White Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Reward in Corporate America [Paperback]

Jill Andresky Fraser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2002

How corporate greed and mismanagement ate the American dream.

In the 1990s, before the bubble of the "miracle economy" burst, corporate America grew fat on the miseries of the American worker. Media attention has focused on dot-com disasters, massive layoffs, and explosions of corporate violence. But for those millions of Americans who have neither been laid off nor "gone postal," life at the office has become a nightmare: seven-day-a-week workloads; reduced salaries, pensions, and benefits; virtual enslavement to technology; and a pervasive fear about job security. With facts, figures, and telling case histories, the author chronicles this catastrophic sea change in industry after industry. Her book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of the American economy...or worried about his or her own job.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Financial journalist Fraser fingers the "merger frenzy," ushered in by federal and state regulatory changes, for the layoffs, longer work days, shrinking benefits packages and the rise of contingency workforces that have beset white-collar workers since the early 1980s. As soon as hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts and corporate bustups dominated the landscape, financial goals took priority over all other business considerations, making cost cutting, layoffs and benefit reductions the order of the day. The single-minded pursuit of these strategies, Fraser opines, has gradually transformed the paternalistic workplace familiar to white-collar workers circa 1979 into our present Darwinian arena, which Fraser characterizes as a sweatshop. Through interviews with white-collar workers and references to various studies, she charts adverse trends for workers in such industries as banking, communications and high technology. In her attempt to put a human face on the impact of these changes, each page is strewn with generic quotes about uncaring management and pervasive stress that portray workers as powerless before their employers ("There's something so unfair about all this"; "the company's attitude is, This is the way of the world. If you don't like it, go somewhere else"). Considering her stark portrait of bitter and forlorn white-collar workers, Fraser's proposed remedy sounds both hollow and na‹ve, as she calls for workers to restore balance in the workplace by lobbying for reduced workweeks, reasonable productivity goals and limits on the use of contingent labor. Agent, Sloan Harris, ICM.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Why amid record levels of employment and a booming economy, asks Fraser, are so many people unhappy? Fraser is currently the financial editor at Inc. magazine. She has documented workplace dissatisfaction over the last four years and comes to the conclusion that today's white-collar worker faces an "epidemic" of overwork and stress, has no time for family or personal interests, lacks long-term financial security, and suffers uncertainty wrought by corporate and technological change. Although Scott Adams has made light of these problems with his Dilbert cartoon strip, he has also given them validity. At the same time, though, others have suggested that these complaints are simply selfish whining. Certainly, Fraser's "sweatshop" is hyperbole, but she does offer a justifying explanation. Regardless, the sheer number of people--across a wide range of industries--eager to tell their tales of woe indicates something is amiss. Fraser interweaves these stories with supporting data and research to document disconcerting levels of malaise in the workplace. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039332320X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393323207
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dark Side of the New Economy, March 2, 2001

By 

Peter Cassimatis, Retired Professor of Economis. (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioriation of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America (Hardcover)

Since Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class", social scientists and journalists have tried to explain the impact of industrialization on workers, managers and executives. In the l950s, C.W. Mills in "White Collar: The New Middle Class", W.H. White in "The Organization Man", and W. Harrington in the "Life in the Chrystal Palace" set the stage for other writers to address the rise and fall of workers in the United States. In this book, Jill Andresky Fraser describes brilliantry the current status of middle class Americans in the new economy. Her book is in sharp contrast to David Brooks' "Bobos in Paradise" which satirizes the life of the upper middle class. Fraser presents a stark picture of the life of those who constitute the "white collar class" but do not enjoy the high salaries and perks of the Bobos. While family incomes of the middle class barely increased in purchasing power in the last decade, the incomes of the upper middle class and the wealthy more than doubled. At the same time, benefits have declined and in some cases eliminated for white collar workers. Another paradox of the new economy is that digital technology not only eliminates stable traditional jobs but it also increases the hours of work of those who are forced to use it. These and other changes in the workplace have created a climate of insecurity and intensified competition among white-collar workers, while corporations reap the benefits of higher productivity and profits reminiscent of the sweatshops of early twenty century. The book concludes with some interesting suggestions that would eliminate white-collar sweatshops. However, I do not believe that will happen without government legislation and revitalization of labor unions.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a catalyst for change?, April 10, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioriation of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America (Hardcover)

The author cannot solve all of the problems which work to reduce white-collar employees [in the United States] to nothing more than modern day "educated" peons, but she does explain the situation in such a way that people in some camps may be inspired to challenge the status quo. That in itself is a major accomplishment! The book is easy, informative reading that is not only worth reading but passing on to those you consider friends.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, Thought-Provoking, Unsettling, December 2, 2002

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Reward in Corporate America (Paperback)

The author of this book is a professional journalist, with experience covering business for the New York Times, The New York Observer, and Forbes. She's served as an editor for Inc. Magazine and Bloomberg Personal Finance. She knows how to write in a style that grabs and holds a reader's attention. I went straight through cover-to-cover with this book, turning pages and turning down pages.

After several years of research, this book was assembled to tell the story of the nightmare that has been the life of the white collar worker in America in recent decades. Using an enticing mixture of facts and figures and real-life stories collected from people in the trenches, Fraser documents a story that cries for exposure. White collar employees from large companies will recognize-painfully-the picture that's painted, with personal histories and company names and practices illuminating the text. Page after page reveals the details of an embarrassingly destructive period in our country's corporate history. Sadly, the story continues, with complications and far-reaching implications, far beyond what's presented in White Collar Sweatshop.

You'll experience a wide range of emotions as you move through this factual report. Those emotions will range from pity to sympathy, from empathy to rage. Using the internet, Fraser found a wide range of people to open their hearts, share their experiences, and expose the questionable, unfeeling, almost inhumane acts of corporate executives. You'll read about people who invested their lives, at the expense of their families and themselves, to help build companies that later chewed them up and spit them out.

The research for this book was conducted during the late 1990s and into 2000. These were the years of the hot economy where opportunities to change jobs were plentiful. Many of the people who worked for large corporations, where this book is centered, did not leave for greener pastures; they were trapped in a never-ending cycle of working, working, working for companies-emotional and professional handcuffs that held them in a no-alternatives, no-win rut.

Since this book was written, the economy has shifted. During the slowdown of 2000-2002, employers became even more ruthless. With fewer jobs to jump to, workers had their escape routes blocked. The current reality is probably even worse than the deterioration described in Fraser's documentary. As the economy picks up, we'll see some cataclysmic changes in the relationship between employers and employees. The historical period recorded in this book will be a foundation for a major upheaval.

To understand what's coming, read this book to understand what's happened. Special note to senior corporate executives: If you want to attract, inspire, and optimize top talent, read this book to comprehend how your employees feel. Even if you're not the size of the major companies cited in the case histories, know that your future or even current employees-directly or indirectly-are influenced by the experiences described.

This book will be a catalyst for change if corporate leaders apply the knowledge they'll gain to assure that sweatshop practices are terminated.

Extra benefits: strong notes section with a number of valuable book references, as well as a comprehensive index.