Bait and Switch: Corporate Life from the Outside by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reviewed by Mark Owen for WashTech Neswletter
In her book
Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich reported on the lifestyle of the working poor by temporarily joining their ranks. In her new book, Bait and Switch, she turns her focus to white collar workers in an age of downsizing. Her plan was to search for a public relations job and then work at it for a few months. The second part of that plan never happened, however, leaving her to experience the frustrations of the job searcher and the services marketed to them. While the world she entered may be new to her, her revelations may not be that surprising for those already there.
Ms. Ehrenreich begins the book by laying out her assumptions on how her search will proceed. In her career as a journalist and author she had often been an opponent of corporations, but she had never experienced them from the inside. This outsider tone is always honest, but may not resonate with those readers used to a corporate environment.
Her search begins with her hiring two career coaches, who both give her personality tests. The simplemindedness of these tests troubles her, and she cites work that questions their validity. That corporations could use such tests to justify hiring decisions is her first indication that they aren't as rational as they've appeared to her. This theme is developed as her search progresses, and she picks up the message from coaches and fellow seekers that conformity and a winning attitude are more valuable than skills. She gets a make-over, buys a new wardrobe and tries to curb her assertiveness and appear to be a team player. The counselors she encounters get people to see themselves as their own worst enemy, a viewpoint that removes all responsibility from those who hire and fire.
Though much time and money is expended on these activities, the question of their efficacy arises. Most networking events that are attended by other unemployed folks don't actually include any time for networking. Job fairs are generally for entry-level positions. Many corporations don't even acknowledge resumes submitted online. Those they receive are processed using software that looks for certain keywords (which applicants can only guess at). Indeed, she wonders if the academic work included in her resume has been counted against her by the screening software.
After almost no interest from employers (her only offer is a commission-only insurance sales job), she wonders if she shouldn't have aimed a bit lower on the salary scale. But by then her allotted time for this writing project is almost over. After giving up on the search, the author contacts job seekers she met, some of who had taken so-called "survival" jobs at lower wages. This underemployment is not tracked by government statistics and thus helps mask the economic effects of downsizing.
The author notes how all the things job seekers participate in lead them to focus on themselves and not the wider political and economic environment. She briefly mentions how some occupations have protected their ranks through professionalization or unionization, but does not recommend these strategies to other workers. Instead, she finds the loss of dignity that corporate workers undergo to be a bigger problem than the lack of job security. She concludes by suggesting that the unemployed should use some of their free time and organizing skills to fight for universal health care, extension of unemployment benefits and against changes to bankruptcy laws. While this call for mass action is understated, nearly every page of the book spells out its necessity.
Barbara Ehrenreich is a columnist and author of over a dozen books. Her Web site is www.barbaraehrenreich.com
Mark Owen works for an e-commerce company, where he was recently administered a personality test. He can be reached at markaowen
gmail.com.
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