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

by Emily Guendelsberger

It’s not the injuries and physical pain, Walker says. It’s more the stress, and the despair. “When you’re working in a life role with high demand and very minimal resources, you get very high levels of toxic kinds of stress. The job that you’re in is classic—you have no control over the demand that’s placed on you for productivity for any given hour that you work there. That is a contributing factor to the innate biological desire for relief. And that desire is part of what motivates the substance abuse,” he says. I’m fascinated. “You know, since I started, I’ve—you know everyone’s inner four-year-old that just wants McDonald’s?” “Yup!” “Since I’ve started this job, I have a lot less control over my four-year-old. Like—‘Whatever, screw it, I’m going to McDonald’s.’ Is that related?” “That’s right!” he says, excited. “That is exactly the same thing! Some people will turn to cigarette smoking, others it’s overeating, others it’s over-drinking, for others it’s drug use.” Then he says something I haven’t been able to get out of my head to this day: “The human mind is designed to not feel bad. It does not like to feel bad. And it will tend to do things that it can to correct for feeling bad. And, unfortunately, things like drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and food—particularly carbs—make us feel better. It’s a native tendency to self-medicate into a better mental state, to get rid of this overwhelming negativity.