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38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An engaging and fun read...., April 4, 2005
This review is from: A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember (Paperback)
This book should be required reading for any liberal arts major. Levison does a terrific job detailing, in a hilarious fashion, the teeny-tiny downside to a college education that the glossy brochures never pointed out: Just because you get a degree does not necessarily mean you will graduate with marketable skills an employer would find desirable. Instead, you may be forced to endure, as Levison does, the indignities of a seemingly endless procession of McJobs.
An added benefit to making this required reading is that undergraduates would probably find this book a more enjoyable read than, say, "Nickel and Dimed," a more scholarly piece of nonfiction that makes the same basic point though with nowhere close to the same humor quotient. Levison is clearly a talented writer, and my primary complaint with the book was that it was too danged short; I wanted to hear about more of his 42 jobs.
Employers ought to read this book, too, as it may give them insight to their perennial complaint about high levels of employee turnover. Levison points out with great clarity that people quit jobs when those jobs don't offer reasonable incentive to stay, or when supervisors treat them so demeaningly that unemployment is preferable. I must confess, however, to not buying Levison's rationalization for stealing from one particular employer. Stealing is wrong, no matter how irritating a supervisor is. But the respect I lost for him in that chapter was regained in the chapter describing what he went through working for the Alaska fishing companies. The next time any of my undergraduates whine about my class being too demanding, I will be tempted to hand them a copy of Levison's book and tell them "This is REAL work. And if you don't want to be in the same boat as Levison, you will concentrate a lot harder in your classes and get something valuable out of your college education."
But I have to say that this book has made me exceedingly grateful for my job as a tenured professor that lets me write amazon.com reviews during working hours...
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pungent Slacker Take on Job Market, September 22, 2003
This review is from: A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember (Paperback)
Levison's book belongs to the classic "work sucks" canon, including the film Office Space, Bentley Little's horror novel The Ignored, and Magnus Mills' mysterious novel The Restraint of Beasts. As Levison recounts his hellish jobs, we see a man too smart and too proud to subject himself to Groupthink, "team player" sycophantism, sadistic, arbitrary employers, and jobs that are clearly designed to humiliate, dehumanize, and impoversih the employee. His stories and anecdotes make for compelling, page-turning reading and forces you in the end to question what you're willing to put up just so you can tell yourself you're "gainfully employed."
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A hilarious book, November 11, 2003
This review is from: A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember (Paperback)
In this hilarious book, Levinson points out the aburdities of the general workplace with great wit - it may not be Nietzsche, and he may exaggerate his experiences, but the writing would be pretty dry otherwise. To those who decry Levinson for having a poor attitude, I have to say that it's hard to have a good attitude when your bosses treat you like a slave and you're nothing more than a cog in the proverbial machine; it's a nice guilty pleasure to read about his vindictive actions against abusive employers. He has simply not bought into the protestant work ethic that one profits when he or she works hard - in most cases, it's only the bosses that do the profitting. The fact that he has this book published as well as a novel just proves that he has managed to rise above his past situations of brain-dead employment and has found an occupation that he enjoys. I hope to read more of Levinson's works in the future.
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