Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee [Hardcover]

Alex Frankel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 2007

Curious to know just what happens behind the "employees only" doors of big companies, journalist Alex Frankel embarked on an undercover reporting project to find out how some of America's well-known companies win the hearts and minds of their retail and service employees. Frankel knew the only way to find answers was to go native. During a two-year urban adventure through the world of commerce, Frankel applied for and was hired by a half-dozen companies: he proudly wore the brown uniform of the UPS driver, folded endless stacks of T-shirts at Gap, brewed espressos for the hordes at Starbucks, interviewed (but failed to get hired) at Whole Foods, enrolled in management training at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and sold iPods at the Apple Store.At the heart of "Punching In" lies Frankel's quest to find out how some of the giants of commerce turn thousands of average job applicants into loyal - even fanatical - workers. How do they identify and recruit workers who will best fit their companies? How do they indoctrinate employees into their corporate cultures and make them perfect messengers of their brands? Along the way, Frankel pauses long enough to wonder why he is so often immune to corporate attempts to win employees over.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Like an intrepid anthropologist, Frankel immerses himself in self-contained commercial cultures and resurfaces to write with empathy and insight.” (Dan Gross, Newsweek columnist and author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy )

“Insightful, personal, and funny. Frankel does the impossible—he gives corporate culture a soul.” (Rodney Rothman, author of Early Bird )

“I see Alex Frankel as the Jane Goodall of the modern Workplace jungle.” (Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do With My Life? )

“Savor the reporting on offer...” (Wall Street Journal )

“A book that takes readers behind the scenes at some of the country’s best-known companies...” (Washington Post )

From the Back Cover

"I see Alex Frankel as the Jane Goodall of the modern workplace jungle."
--Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do With My Life?

"Like an intrepid anthropologist, Frankel immerses himself in self-contained commercial cultures-UPS, Gap, Starbucks--and resurfaces to write with great empathy and keen insight about the workings of the service economy. Punching In will make you think twice-and think differently-about the human interactions that lay behind our every-day transactions."
--Dan Gross, Newsweek columnist and author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy

"Insightful, personal, and funny. Frankel does the impossible--he gives corporate culture a soul."
--Rodney Rothman, author of Early Bird.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness (November 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060849665
• ISBN-13: 978-0060849665
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #677,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, December 23, 2007

By 

Charlie "Librarian" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee (Hardcover)

About: Frankel takes jobs with several well-known companies and reports back from the front lines of customer interaction.

The first job he tackles is as a holiday season driver helper at UPS (where he's told that most do not last longer than 4 days due to the grueling amount of stuff to be delivered during this time). Fun fact: UPS is the world's 8th largest airline.Then he heads to the suit-required halls of an Enterprise Rent-a-Car where they really want customers to buy their insurance and he is told to phone competitors, posing as customer, so if say they were out of SUVs, Enterprise could hike their SUV rental prices.

After dealing with autos, it's off to the GAP where workers can only wear Gap clothing or clothing with no visible competitor markings and employees' bags searched by Loss Protection when they leave for the night. This job requires lots of folding, listening to the same music for 6-8 weeks at a time, and pressure to sell Gap credit cards to customers.

Frankel heads from clothes to coffee as he is hired as a barista at Starbucks. While you must wear either a white or black shirt with black pants or khakis while slinging coffee, they do offer health insurance to employees. Note for your next visit: Coffee Masters (who have had special training) wear black aprons instead of the green standard.

The final job takes him from black coffee to the glaring white of an Apple Store where the dress code is pretty much just the black Apple logo shirt he is given. At the Apple Store, he's encouraged to "be who you are" and the work force is only 10% female. Although employees do not work on commission, there is large emphasis on selling "extras" with each computer sale.

Frankel also attempted to get positions at Container Store where didn't get past the group interview and Home Depot where he answered some questions "wrong" on the "these questions have no wrong answers" section of the application, so the computer locked his application as it deemed him not a good fit for the place. He was also not hired at Best Buy or Whole Foods.

He provides a nice sum up at the end, stating that UPS had the most adventure, the Apple Store had a much "looser" feel than then more codified Gap, Enterprise and Starbucks, where he never felt quite at ease.

Pros: Very enjoyable read. Writing is crisp, to the point and exudes honesty. Nice balance of analysis of the companies he's working for and tales of his actual employment (the cross section of Starbucks customers he describes is a highlight). Index and endnotes are a pleasant surprise.

Cons: He doesn't explicitly say how long he worked for each company. I hope he was allowed to reveal all of the things about the companies' workings and policies that he does without getting sued.

Grade: A

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Look Inside Retail America, March 15, 2008

By 

Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee (Hardcover)

After I finished this book, I sat down and thought about all the companies I have worked for over the years. The number was rather daunting, including jobs in college and in high school. After I figured out who I had worked for, I looked at which companies I had enjoyed working for and which I had found boring and dull. After thinking for a while, I realized that the author had hit the nail on the head perfectly with his assertion that there are employees for every company, but not every company is for all employees.

While reading the book, it quickly became apparent that there are many companies that want bodies to fill space and do menial tasks, while there are some companies who are looking for intelligent people to think and be individuals, even in the front line of retail. The authors take on what each company wanted and how they tried to get an employee to that point was fascinating. I enjoyed the inside look at the companies, and I can say that I will not look at some of these companies in the same light ever again.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but not very profound, December 18, 2007

By 

Chris Ransdell (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee (Hardcover)

I was really hoping for some more interesting tidbits about the various companies. More stories would have been useful, especially about the Apple Store. In some ways it seemed like Alex ran out of energy by the time the Apple Store chapter was written. By contrast, the UPS chapter was full of good imagery and insight into what it felt like to be a UPS delivery agent. The Enterprise chapter also made me feel that I had enough information about Enterprise to know if I would like to work there or not and some clues to why the business succeeds.

All that said, this was a quick read for me and I'd recommend it especially when it comes out at the paperback price.