On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane

by Emily Guendelsberger

The technology available today allows for the kinds of individual, minute levels of supervision and control Taylor could only dream of. The digital ghosts of his stopwatches and “one best way” have infiltrated previously hard-to-quantify sectors of the US workforce, digitally deskilling and speeding up work. Techno-Taylorism has gotten the most attention as it starts making inroads into high-wage jobs such as law, medicine, and journalism, but it’s already a way of life in the low-wage sector—fast food, call centers, nursing, elder care, etc. It’s very difficult for modern unskilled workers to avoid working in a techno-Taylorized environment defined by mistrust and contempt. This is because technology also multiplies Taylorism’s second prong—deskilling. “If you don’t know what to do, just check your scanner—it’ll tell you” is Michelle’s golden rule, and it’s true. Nearly every drop of “brain work” has been wrung out of this job, like so many others. Cashiers used to have to be able to do math in their heads to give people change; today, many registers automatically dispense the appropriate coins. Call-center workers rely on elaborate scripts instead of understanding the systems they work within. London’s taxi drivers, who once had to study for years to pass the Knowledge, are being displaced by Uber drivers with GPS maps. As more and more skill is stripped out of a job, the cost of turnover falls; eventually, training an ever-churning influx of new unskilled workers become...