The Way We Work: Contemporary Writings from the American Workplace

Table of Contents:
CHICKEN 81 by Sarah L. Courteau; Nonfiction - Occupation: Industrial Poultry Farm Worker; ORIENTATION by Daniel Orozco; Fiction - Occupation: Office Worker; THAT JOY THAT PACKS THE BODY by Andrew Miller; Poetry - Occupation: Tuna Canner; HATCHET MAN by Leo Parascondola; Nonfiction - Occupation: Bus Driver; COINS by Mona Simpson; Fiction - Occupation: Nanny; MORRISON'S, 1968 by Rick Campbell; Poetry - Occupation: Restaurant Worker; THE MIDNIGHT TOUR by Marcus Laffey; Nonfiction - Occupation: Police Officer; DIRTY TALK by Amanda Scheiderer; Nonfiction - Occupation: Stripper; WOMANHOOD by Catherine Anderson; Poetry - Occupation: Textile Worker; CONCRETE MEN by Dan Pope; Fiction - Occupation: Construction Laborer; WE WHO HAVE ESCAPED by Leigh Hancock; Poetry - Occupation: Various - Secretary, Carpet Layer, Food Service Worker, Factory Worker, Custodial Staff; TORCH SONG by Charles Bowden; Nonfiction - Occupation: Reporter; WHEN I WAS ELEVEN by Ed McManis; Poetry - Occupation: Unknown; MCDONALD'S, WE DO IT ALL FOR YOU by Barbara Garson; Nonfiction - Occupation: Food Service Worker; THE RIVER BOTTOM RANCH by Marcial Gonzalez; Fiction - Occupation: Farm Laborer/Fruit Picker; ONE WOMAN WATCHING by Linda Kantner; Nonfiction - Occupation: Social Worker; JOBBED by Philip Levine; Nonfiction - Occupation: Assistant Handy Man and Delivery Boy; THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR BOSS by Elizabeth Kerlikowske; Poetry - Occupation: Generalized Boss; THE TROUBLE WITH GUIDEBOOKS by J. C. Ross; Fiction - Occupation: Assistant Bookstore Manager; DEBT by Will Watson; Poetry - Occupation: Steel Factory Worker; THE SUICIDAL FREEZER UNIT by Tom Wolfe; Fiction - Occupation: Picker/Box Loader; PHOTOGRAPH: MIGRANT WORKER, PARLIER CALIFORNIA, 1967 by Larry Levis; Poetry - Occupation: Migrant Fruit Picker; AFTER COWBOY CHICKEN CAME TO TOWN by Ha Jin; Fiction - Occupation: Food Service Worker; JOB by Erika Meitner; Poetry - Occupation: Office Worker; LIVELIHOOD by Lou Fisher; Fiction - Occupation: Unemployed Office Worker; THE FIREMAN by Rick Bass; Fiction - Occupation: Volunteer Fireman; WHITE BOOTS by William Pitt Root; Poetry - Occupation: Coal Miner; THE DOG by Nathan Long; Fiction - Occupation: Migrant Fruit Picker; AFTER GARBAGE MEN by Jay Snodgrass; Poetry - Occupation: Truck Cleaner; THE WOMEN WHO CLEAN FISH by Erica Funkhouser; Poetry - Occupation: Fish Cleaner; APPOINTED ROUTE by Ben Satterfield; Fiction - Occupation: Mailman; THE BASEMENT by Paula Champa; Fiction - Occupation: Temporary Office Worker; LABOR No. 1 by Clay Blancett; Poetry - Occupation: Carpenter; SENIORS' LAST HOUR (ALCOA ALUMINUM, NORTH PLANT, ALCOA, TN) by Richard Joines; Poetry - Occupation: Factory Worker; AT WORK by Mary Malinda Polk; Nonfiction - Occupation: Legal Secretary; IF LANGUAGE WAS A HOUSE OF BEING by Darren Morris; Poetry - Occupation: Technical Editor and Writer; HE'S AT THE OFFICE by Allan Gurganus; Fiction - Occupation: Office Worker; BY APPOINTMENT by Lisa Buchanan; Fiction - Occupation: Sex Worker; ""SPINNER, COTTON MILL, 1908-1909"" by Jom Ake; Poetry - Occupation: Textile Worker; JANE by Ambur Economou; Nonfiction - Occupation: Internist/Doctor; QUITTING THE PAINT FACTORY by Mark Slouka; Essay - Occupation: Various; W... by Shirlee Hoffman; Poetry - Occupation: All.

About the Author :
Peter Scheckner, Professor of Literature at Ramapo College, is the author of Class, Politics, and the Individual: A Study of the Major Works of D.H. Lawrence and editor of a collection of English Chartist poetry. M. C. Boyes teaches at the University of Richmond.

Review :
The Way We Work surprised and delighted me at every turn, because of the sheer strangeness it unpacks from the dailiness and (often) stupidity of work, and even more because of the the writing's freshness. People who teach about work will want to put this book on the syllabus, right alongside Studs Terkel. --Richard Ohmann I'd like to express the sense of excitement that The Way We Work generates in me as a teacher at a working-class university, where students and instructors alike would greatly benefit from the use of this book in introductory writing courses. The Way We Work goes far beyond the limits of the multicultural readers that stress human commonalties in a more sentimental, celebratory, and merely experiential way. The emphasis on work takes us to a core conception of what it means to be human and reminds us of the pressures exerted on our humanity by our present-day social and economic arrangements. --Barbara Foley, Rutgers-Newark It's a book that readers will love to pick up again and again, particularly if they have to smuggle the book onto the factory line, behind the counter, or into their cubicle to read it. --ForeWord Magazine