Please give her a round of applause. [applause] would also like to welcome jessica tonight who will be joining emily appear on the stage or in the chairs. Powerhouse at an independent bookstore so events like this help us stay here and lets say changing neighborhood like dumbo. I encourage everyone to buy a book if you dont have one, im sure emily will be happy to sign them later. Tonight were going to hear a little reading from a book conversation and some q a and then i guess the job rating. Im pretty excited for it. The main reason bios. So emily [laughter] worked at philadelphia paper, Philadelphia Weekly and the daily news and has contributed to the Philadelphia Inquirer in the Washington Post, political magazine. Jessica at the author of nomad land in awardwinning journalist who at work focuses on subcultures in the dark corners of the economy. She has written for harpers magazine, New York Times and the Washington Post and she also teaches at Columbia School for journalism. Give them a round of applause. [applause] i move there are a couple of people that they were here because they heard dan. Ive known dan for ten years and he said that my name wrong on the podcast. Do not feel bad about that. Im going to start its a reading a brief rating and thank you guys for putting up its the broken ac, it at nobodys fault but i appreciate your being here sweating its us. Emily this one at from amazon. Actually how many people have read this book are noted at about . Most people, good. Just making sure. When my alarm goes off for my second full day, it at the worst my body at felt in my entire live. I am not unfamiliar its pain. As a kid, i went through years of complicated corrective surgeries in the legs followed by snazzy physical therapy. A broken bones, migraines, playing rugby in college, i was once matched up against a woman named one of the tank. This at worse. It feels like ive been hit its a garbage truck. Everything hurts. My feet are the worst of my back shoulders arms and neck feel terrible is it too. My hips and knees thighs ache from all of the squats from floor level chores. My right wrist hand and fingers ache from operating the scattergun. My right obey eggs from pulling open hundreds of drawers. I even have a throbbing headache. Ive grown involuntary as i force myself to swing my legs over the side of the bed. The carpet feels like it at made out of knives. I force myself to go to the shower. Even before i make coffee, i swallow a double dose of an bill and toss a ball in my purse for later. I will need it. The place where i worked, not even bothering to track my last dose was. I dont talk to anyone about break or lunch. I am is it too tired. I had pounds and i feel generally cold. By the end of my shift, i am almost staggering from the stabbing pain in my feet. I try to lean on the cart as a push it. As it is the walker. Next morning, i wake up feeling any been even worse. The day again goes by in a blur of pain and exhaustion. I do remember checking my step counter briefly. I snuck it in its morbid curiosity. Again, it only recorded about 7 miles. This time i am positive that the step counter at wrong. Maybe its not swinging back and forth because my hands are pushing the cart. Never who cares. I fell asleep in the close again. The next morning, i somehow wake up feeling even worse. I make it through lunch but an hour later, the stabbing pain in my feet has spread up to my legs and hips. Every time the scanner has me squat down to get something from a lower drawer. It is the little bit harder to force myself back up to standing. And finally i do a full squat to retrieve an item from the monitor in my body muni, stand upright order my legs for the hundredth time today. It hung up on my brain. Stand up you idiot, my brain screams. And i slowly topple backwards into a sitting position. Its not happening. I might as well rub my feet while nm here. I start to take off my shoes and i am slightly horrified to find my feet are slow slow on that they are straining my shoelaces. Untying them feel so good. The scanner has started notifying me that i have zero seconds to take my next item. Breathing above my head to drop the horrible thing out of my sight. I try to rub some live back into my horrible feet. How many minutes of this can get away its this before some time off test algorithm colors to measure. If i keep it under 15 minutes to go to the bathroom break, i might be able to get away from it or it i desperately want to believe this but in retrospect the gps would give me away. I reach for the little bottle of advil in my sweatshirt pocket and find out i am somehow down to my last two. How did that happen. I consider taking one out and saving the other for later but if i cared about future emily, i wouldnt be giving her future stomach ulcers from this massive overdose of ibuprofen. And i saw both of them. A few minutes later my brain takes over my legs. I release my shoes as tightly as i can i hold myself to my knees and my feet and proceed in a zombielike camel for the next stop on the place. Of course the last two ibuprofen were off. The stabbing pain start up again and my feet. Eventually have to get something from a bottom shelf and again find that i cant get back up. This time i almost got off my back up against the carport shelf. Get up you idiot, yellow myself alarmed. Dont like brian. The thought of getting fired and not getting up at awful. The thought of getting fired and start this project all over again next year at awful. The thought of going three more hours that went out something for the pain at awful. I sit in the floor weighing my awful options and to my shock, i actually start to cry. Note, bring on the job is the common theme for amazon workers regardless of gender. Again i so wish that i had room for all of the stories that i read and heard but since space at limited, heres just one limit heres just one example. I work for a Catering Company attracted by amazon to give meals to every amazon employee on every shift. It was a 24 hour gig. Each shift at three or four groups. At least two or three people from each group that would cry to marine their entire lunch break. Amazon acted as if this was nothing out of the norm totally unfazed. Jesus what are you doing. I desperately tried to pull it together but the further shame of crying in public only makes things worse. Nobody walks by the, thats one upside of the isolation, no one will catch you crying on the floor. Its pretty clear that whatever algorithm that passes around the warehouse at really only engineered and mentally complicated inset people to keep people from speaking distance. Its a very lonely place. I kept seeing glimpses of people off in the distance but i really get close enough to another human being long enough to say hello much less chat. Keeping us isolated makes logistical sense because the alleys between the shelves are so narrow but its also eliminate the opportunity for inefficient workplace chatter which i am convinced is the goal rather than a side effect. Want to set over to learn packing one day the workstations are also set up category for each other and makes it impossible to talk. I am undeniably much more productive than a minute other jobs where i was able to talk to people. Not just as a journalist either. None of my service jobs a decade ago was any where near this isolating. The agony and my feet have kept my mind occupied so far but i can already tell that the boredom and loneliness are going to be something, you move, whats the word, problem or did its going to be a big problem. Wait, what was i thinking about again. I jerked away. I begin to panic. Im not a bad girl. What am i going to do. Then i remember the painkiller vending machine. Supposedly these are free its a slice of your id badge which at good because were not allowed to bring our wallets inside. Ive seen other vendor machines around the mod i cant find one closer than five minutes from where setting. It up get up get up, i say to myself you cant lose this job. I drag myself to my feet. I lean towards where i hope there is a scare staircase to the grantor. Look but when i finally arrived to the been anguishing it doesnt recognize my badge. I plunk my forehead against the glass staring at the little rows of file packets. So close, so far. The woman notices me in pathetic and comes over. Then again, let me guess she said its your first week. She at white and middleaged and its a blue badge and the error of management. I dont know at my third day of training. Well the second date at worse than the first and third at worse than the second. But i promise at as bad as it gets. If you can make it through the first two weeks, it gets easier, it really does. She looks genuinely some of that date. She takes my id and try swiping it herself its the same results. She tries a few more times at various speeds and i ask about the vending machine which are apparently new. They put the men last year after peak. There been problems its lines of ibuprofen seeking zombies. Because nearly all of the people just wanted over the counter pain killers. So they installed these vending machines last year. No more traffic jams and workers get free drugs a short walk away. When wind right. The woman gives up and has me back my badge rolling her eyes. You can see karen about your badge after work will fix it for you. Meanwhile, she spiked sweitzer own badge for me. I select ibuprofen and i think the woman from the depths of my soul. She smiles and pats the badge on her chest. Everyone its a blue badge was just right where you are now. As a tote bag my head, i dry swallow the pills. It really does get better, you just have to get used to it. Be careful about over using those though she warns. As i start limping back towards the stairs to the third floor. If this were a completely accurate representation of my month that this fulfillment where i worked in, the next 40 pages would be entirely in place about constant pain, waking up at 4 00 a. M. And walking between 13 and 60 miles a day, being is it too tired to work talk to anyone. And heeding a lot of mcdonalds and never seeing the sun and passing out the minute i get home from work. Im so exhausted that my husband leaves an entire week of concerned voicemails before i can call him back. The only time we can talk at after i get off work and though i feel bad about it, i like the energy to hide the fact that calling him feels just like another task i have to complete before can sleep. That is pretty nice of them i guess. I dont want to tell them about the painkiller vending machines. My husband is the very logical thinker. I appreciated the heck out of those advil. We dont fight a lot especially about dumb stuff like this. Were usually good about talking about these things before get to fighting territory but today im so tired that im is it too exhausted to drill down and locate the misunderstanding and explain something so he can understand what im thinking. Instead i just resent that he wont take my word and it at just messed up. If i have the energy, i just get stolen. Later on a day off, after ive had a rest, i apologize and pose the situation to him as a multiplechoice question. Question. Warehouse workers work 11 to half hour shifts, in order to make rate, the significant number of them need to take overthecounter painkillers multiple times per shift. This means regular backups at the medical office. Do you a. Collect rights, clearly workers or other physical limits. Be makeshift shutter. And see increase the number or duration of race. D. Increase staffing at the Nurses Office or ee install vending machines and dispense painkillers more efficiently. Seriously, what kind of sociopath goes its e. Thats how amazon his. Its all about thinking outside the box. After just one week at this place, its so obvious how entire ambulances wait around outside for the workers its heatstroke and go to the hospital faster seems like a very Innovative Solution for somebody. [applause] one thing that i wanted to start its i guess at the initial title of this book was on the clock or in the weeds rather and we ended up changing it to on the clock. It was a very good idea because the whole. Of the in the weeds was that there are two definitions of it and they are and theres not that much overlap between the definitions, so thus what at your primary definition of in the weeds. Im happy im getting attribute. So i went undercover at this place, for no mans land. We is it too have advil, while it was all generic but saving money, i got so much of it because you have to scanner badges that i still have little foil packets. I dont think of running its me tonight but if you need, i am set of emily i cant believe i didnt still one of those. I really wish i wouldve thought to take some of those home. What are orders that went out borders. I collected a lot of stuff. We were talking earlier in the weeds i move the intro of the book at in the weeds, it was the working title of the book. And i love the way you use it but when i think of in the weeds, and my own experience, its either the time i got squeezed as a child because he spent is it too much time in the weights. I literally got fleas. Or its when i am being a digressive writer and my editor kind of has to pull me out of the weeds to be back on track. Now i move other meanings of in the weeds for reading iraq. So hopefully. How many have that definition where you are stuck in the details. The primary definition. So the definition that i learned first which at i think the one that is sort of that is my primary definition i learned being an ice cream scooper and friendly when i was a kid. So the waitresses there would be like get out of my way, im in the weeds. In the weeds when it comes to service work, specially the Restaurant Industry means you are slammed. You have is it too much work to do that you cannot keep up its it and you are just trying to keep your head above water. How many people have that definition. A lot of people i found that when definition are actually not super aware of the other definitions which surprised me a lot. Its what i sorta make the transition from service work into journalism by sort of when someone would ask if they wanted to go for a smoke and i had is it too much to do, i would say i was in the weeds. It just didnt work, people were confused. So i eventually wanted to fit in so i switched it to oh, i was slammed and i have is it too much to do. I found it very interesting the way this phrase means two Different Things to different basically classes of people. I have found that it at sort of the metaphor for the book in that there are similar misunderstandings between class of what a good job at and what god if it and what stresses and what exhaustion at. There is a sort of fundamental disconnect when people who are able to get in the public fear, or mostly on the richer and more whitecollar end of things. They talk about work stress means to them and what a good job at and what a bad job at and what hard work at. Theyre basically speaking an entirely different language. Service workers and blue white collar workers are so different and i dont think they realize it. I wrote this book as an intent to bridge that gap to both let the people who do have power in this country who probably a lot of them have not ever held a service job. To let them move the service work today as much harder than he used to be and at almost kind of like chronically stressful which we will get into a little bit. I also wrote it for people in service jobs but one of the things i didnt realize at that they a lot of those people have never had a job where their break wasnt like 30 minutes timed by the second and where they are expected to be productive for every single second there on the clock. There sort of treated like robots. It at so much more stressful than any whitecollar job ive ever had in my live. I dont think people realize that. So that is what i am attempting to do its this book. You went undercover in three different places. You took three different jobs and wrote about it. You are to amazon, a call cent center, convergence and you are at mcdonalds. In san francisco. So you do the trifecta. When we were talking just before coming here, we were talking about how sometimes even on the job we both encounter people often from an older generation maybe baby boomers are a bit older and you are younger than me i am 40 one people but some are a few steps ahead of us both. Sometimes you even watch these people and in my case, i was writing primarily about retirement age people a lot of them saw everything evaporate in 2008, and their weathering the retirement crises and the collision of that was lowwage jobs. There on this treadmill where it look like they could never retire. At the same time, when i would go to interview them, they would say have you been talking to the whiners. Have you been talking to the people who cant just suck it up. Its hard work but i am here to make an honest days living and they would try to shut down. Often they would tell you how they were financially screwed and how hard the job was but they had to make that distinction before talking to you. Im not a whiner, i am proud to be a worker. Yet it also really sucks. Did you encounter that and how did its it. All of the time. It at really hard for people to complain about things that seem individually to be so small. One of the foundational parts of my live was nickeled and dined when i was at that first ice cream scooping job where he learned what in the weeds met. She just did such an amazing job of like demonstrating the ways that individual brains stand and its difficult to complain about on their own. They can build up and just crush you. She made you feel it rather than showing you statistics about each individual grain of sand or anything like that. I am not particularly well equipped to deal its specifics, we thrive on stories thats how we have passed information on since the dawn of time. We tell each other stories about ways upon print look like this. Whereas like statistics just do not get across to people ive found that in my 15 years of being a journalist that it just of given up on doing that. Thats why did this in such a where did and it spiritual way because people dont read things that are fun and thats not their fault. [laughter] who wants to read something that isnt fun to read, nobody. When i came out its no mans land, other people said why are these people singing songs. Why are we not joining or being asked to join in their crusade. I said there really tired, so tired. They are in the weeds. When i worked at starbucks we got slammed. I didnt move it. Basically a lot of people were in the weeds and a lot of people were also doing whatever they could psychologically do to cope. Theres another barbara book called bright cited about the corrosive side effects of positive psychology and scald shareware. We are supposed to, the live of brian, does anybody move to look at the bright side of live song or in the lego movie everything at awesome. We were singing that song over fear. We did that. [laughter] did you encounter at all what i like to call weapon