How to Tell When You're Tired: A Brief Examination of Work

Rating:
Summary: A worker-philosopher's reflections
Review: Reg Theriault's book is simply superb--just the right combination of personal anecdote, philosophical reflection, sociological commentary, old-timer's wisdom, and humor. In reading him, one comes to like Theriault. He's the sort of guy you wish you could work with on your own job or at least meet after work at the local pub for a couple of beers.

Theriault's primary job before retirement was working as a longshoreman in San Francisco. But he was also a "fruit tramp" (a migrant picker) and an occasional factory worker. His credentials as a "blue collar worker," then, are impeccable, and he distills thirty-odd years of experience in heavy physical labor into his book. His two primary conclusions are these: (1) salary is important, but freedom is too. Workers caught in an assembly line kind of job where they're nothing more than anonymous cogs in a Taylorite efficiency machine are more likely to rebel than workers dissatisfied with money. (2) the relationship between labor and management always reduces to the following dynamic: "Management is going to get more out of you than it gives in return. This is a fact of life, and one might as well accept it. If management does not get more--for instance, if it gets less--then why in the hell should it stick around? Your goal is to see that management does not get too much more." (pp. 96-97) Both of these conclusions, although they may appear obvious when pointed out, ought to be kept in mind when thinking about working conditions in this country, not to mention the foreign sweatshops that make so many commodities we North Americans buy.

Along the way, Theriault reflects on the disappearing blue collar working class; differences between blue and white collar workers; worries that for too many people, work is "a hole in their lives"; tells the hilarious but also poignant story of Billy's lost finger; and reminds us of the good/bad old days of labor by telling old-timer stories told to him when he was a boy.

All in all, a remarkable book. And the photograph on the cover is as gripping an image as I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: A worker-philosopher's reflections
Review: Reg Theriault's book is simply superb--just the right combination of personal anecdote, philosophical reflection, sociological commentary, old-timer's wisdom, and humor. In reading him, one comes to like Theriault. He's the sort of guy you wish you could work with on your own job or at least meet after work at the local pub for a couple of beers.

Theriault's primary job before retirement was working as a longshoreman in San Francisco. But he was also a "fruit tramp" (a migrant picker) and an occasional factory worker. His credentials as a "blue collar worker," then, are impeccable, and he distills thirty-odd years of experience in heavy physical labor into his book. His two primary conclusions are these: (1) salary is important, but freedom is too. Workers caught in an assembly line kind of job where they're nothing more than anonymous cogs in a Taylorite efficiency machine are more likely to rebel than workers dissatisfied with money. (2) the relationship between labor and management always reduces to the following dynamic: "Management is going to get more out of you than it gives in return. This is a fact of life, and one might as well accept it. If management does not get more--for instance, if it gets less--then why in the hell should it stick around? Your goal is to see that management does not get too much more." (pp. 96-97) Both of these conclusions, although they may appear obvious when pointed out, ought to be kept in mind when thinking about working conditions in this country, not to mention the foreign sweatshops that make so many commodities we North Americans buy.

Along the way, Theriault reflects on the disappearing blue collar working class; differences between blue and white collar workers; worries that for too many people, work is "a hole in their lives"; tells the hilarious but also poignant story of Billy's lost finger; and reminds us of the good/bad old days of labor by telling old-timer stories told to him when he was a boy.

All in all, a remarkable book. And the photograph on the cover is as gripping an image as I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: If you liked this!
Review: This book is a sleeper; an old clunker that sags in the middle, wheezes and farts at the stop-light and then lays two-hundred feet of rubber as it takes off!

If you like this as much as I, try "RIVETHEAD" by Ben Hamper.

Rating:
Summary: If you liked this!
Review: This book is a sleeper; an old clunker that sags in the middle, wheezes and farts at the stop-light and then lays two-hundred feet of rubber as it takes off!

If you like this as much as I, try "RIVETHEAD" by Ben Hamper.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: This book offered an insight into the psychology and complex existence of hard physical labor that should throw fear into the hearts of management. I was so sad when this book was over and I find myself referring to it frequently as a student of labor management relations. Well worth owning! Great anecdotes and harsh realities that most college kids will never face makes it all the more valuable.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: This book offered an insight into the psychology and complex existence of hard physical labor that should throw fear into the hearts of management. I was so sad when this book was over and I find myself referring to it frequently as a student of labor management relations. Well worth owning! Great anecdotes and harsh realities that most college kids will never face makes it all the more valuable.