While reading this book, my initial reaction to be honest was that I was bored out of my mind. I didn’t know much about the jobs that were first being explained and I was rather bored hearing about some of them. However, as the book went on, the jobs became more interesting and I became fascinated with what people had to say about their job. His collection of stories had such a powerful effect on portraying the reality of the work force. He chose people that HE found interesting, and these people opened up their lives to the reader, allowing them to join in their work experience. I was surprised at how much personal information these interviews had, with such detail that you don’t normally hear about a job.
I found Studs Terkel has an interesting approach to documentaries. He uses the interviews to portray truth in the work force, and truth through so many different people. Instead of just simply hearing about the basics of a job, he works to find out what many different people like and dislike about it. The jobs are not sugar coated, but rather the truth is portrayed to the reader. I like how he has organized his interviews by certain categories, or chapters and subtitles such as communication, cleaning up etc. He groups his interviews in such a way so that you get to see different people’s viewpoints on similar jobs. Although it is a little outdated, it allows you to see how the life back then was; both the good and the bad times. Studs Terkel says that a job is a "search of a daily meaning, as well as a daily bread" (pg 11), and these interviews allow you to see how back then (and even today in a sense) people weren’t just looking for a paycheck but also meaning in their job and a sense of fulfillment.
This book is exactly what it says... people talking about what they do all day and what they like and don’t like about their jobs. They talk about their daily tasks at the job, what they enjoy and dislike, and issues that arise (sexism, racism etc). It seemed that in some cases many felt they had the worst or hardest job and felt trapped within it. Jim Grayson tells Terkel that on the assembly line “you’re nothing to any of them (the foremen). That’s why [he] hate[s] this place” (pg 167). Louis Hayward, the washroom attendant, says “no, I’m not proud of this work. I can’t do anything heavy. It would be hard to do anything else, so I’m stuck” (pg 108). On the other hand though, many felt they had the best jobs and wanted to show off their abilities. Phil Stallings says “I don’t mind working at body construction. To a great degree, I enjoy it. I love using my hands – more than I do my mind. I love being able to put things together and see something in the long run” (pg 162). This book allows you to see how working means so much to many people and how it is a big part of life. With many of the people interviewed it allowed you to see how meaningful work was to them and how it gave them a sense of purpose. Serving others was all these people needed to be happy. Seeing the end product and the gratitude was all many of these people cared about. I liked how the book was not just straight question and answer type interviews because this allowed the person to dive deeper into what interests them and reveal certain truths about their jobs and see how some were very passionate and emotional about what they do (such as Maggie Holmes, the house cleaner who was so upset that the white family expected her to do things that they never would such as get down on their hands and knees and clean the floor. Maggie states in her interview “now this bugs me: the first thing she gonna do is pull out this damn rubber thing –just fittin’ for your knees. Knee pads-like you’re working’ in the fields, like people pickin’ cotton...I ask her where the mop is. She says she don’t have no mop. I said. ‘Don’t tell me you mop the floor on your knees. I know you don’t’” pg 114). This quote not only shows the emotion Maggie feels for her job, but because Terkel wrote the book in the dialect of the employees, it allows you to feel like they are actually talking. Instead of correcting her speech when typed up, he kept it in its form so you get a better picture of the person he’s speaking to.
This was neat to learn more about different jobs and hear about them from the actual workers point of view. It allows you to see many of the realities of the workplace. With some jobs I felt such sympathy for the workers. Many of the workers went through so much and put up with so much, while at the same time taking care of a family on such a low income. Their employers had no idea what the people were dealing without outside of work, what it was like to be sick and still working, or having lost a loved one and still return to work; but at the same time didn’t care. To them their employees were like robots, just there to get a job done. If they had a problem, they began to phase out humans and replace them with machines because machines would not need time off. Many were older men doing hard labor and talking about how it has caused them long term pain. Some were talking about how their jobs were degrading and depressing. When some of the women were talking, you could see how they were subject to sexism, many talking about how they either did not get paid as much as men even for the same job, or some talking about how the men would hit on them all the time. Take for instance Terry Mason, an airline stewardess. She tells Terkel that “even when they pinch us or say dirty things, we’re supposed to smile at them. That’s one thing they taught us at stew school. Like he’s rubbing your body somewhere, you’re supposed to just put his hand down and not say anything and smile at him” (pg 46).
I noticed to that many of the older employees mentioned that they are such hard workers and will work overtime, long hours, never show up late and never take a day off in years because their job means so much to them. Frances Swenson, the hotel switchboard operator, states “the kids today don’t work like the older women. They take a job as it comes. If they want to work, they work. If they don’t they fool around…the older women are more loyal, they’re more conscientious, they don’t take time off” (pg 34). Hobart Foote, while talking about his job as a utility man, states “I think one reason for our absenteeism over here right now is the second shift. We got this young generation in here.
Terkel adds in his own observations throughout the introductions and interviews, about what he sees and the workers reaction to what is going on around him. He also comments on certain things about the worker, whether it be their appearance, background information about the person and just observations made. This allows you to sort of draw a mental picture and learn a little about the person. It allows you to be in the spot that Terkel is in.
This book gives you a further insight into the lives of so many. It has made me look at people differently. I realized that when I go out for dinner or to a store, I don’t know anything about these people serving me and sometimes I won’t be as nice as I can be. But now I find myself a little different. Just the other day a telecommunications worker called me from Capital One. This company calls me at LEAST once or twice a week and I usually get so fed up. But after reading about the switchboard operator and how they say no one understands how hard that job is and how for once they would just like a hello how is your day going, I couldn’t just say “sorry I’m not interested”. This book was not only interesting but educational and it helped me gain insight into the workforce and have a lot more respect for many people in many different jobs. There is no such thing as useless little jobs. There is no such thing as little people; all people are equal and contribute a service to society in their own way. All these jobs link together like a chain and without them the chain would fall apart.
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