When Emily Guendelsberger lost her job at a local newspaper when it shuttered, she took a pre-Christmas job at an Amazon fulfillment center outside of Louisville, Kentucky. And thus begins her exploration of how working there, as well as subsequent jobs at a call center in North Carolina and a McDonald's in San Francisco, shows how many Americans are exposed to work conditions that put the emphasis on efficiency, at the expense of humanity. For example, at the Amazon fulfillment center, the staff vending machines are stocked with painkillers (because you can't ever stop --- you're on the clock, even if your feet and back are killing you). At the call center, she was trained to assist customers, but endured abuse from people screaming at her on the phone. At McDonald's, even though the pace was relentless, it wasn't quite as bad -- until customers started throwing food at her.
This is definitely an eye-opening and interesting book, especially when read in tandem with Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. The fastest-growing segment of the American workforce is working jobs like the author took on, and I think it's important to understand what the real human cost is of the conveniences most of us have gotten used to.
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