Maira Kalman on her daily routine
“Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind.”
Susan Cain on “the New Groupthink”
Susan Cain is skeptical about too much togetherness.
“Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory”
The lives of the people who make our “stuff.”
Review: The Wage Slave’s Glossary
“A grand and saddening tour of language past and present.”
The Los Angeles Times on Mitt Romney and job creation
Firing workers, maximizing profits.
SIUC on strike
A faculty strike and an intransigent administration.
“Inside Amazon’s warehouse”
“Only one of the employees interviewed described it as a good place to work.”
The self-help guru we deserve?
Rebecca Mead profiles Timothy Ferriss.
Stalwart workers
“Intelligent, protective of their time away from work, and not especially interested in power, money, or becoming the boss.”
Tyne Daly, miner
A metaphor for different kinds of work.
Alice Notley on “non-careerist”
On where one belongs
Peter F. Drucker: “But most people, especially highly gifted people, do not really know where they belong until they are well past their mid-twenties. By that time, however, they should know the answers to the three questions: What are my strengths? How do I perform? and, What are my values?”
Boycott a Meeting Day
“Every minute you avoid spending in a meeting is a minute you can get real work done instead.” An idea from 37signals.
At work in the Intermezzo
A place to work, away from home
Harvey Wang's New York
Great book on people in disappearing lines of work
Going on break
It was always "go on," never "take a." Remembering life in discount department stores.
Steinbeck on migrant camps
For my students reading The Grapes of Wrath -- an excerpt from John Steinbeck's 1936 account of migrant camps in California: Here is a hous...