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

by Emily Guendelsberger

This book is an examination of the day-to-day experience of low-wage work in America in the mid-2010s. There was a lot of totally standard journalism and research involved, but because what interests me most is the experience, I worked three jobs undercover to be able to accurately describe that experience. I mean, kind of undercover. I didn’t volunteer that I was writing a book, but I also didn’t lie or misrepresent myself. Here’s how that worked, if you’re interested. About the timeline: The newspaper I worked at closed in October of 2015. I spent part of November and all of December that year in Southern Indiana, across the river from Louisville, Kentucky, working at Amazon. I spent most of the summer of 2016 in western North Carolina working at Convergys. I spent September and October of 2017 in San Francisco working at McDonald’s.