Bait and Switch – Barbara Ehrenreich
After her blockbuster Nickel and Dimed: : On (Not) Getting By in America , Ehrenreich turns her lens on the jobs of middle-class Americans. In Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream , she uses the same formula: she will go undercover, find a job, and then write about her experiences. So she legally changes her name, crafts a resume highlighting her PR experience, lines up references … and hits the job market.
And she doesn’t find anything. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Unless, of course, one considers the few sales jobs that are offered to her … on commission. What follows is a whole-hearted blasting of the American corporate system that doesn’t value its employees. Don’t get me wrong — I completely agree with a lot of her points — but ultimately, I felt that she remained on the fringes of corporate America rather than in its midst. And as a result, her analysis smacked of sour grapes.