Customer Reviews

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

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I had always meant to read "Working," but had never gotten around to it. Then I picked up another book loosely based on it ("Gig"), so decided to get the original "Working" as well.

"Working" is moving and brilliant and a million times better than "Gig." Somehow, Terkel lets the people do their own talking, but it's never monotonous, never repetitive, and they always have profound things to say. Reading these people tell their stories is mesmerizing. Terkel steps in just the right amount, organizing the stories into themes (sometimes very creative ones), but never drowning out his interviewees' voices.

Although "Working" came out in 1972, it feels surprisingly recent. The world of work hasn't changed all that much in thirty years. Still relevant, still entertaining, still thought-provoking. And the professions are indexed in the back, so one needn't read them in order.

I feel compelled to respond to brothersjudddotcom.

Nowhere in Terkel's book do I get the notion that he believes people "don't want to work." I imagine Terkel loves his own work. The subject of the book is the way that most jobs (even "good" jobs) have become dehumanizing. Robotizing.

One of his interviewees, a filmmaker, comments on an "educational film" she saw, one intended to inspire "ghetto kids" to pursue their dreams. She remarks that the "most (financially) successful" subject in the film, a businessman, spoke about his money and his possessions while a "less successful" sculptor led a tour of his studio and spoke about his actual work. She says that she feel people are being deprived of the potential joys in work when we are trained to focus too much on status and salary.

He also interviews actor Rip Torn, who laments that actors are expected to be "shills" to tailor their performances to the selling of products. For example, Torn tells a story about being required to smoke cigarettes rather than cigars in a particular role. Historically, the character would not have smoked cigarettes; the sponsor was a cigarette company. Torn felt that both his art and his intelligence, as well as that of the audience, were sold out by this demand.

Far from being "badly dated," Terkel's critique is monstrously accurate today. Now, as contrasted with the 1970s, in many families, both parents "devote" 10+ hours to power games at work at the expense of family time, personal health, community, etc.

I believe that Terkel believes meaningful work to be essential to the human spirit. Problem is, as amount of work increases, meaning seems to be decreasing.

Working has been my favorite book - likely the book that had the most implicit impact on the way I think - for many years. I pick it up every year and read a random section, put it back down, and pick it up again. Real stories, genuinely collected.

The comments are interesting - everyone interprets what Terkel gathered in a way that meets their own worldview. Not too surprising, but read it yourself, and draw your own conclusions - maybe even new ones.

Studs Terkel wanted to write a book about working for a living. So he sat down with a grocery store cashier and interviewed her about her job. He didn't ask very many questions; he just turned on a tape recorder and let her pour her heart out. She explained what she did for a living, how and why she came to do it, what she liked and disliked about her job. She talked about the little dramas and boredom that filled her working hours and the toll it took on her private life. When she was finished talking she had created a vivid "snapshot" with words of what it's like to work as a grocery store cashier.
Then Studs interviewed a bartender, a teacher, a pro athlete and dozens of other people from dozens of professions. They each created in their own words unique self-portraits of themselves at work. The book Working is like an art gallery filled with these detailed self-portraits.
And just like strolling through an art gallery looking at paintings will give you a feel for the visions of a variety of artists, reading Working will give you a taste of the flavor of the working lives of it's subjects.

Working profiles the working lives of scores of Americans. From prostitute to chief executive, coal mine worker to major league ballplayer- a myriad of professions are covered. The book reads like a documentary (which it is). Terkel has included the most interesting aspects of each case study's working life, and ultimately you see why each continues to pursue their career in that chosen field- or at least what satisfaction they get from showing up everyday. It's a great book to pick up and spend 5 to 10 minutes or so reading about how someone else's working life has parallels to your own. The interviews were conducted mostly during the late 60's and early 70's but while it is slightly dated, even that fact makes for an interesting historical perspective.

Studs Terkel is a master at getting people to open up, and careful to include several interviewees whose gripes help reinforce his liberal agenda. We hear a stockbroker, trucker, priest, hooker, teller, cops, teachers, autoworkers, and many others discuss their livelihoods. Readers come away appreciating the unique challenges of each job, and the powerlessness that afflicts many employees. These interviews occurred primarily in Chicago during the early 1970's, when the workplace featured fewer women and more jobs in heavy industry. We meet Mike, a steelworker annoyed by his lack of skills who senses that his union job may vanish - as occurred a few years later when US Steel shut their Chicago South Works. Barbara is a young advertising executive forced to deal with a level of office sexism one hopes is now passé. Ex-railroaders Bill and Louis each lament the shriveling of their once-vital industry from separate perches as retiree and washroom attendant. "Working" has many similar, compelling tales. The book may be slightly dated, but it remains a highly informative read.

I read this book 30 years ago. It has probably kept me unemployed for most of that time. Warning if you read this book you may quit your job.

Studs Terkel wanted to write a book about working for a living. So he sat down with a grocery store cashier and interviewed her about her job. He didn't ask very many questions; he just turned on a tape recorder and let her pour her heart out. She explained what she did for a living, how and why she came to do it, what she liked and disliked about her job. She talked about the little dramas and boredom that filled her working hours and the toll it took on her private life. When she was finished talking she had created a vivid "snapshot" with words of what it's like to work as a grocery store cashier.
Then Studs interviewed a bartender, a teacher, a pro athlete and dozens of other people from dozens of professions. They each created in their own words unique self-portraits of themselves at work. The book Working is like an art gallery filled with these detailed self-portraits.
And just like strolling through an art gallery looking at paintings will give you a feel for the visions of a variety of artists, reading Working will give you a taste of the flavor of the working lives of it's subjects.

The drugstore owner, the hooker, the ex-stockbroker and steel worker, the nurse, the school teacher, etc., all these people have committed their working life's experience to tape from which Studs Terkel then puts this great book together. And whilst the stories are all fascinating, they do seem to suffer from a kind of homogeneous quality, as if, no matter who the interviewee is, the characters' voices all seem to sound like the same person, only the details determining their sex or experience, adding any differentiation. A minor point, I know, but it tends to veil the individuals beneath a worn down resignedness of whether their experiences were good, bad, or so, so.

I was alerted to this book when reading a Stephen King article about banned books in American colleges, this being one of them, after a school kid used it as the basis for a homework exercise and his mother threw a fit over it. I can't see why myself, but there you are.

Working, is nearly thirty years old now. Nonetheless, its just as relevant today as when Studs Terkel wrote it. And fine reading it is, too.

What's engaging about this is the stories. Studs is known for his work getting people to tell their stories. This is one of his contributions to the cultural history of America, told first person, in a way that is timeless and just as relevant today as when it was written. One way to sum it up might be to say this is about what people learned from their work, and about themselves and others in the process. The subject might sound boring, but it's alive and seething with emotions.

On the face of it this is a dated survey of Americans and how they feel about their jobs. While there's some nostalgia in here in the attitudes and jobs of eras past it's also a fun read and one that I would recommend to teens, college students and anyone interested in perspectives about work and how we see ourselves and others.

We all know that most people hate their jobs. Work is seen as something we have to do, and few of us seem to find a job that we like or enjoy. How we feel about work, and what we do for a living, in many ways defines who we are. Seeing people share their their perspectives on this helps us see ourselves in a different light, and taken as a whole this book helps us see a perspective of America's history.

One thing I found interesting in this was the work ethic people found even in jobs they hated. Work ethics seem to be less clearly defined today in a world where ethics have gone astray, and where people tend to care less about what they do and how they do it. Seeing the pride a man took in his work, even if he hated it, tells us something about the character of a person. It's also interesting to see how people who had jobs you would assume they would have hated were content in their roles and saw what they did as a service even when others might look down on them.

The construction worker who wants to make sure his son doesn't have to do what he does was one I enjoyed and remember. An airline stewardess in an era dominated by of bigoted males... the stories this books tells are about relationships and attitudes, and in a way it's still very vital and contemporary.

It's about relationships with work, family, with other people, and with ourselves and or past and future. You'll probably see yourself and people you know in the attitudes within this book. In that way it's timeless, candid and informative, and touching.