No-collar: The Hidden Cost Of The Humane Workplace - Hardcover

Ross, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465071449 ISBN 13: 9780465071449

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

Synopsis

No-Collar is the first book to place the much-feted New Economy workplace in the context of industrial history and the struggle to win a humane work environment. From Horatio Alger to the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Americans have extolled the virtues of hard work as a source of meaning and identity as well as livelihood. Drawing on his yearlong study of two Silicon Alley companies, as well as on interviews with a range of employees in other Internet industries, Andrew Ross offers a dramatic report on how the self-directed "no-collar" life stacks up against earlier work utopias.Though urban knowledge workers enjoyed unprecedented autonomy and bargaining power, and their bohemian artisan style evoked a pre-industrial craft ethos, the volatile economy exposed even the rank-and-file to 24/7 schedules, emotional churning, and the kinds of pressure typically borne only by senior managers. With his characteristic mix of laser-sharp analysis and deft storytelling, Ross asks: How humane can, or should, a workplace be? In documenting the quixotic life of these neo-bohemian workplaces, No-Collar records a unique moment in American history and reveals what the landscape of work will look like for decades to come.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Ross is Director of American Studies at New York University. He is the author of six books, including The Celebration Chronicles, No Sweat: Fashion Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers, and No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

The new economy's "no collar movement," in which companies embraced openness, cooperation and self-management among employees, captured the interest of Ross, director of New York University's American studies program. Fed up with reports of increasingly dehumanized workplaces in the wake of Jack Welch-style takeovers and downsizing, he investigated whether the new economy's trend to honor and utilize, rather than suppress, employees' human qualities had the potential to transfer to other industries. Studying two Manhattan-based new media companies, Ross found a refreshing excitement among workers at Razorfish, a design shop-cum-media consulting firm, and 360hiphop.com, a multi-ethnic media site. As Ross conducted in-depth interviews and closely observed operations at these companies, he discovered the young enthusiasts loved their work so much they found themselves working 70-hour workweeks and had almost no outside lives. Ross was also around to witness the wreckage caused when the Internet bubble burst and the companies had to switch their emphasis from the artisan/worker ideal to one focusing on the bottom line (with newly arriving hordes of MBAs calling the shots). The neo-sweatshop conditions may have been justified as being freely chosen before the bubble burst, but Ross's insights into the upheavals and heartbreak that followed the inevitable layoffs have much to say about the real-world limits to building more humane workplaces today. His chilling assessment of the price new economy workers paid for na‹ve faith in their bosses' promises can also be viewed more broadly as a direct message to all citizens of Free Agent Nation.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465071449
• ISBN 13: 9780465071449
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304