Is This Working? by Charlie Colenutt review – labours of love in unexpected places
The author’s study of UK workers and their feelings about their jobs uncovers mushrooming red tape and an enduring sense of fatigue, but also a sense of prideA little over 50 years ago, the American broadcaster Studs Terkel published an oral history based on interviews with 133 workers across the US. This was a time of automation and global competition, a new era of enormous change, and Terkel wanted to discover how the world of work might offer ordinary people a sense of purpose; of what he described as “daily meaning as well as daily bread”.What he discovered is that there were people doing “good” jobs, sometimes performed with grace and beauty – the piano tuner, for example, the stone mason, the firefighter – but that most workers were trying merely to survive the day. As one of his interviewees told him: “Most of us… have jobs that are too small for our spirit.” Continue reading...
The author’s study of UK workers and their feelings about their jobs uncovers mushrooming red tape and an enduring sense of fatigue, but also a sense of pride
A little over 50 years ago, the American broadcaster Studs Terkel published an oral history based on interviews with 133 workers across the US. This was a time of automation and global competition, a new era of enormous change, and Terkel wanted to discover how the world of work might offer ordinary people a sense of purpose; of what he described as “daily meaning as well as daily bread”.
What he discovered is that there were people doing “good” jobs, sometimes performed with grace and beauty – the piano tuner, for example, the stone mason, the firefighter – but that most workers were trying merely to survive the day. As one of his interviewees told him: “Most of us… have jobs that are too small for our spirit.” Continue reading...
