Love the Work, Hate the Job: Why America's Best Workers Are More Unhappy Than Ever

by David Kusnet

Book Overview

Praise for Love the Work, Hate the Job "With energy, fine reporting, and a sure grasp of the realities of people's working lives, David Kusnet has written one of the most important studies of how people do their jobs since Daniel Bell's Work and Its Discontents. Kusnet makes a case everyone needs to hear: America's workers, including high-tech professionals, want to do their jobs right and they want to do them well, and what they need is more freedom in the workplace to achieve those ends. May Kusnet's book make us realize that liberation and productivity go hand in hand." --E.J. Dionne Jr., author of Souled Out and Why Americans Hate Politics "David Kusnet's Love the Work, Hate the Job offers keen analysis and political insights into the plight of American workers struggling to have government pay attention to their needs. This is a must-read for anyone who finds the daily grind, well, grinding." --Donna Brazile, campaign manager, Al Gore for President, 2000 "Ever wonder why Boeing engineers have to strike and Microsoft whiz kids can't get health insurance? Even if you haven't, you'll love this--and it's no job to read it! Don't wait for them to make this a TV series. With lots of great stories, David Kusnet explains why there's trouble in paradise." --Thomas Geoghegan, author of Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back "With eloquence, wisdom, and a sure grasp of recent history, David Kusnet has single-handedly revived the once-proud craft of labor journalism. Anyone who wants to understand the discontent in high-tech workplaces today must read this book." --Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan and The Populist Persuasion: An American History

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471742058
• ISBN13: 9780471742050
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

What a great book!

This is a "must-read" for workers and employers, told by a master storyteller. The author offers insights into work life in modern America through interesting stories of people and the companies for which they work. You will see behind-the-scenes what's really going on in Microsoft, Boeing, and other top corporations. So gracefully written, this book is a joy to read. Give yourself and treat and get it today.

The Tough Reality of the Job Marketplace Today

"Love the Work, Hate the Job" is a book that basically discusses how the relationship between employers and employees has dramatically changed over the years. It all began in the early days with a master-slave approach, then turned into making the work environment as pleasant as possible with the implementation of "human management", and finally due to global competition and other related evil, stepped backwards by companies starting to treat employees as disposable resources, or "costs to be cut instead of assets to be invested in", as the book mentions. It is claimed that companies are today more focused on costs reductions instead of making quality products, putting their trust built over years into serious risk. Innovative and creative projects that is often brought by the most competent professionals inside the companies are often blocked by "bean counters" who have no vision of the technology evolution and think that expensive investments are just useless for the short run, completely ignoring the benefits for the long run. If one informed reader thinks about what is said in this book, he/she will certainly have to agree with it. Just look around and see that even though we live in a high-tech environment with possibilities that no one has ever predicted before, it is often easy to buy brand new - but defective - products supported by an awful customer service. One might even say - and not without reason - that there's nothing like the old products. They might not be as fancy as today's ones, but used to work like a Swiss watch. Terrible and disastrous modern management practices based on maximizing profitability at all costs (including disrespectful treatment to the scientific and professional workers rights and benefits as employees) caused even the elitist white collar professionals to unionize in certain industries, like high-tech. The middle of this book puts a great emphasis on the everlasting tense relationship between WashTech and Microsoft. Revelations under this theme that can be found on the book is just astonishingly unbelievable, and sadly represents the reality of a great deal of workers today. Incompetent managers and corporate greed is making skilled professionals to have a great sense of dissatisfaction in their functions, and the feeling of being exploited and ripped off is constant. They love their work, their knowledge, the challenges, the solutions they can provide, but stays trapped into a world that dictates them what to do with no right to argue. When pathetic corporate policies fail, it's just easy to blame it on globalization. What could be an opportunity for growth and innovation, is used as an excuse for their bad moves and desperately unreasonable tactics. Some youngsters feel unmotivated to pursue tech jobs because they know their function could easily be outsourced somewhere else. Technology, as most people are aware of, is one of the key drivers to the prosperity of a country, and all of this know-how is j