No-Collar

by Ross, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780465071449
• ISBN10: 0465071449
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.