A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember

By Iain Levison

Book Overview

All Iain Levison really wants is a steady paycheck, cable television, and the possibility of a date on Saturday night. But after blowing $40,000 on an English degree, he can't find the first, can't afford the second, and can't even imagine what woman would consent to the third. So he embarks on a time-honored American tradition: scoring a few dead-end jobs until something better comes along. The problem is, it never does. A Working Stiff's Manifesto is a laugh-out-loud memoir of one man's quest to stay afloat. From the North Carolina piedmont to the Alaskan waters, Levison's odyssey takes him on a cross-country tour of wage labor: gofer, oil deliveryman, mover, fish cutter, restaurant manager, cable thief, each job more mind-numbing than the last. A Working Stiff's Manifesto will resonate with anyone who has ever suffered a demeaning job, worn a name badge, or felt the tyranny of the time clock.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812967941
• ISBN13: 9780812967944
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Both funny and tragic

Iain Levison can find work but not fulfilment. The frustration of dead-end, deadhead labour induces a frustration syndrome as the realization sets in that his college degree in English literature will gain him little by way of psychic wages on the job. He is adrift in a workaday world where one human is as good as the next and all are expendable. Meaningless promises abound, "like when they were telling us [at commencement that] we were the future of the world". In ten years, Iain Levison has lived in six states and worked at forty-two jobs; from fish cutter in Alaska to furniture mover in North Carolina, film-set gopher, oil deliveryman, truck driver, and crab fisherman. He quit thirty of them, got fired from nine, and has difficulty remembering the other three. Whatever could go wrong often did, hilariously It is a funny book about the not-so-funny American workplace. The real thing, written not by a high-priced journalist disguised as a counter clerk, or a tenured professor passing as a vagrant, but by a genuine wage-dependent, red-blooded working stiff too "rich" for welfare and too broke to fit a consumer demographic. He works to keep his car running to get back and forth from work. He works to get by and get back for the next day's labours.

Too true and too funny

This book is very well written and extremely funny. I have worked in several blue collar jobs and can testify that this book has the ring of truth to it. I absolutely love the part about working in the stainless steel room on the fishing ship with the "Panic Button". John L. White, author "I'm in Debt, Over 40, With No Retirement Savings, HELP!"

He hits the nail on the head

I too wondered (as another reviewer did) why Mr. Levison, during the years he was doing these make-do jobs, didn't continue to pursue work using the writing skills he obviously has. Maybe he did, and just worked "in the meantime". I also don't recall details of his financial obligations--family, housing, education loans, etc.--which is to say, his bottom-line needs. Granted--working full time does not leave a whole lot of hours free for job hunting, and the economy and employment situations in the US has been a roller coaster ride for many years. But there is truth within his observations, and he writes it like it is. He offers a perspective on what is the working reality for many decent, hard-working people. Work at this level has become a game (on both sides). I think it helps to consciously be aware of that. He presents these sad realities with great humor and irony! An easy, quick, entertaining and informative little book.

Great read! .

This has been the first book I've read cover to cover in one sitting in over a year. Like the author, I've had a hard time finding a job which paid a livable wage and didn't make me feel humiliated or exhausted at the end of every day, and, like the author, I've been to water-filter meetings.The part where he describes the water filter meeting, a multi-level marketing scam which has trapped so many people looking for a way out, was the best written and funniest part of the book. Levison has a way of describing situations with humor, but still reminds the reader how frustrating it is to have to deal with these situations day in and day out. When I was done, I had not only laughed myself sore, I had been made to feel like I wasn't the only person who was having trouble getting any respect out of an economy which seemed to promise so much and deliver so little.

Laugh-out-loud funny look at American workplace

Don't let the title fool you...this book is laugh-out-loud funny, a true glimpse into how draining it is, both financially and emotionally, to hold a low-wage job in today's economy. Levison takes on a journey through the bottom rungs of America's workforce, describing, with both humor and accuracy, the misery inherent in jobs which do not provide the workers with a living wage. His descriptions of corporate manipulation at something as innocuous as an upscale Scarsdale grocery store, or a corporate restaurant, ring true on every level, as he describes the relentlessness with which the mangement insists on pleasantness. It reminded me of the "flair" scene from the movie "Office Space." The descriptions of the Alaskan fishing industry are both interesting and frequently hilarious. Nothing misses this writer's sharp, ironic eye.This book is a must read for everyone who ever feels they are being manipulated or treated like a number at their jobs. Great Stuff!