Over the years, American jobs have become more intellectually challenging and less physically exhausting. Yet more and more American workers-blue collar, white collar, and pink collar-are expressing dissatisfaction with their jobs. They love their careers, but not their working conditions. What turns a model employee into a malcontent?
David Kusnet followed the workers at four companies in the Seattle area in the turning-point year of 2000: Microsoft, Boeing, Kaiser Aluminum, and Northwest Hospital. He tells the stories of skilled and dedicated workers battling not so much for better pay and benefits as for respect and a say in the future of the business. Indiscriminate cost-cutting and the pursuit of short-term profits prevent the best workers from doing their best work, fueling the workplace conflicts of the twenty-first century.
