On the Clock
What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane
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Narrated by:
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Christine Lakin
About this listen
The bitingly funny, eye-opening story of a college-educated young professional who finds work in the automated and time-starved world of hourly labor....
After the local newspaper where she worked as a reporter closed, Emily Guendelsberger took a pre-Christmas job at an Amazon fulfillment center outside Louisville, Kentucky. There, the vending machines were stocked with painkillers, and the staff turnover was dizzying. In the new year, she travelled to North Carolina to work at a call center, a place where even bathroom breaks were timed to the second. And finally, Guendelsberger was hired at a San Francisco McDonald's, narrowly escaping revenge-seeking customers who pelted her with condiments.
Across three jobs, and in three different parts of the country, Guendelsberger directly took part in the revolution changing the US workplace. On the Clock takes us behind the scenes of the fastest-growing segment of the American workforce to understand the future of work in America - and its present. Until robots pack boxes, resolve billing issues, and make fast food, human beings supervised by AI will continue to get the job done. Guendelsberger shows us how workers went from being the most expensive element of production to the cheapest - and how low wage jobs have been remade to serve the ideals of efficiency, at the cost of humanity.
On the Clock explores the lengths that half of Americans will go to in order to make a living, offering not only a better understanding of the modern workplace, but also surprising solutions to make work more humane for millions of Americans.
©2019 Emily Guendelsberger (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"When former Onion editor Emily Guendelsberger explores how the non-college majority scrapes by, she uncovers a Darwinian hellscape where the richest man on earth munificently bestows painkillers upon his warehouse serfs, telemarketers pitch products to the newly bereaved, and the customer is always right-even when she's lobbing McNugget sauce at your head. Filled with compassion, fury, and an invigorating dose of hope, On The Clock is the laugh-till-you-cry exposé our laugh-till-you-cry nation deserves." (Daniel Brook, author of The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America, A History of Future Cities, and The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction)
"Guendelsberger's narration is vivid, humorous, and honest; she admits to the feelings of despair, panic, and shame that these jobs frequently inspire, allowing for a more complex and complete picture of the experience. This is a riveting window into minimum-wage work and the subsistence living it engenders." (Publishers Weekly)
"Detailed, intelligent, and well-researched, the book provides a sobering look at the inhuman world of blue-collar work while suggesting that creation of a better world starts by connecting to others who also believe 'the status quo is cruel and ridiculous.' An eye-opening, unrelenting exposé that uncovers the brutal wages of modern global capitalism. A natural choice for fans of Nickel and Dimed." (Kirkus Reviews)
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Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot: That's the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner. Immediately dispatched to the scene, Carter learns that the four victims - an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama's boy - came from different parts of the city and didn't seem to know one another.
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Wish Brad Parks were more prolific!!!!
- By shelley on 02-16-18
By: Brad Parks
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Resurrection of the Damned
- War of the Damned, Book 1
- By: Michael Todd, Michael Anderle, Laurie Starkey
- Narrated by: Emily Beresford
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In a world invaded by demons, it's up to Katie and her Killers to restore order while also evading enemies - and friends - who want her in the worst way.
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Totally Spoiled Storyline
- By Linda Luella on 01-03-20
By: Michael Todd, and others
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Ghosts of Manhattan
- A Novel
- By: Douglas Brunt
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 2005. Nick Farmer is a 35-year-old bond trader with Bear Stearns clearing seven figures a year. The novelty of a work-related nightlife centering on liquor, hookers, and cocaine has long since worn thin, though Nick remains keenly addicted to his annual bonus. But the lifestyle is taking a toll on his marriage and on him.
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Great Book
- By Melvin on 06-30-15
By: Douglas Brunt
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The Upside
- A Memoir
- By: Abdel Sellou
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1992, Count Phillippe Pozzo di Borgo, on the heels of his wife's diagnosis with a terminal illness, suffered a paragliding accident that left him a quadriplegic. Forty-two years old, trapped inside his luxurious Paris town house, he was an outcast for the first time in his life. Abdel, an unemployed Algerian immigrant who had been an outcast for his entire existence, would become Phillipe's unlikely caretaker. Quick-thinking, unsentimental, and more than a little wild, Abdel surprises both himself and his employer.
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loved it
- By RockyDog on 01-31-19
By: Abdel Sellou
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Hot Mess
- By: Emily Belden
- Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty-something Allie Simon is used to playing by the rules - until Chicago's most sought-after, up-and-coming culinary genius, Benji Zane, walks into her world and pulls her into his. The only thing more renowned than Benji's mouthwatering masterpieces and equally luscious good looks? His struggle with addiction and his reckless tendency to live life on the edge, no matter the havoc he wreaks along the way. But loving someone means supporting him no matter what, or so Allie tells herself.
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Just finished...
- By Joanne Cunningham on 01-08-19
By: Emily Belden
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Digging Up Mother
- A Love Story
- By: Johnny Depp - foreword, Doug Stanhope
- Narrated by: Doug Stanhope and Friends
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Doug Stanhope is one of the most critically acclaimed and stridently unrepentant comedians of his generation. What will surprise some is that he owes so much of his dark and sometimes uncomfortably honest sense of humor to his mother, Bonnie.
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Not my thing.
- By J. Harral on 01-27-18
By: Johnny Depp - foreword, and others
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Street Freak
- Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers
- By: Jared Dillian
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jared Dillian joined Lehman Brothers in 2001, he fulfilled a life-long dream to make it on Wall Street - but he had no idea how close to the edge the job would take him. Like Michael Lewis' classic Liar's Poker, Jared Dillian's Street Freak takes listeners behind the scenes of the legendary Lehman Brothers, exposing its outrageous and often hilarious corporate culture.
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Performance overwrought, drama swamps meaning
- By Philo on 02-10-17
By: Jared Dillian
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Stories I'd Tell in Bars
- By: Jen Lancaster
- Narrated by: Jen Lancaster, John Fletcher
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Older, but not wiser, Lancaster goes back to basics in this hilarious essay collection about everything from taking community policing classes to accidentally getting high with her waiter after a fancy dinner. These are the tales she'd tell if she met you in a bar... if she weren't too lazy to put on pants and go to a bar. Offering advice ranging from how to remain happily married to a man who refuses to blow his damn nose already to not creating An Incident at the cheese counter during an attempt at Whole30, she's you, only louder.
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self absorbed
- By D D H on 06-15-19
By: Jen Lancaster
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Short Squeeze
- By: Chris Knopf
- Narrated by: Deanna Hurst
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet smart-aleck Southampton attorney Jackie Swaitkowski. Her business relies on constant movement of Hamptons' real estate market. After making an odd request to evict his sister-in-law from his home, one of her clients turns up dead. Jackie would have expected that to be the end of it, but an envelope found on the corpse contains an item so unusual that she finds herself working on something bigger, and more dangerous, than real estate.
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Great Listen - Good Series
- By Patricia on 02-15-10
By: Chris Knopf
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Chronicles of a Fashion Buyer
- The Mostly True Adventures of an International Fashion Buyer
- By: Mercedes Gonzalez
- Narrated by: Mercedes Gonzalez
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Fashion is a business of smoke and mirrors, notorious for crushing the souls of most who dare to be part of the industry. Go on a global expedition with New York City-based fashion buyer, strategist, and consultant, Mercedes Gonzalez, as she learns that there is no glamour in fashion and that only cutthroat corporate espionage prevails. From politicking with blood diamond dealers and Russian kingpins to living in indigenous villages, she has relied on her street smarts and fear of her uncle in order to outwit the industry tyrants at their own game.
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Very Enagaging
- By Rainbow on 07-31-23
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Permanent Midnight
- A Memoir (20th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Jerry Stahl, Nic Sheff - foreword
- Narrated by: Jerry Stahl, Scott Merriman
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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A searing confessional infused with the darkest humor, Permanent Midnight chronicles the opiated abyss of a Hollywood screenwriter and his formidable climb into sobriety. Made into a major motion picture starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Permanent Midnight is revered by critics and an ever-growing cult of devoted fans as one of the most compelling contemporary memoirs.
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Point deduction for the recording
- By Amazon Customer on 11-21-20
By: Jerry Stahl, and others
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Aurora
- A Novel
- By: David Koepp
- Narrated by: Rupert Friend
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son. Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.
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The Best of Us
- By James Munoz on 09-09-22
By: David Koepp
What listeners say about On the Clock
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Meagan
- 02-23-23
Insightful
This book was even better than I’d hoped and described a world even worse than I imagined. It also contextualizes the oppressive nature of modern low wage work from a historical and scientific perspective.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-16-19
Service work conditions are horrifying.
I worked in fast food for years before landing a white collar job. I've been going through a jarring transition as I find myself immersed in a different culture. Here, everyone has hope, nobody is stressed to the breaking point, and the bosses never try to restrict access to the toilets. On the Clock explores this transition in reverse, as the author immerses herself into the world of service work after a life spent in the middle class. All her observations ring true. In particular, the depiction of the first month at a call center was uncannily accurate. It was painful to read, because remembering my experiences also awakened the despair I had been living in at the time. It made me physically ill.
Much like the author, I used to remark that everyone should have to work a service job at least once, so that they understand just how we shit on them as a society. This book honestly captures some of the experience. I now believe that everyone should have to read this book. If our upper classes understood the horrors we're inflicting on our people, things might change. It starts with everyone respecting the people who are being crushed by our systems, and it ends, I hope, with nobody needing to work in such degrading conditions.
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3 people found this helpful
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- AMM
- 02-03-20
Eye opening, worth reading, one error that I noticed
When the author says she got on bart and saw the golden gate as she crossed the river into Oakland, she made a couple errors. Bart goes under the bay, not a river, and there’s no way to see the golden gate in that process because you’re under water. Made me wonder if there are other inaccuracies. I hope not. I think this is an important book. But that’s a silly error.
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1 person found this helpful
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- B D
- 08-16-19
Stellar reporting and retelling of...
what happen On The Clock. Ms. Guendelsberger shares her experience at Amazon, Convergys and MacDonalds as an undercover author after hearing horror stories of the working conditions/daily work of these companies. The book is parts retelling, comedy, tragedy and extrapolation. The book made me laugh as well as depressed, but still hopeful. She also masterfully works in scientific theories as well as a few studies on depression, history of Taylorism and Henry Ford and capitalism in America. It was entertaining AND informative, AND relatable as a low wage worker. The reader is also great :) she did a fantastic job and I love that she gives all the characters different voices when they are speaking (I know that's childish but I love it) 11/10
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3 people found this helpful
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- Maggie Prince
- 05-21-23
So interesting
This book was so interesting. I am always looking for books to provide an alternate point of view and this one fit the bill. One of the final anecdotes about the Szechuan sauce showed so many points of view and how things are covered in the news. Being from North Carolina - it showed so much about the failing furniture market and how cities now fight to survive.
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- Craig M.
- 10-27-19
Excellent check in
Revealing the tangible affect of toxic stress is important. Though I have my own brand of stress as a solo operator of a small business and I subject myself to frequent 17 hour days, the rewards are evident in my station in life. Though my business is feast and famine I forget about my beginnings as a cook constantly in the weeds and my ice cream time constantly in the weeds and my dishwasher days constantly in the weeds. I sympathize with the notion “I get to leave this place”. I always knew those jobs were weigh station placements. They provided books during university and part time income for some discretionary. I never thought it was permanent. The desperation and hopelessness exposed in this examination of everyday life is harrowing. If this book doesn’t offer you some empathic reflection for those you encounter in your day-to-day, you’ve never known ‘down and out’. And it’ll be tough to reach you ever at all. This book is an important reminder for those in the weeds and those out, of those out are receptive to it. Great work.
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1 person found this helpful
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- AR
- 03-27-21
Informative & engaging
This was a great book. Funny, informative, and validating for anyone who has worked in service or retail. My only criticism is that the accents used by the reader, which feature prominently throughout the book, were so bad as to be offensive in some parts (I’m thinking of the Cuban guy at Amazon in particular.) Would it really have been so bad for the company to just hire one or two more people who could have done those accents justice rather than expecting one person to convincingly do them all?
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- Laura Ross
- 08-15-19
Actually binged this book
I was fascinated by the descriptions and details of the different work environments the author experienced. She beautifully relayed these experiences and I was completely appalled at the conditions these workers dealt with. Haven’t thought a lot about minimum wage conditions since I got out of college. Her descriptions about how rude the customers behave towards minimum wage workers spot on match what my barista daughter tells me, something that I have shrugged off in the past, and this has me reflecting a lot on this trend of abusive customers ( it would never occur to me that I know more than the employees and demand they open a second register, who does that? ) I could have done with a little less analysis in the end, I was happy with the work stories, though I am never going to forget how rats react to being shocked.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Janet
- 12-05-22
Must read
Wonderfully told and important book. The narrator was great as well. Really engaging for nonfiction. Read or listen to this!!!
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- Irksum Ink
- 09-28-19
wow you need to hear this
I read Nickel and Dimed long ago. It really changed my thinking. It's about time we have another book on the topic. The author creates a deep.and meaningful image through a combination of narrative, reflection, and vibrant splashes of history and science. You will be a better, more empathetic person for reading this book.
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5 people found this helpful