factory discipline with the piece rates and reduced obligations of the putting out system. An army of people doing pretty much as you tell them but taking on much more of the risk themselves.

posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:17 PM on February 24, 2017 [23 favorites]

Moreover, consumers may have an emotional investment in seeing this caring work performed by people rather than machines. They may be willing to pay for a personal touch.

Call me new-fashioned (or maybe just really emotionally broken) but I would much rather have my personal care done by a machine when I'm past the point of being able to do it myself than have another person do it for me. I hate being looked after and fussed over so much; bring on the impersonal robotic ass-wiper.

Hopefully enough people of my generation will still value human care that it doesn't destroy that job sector, though (assuming we still have concepts like humans and jobs in fifty or so years' time).
posted by terretu at 2:19 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Don't worry, I adore being looked after and fussed over, so there are at least some of us out there.
posted by peacheater at 5:17 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

If you're not on your phone, replace mobile with ww to get the proper page to load.
posted by emelenjr at 6:05 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Interesting, but I'd argue $30/hour and benefits maybe doesn't qualify as working class anymore -- that's more than twice the income of a lot of people on salaries. Unless you assume there just is no middle class anymore: just poor, working class, and rich people.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:42 AM on February 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Delighted to see a former undegrad student of mine among the authors! Always a proud moment.
posted by spitbull at 8:31 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

It is not particularly surprising that women and immigrants have been more likely to take these jobs than native-born men. For many of the caretaking service jobs, less than 10 percent of the work force is male.

To borrow a technique I learned from the Green for addressing everyday problematic statements: Really? Why do you say that?
posted by telegraph at 9:37 AM on February 25, 2017

From the subhead: Popular ideas about the working class are woefully out of date.

Whose ideas? The sub-head writer doesn't identify the bad guy here. I think the "who" is either the NYT or its readers. If they are implying that it's their readers who's ideas are "woefully out of date", that's pretty insulting. How do they know my ideas are "woefully out of date?" If they are, it's because I've been subscribing to the NYT for the past 25 years.

Here are nine people who tell a truer story

Truer than what story? Who's telling these false stories about the American work force that the NYT is so bravely contradicting in this article?

of what the American work force does today — and will do tomorrow.

If anyone is surprised or shocked by the information in this article, I feel sorry for them. Behold the NYT doing what it does best: Signalling "We care."
posted by Modest House at 10:19 AM on February 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just because it's not news to you doesn't mean it's not news to someone, Modest House.

This turned out to be a pro-union, pro-refugee, pro-immigrant, anti-AZ labor laws article in disguise...I approve.
posted by subdee at 2:57 PM on February 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

This turned out to be a pro-union, pro-refugee, pro-immigrant, anti-AZ labor laws article in disguise...I approve.


So propaganda?
posted by laptolain at 9:26 AM on February 26, 2017

You could look at it that way if you really wanted to, but everything in the article is factual and it's not immoral to write a factual article with the goal of persuading others to your factual point of view.
posted by subdee at 2:44 PM on March 8, 2017