Emily Guendelsberger, “On the Clock,” and the Condition of Modern-day Work

Emily Guendelsberger, author of the book “On the Clock: What Work Did to Me, and How it Drives America Insane,” was a journalist who, upon her newspaper closing, decided to work at a variety of jobs. Her choices included an Amazon fulfillment center, to a call center, to a McDonald’s. As our conversation shows, the book explores what it means to work today, where deskilling, automation, technological controls, routinization, and stress all come together to create an employee experience that can not only be demoralizing, but physically debilitating. At a time where there is a larger conversation about how to create better employee experiences through meaningful work, what about those lower wage jobs for those that may not have many choices? How can we make the modern workplace more humane? Or is the situation just going to get worse in a race to the bottom?