Bait and Switch: Barbara Ehrenreich

My first brush with Barbara Ehrenreich was several years ago, when Nicked and Dimed came highly recommended to me. In that nonfiction, Ms Ehrenreich studied the "working poor" by taking three different low-incoming jobs in three geographic locations to see how this economic level eked by.  Although it was an interesting read, I almost entirely hated Nicked and Dimed, though that came from a more personal level: at the time of my reading the, I was slogging away at a job that payed $8.50 an hour plus benefits for full-time which was the equivalent of thirty-two hours a week. You do the math, it's too depressing for me. Nicked and Dimed struck a little too close to home for me, and I was pretty upset that Ms Ehrenreich could at any point in her little experiment go back to her life, her house, her car and family, visit her actual doctor when she couldn't afford it on her experimental income, and have her normal life back when she was done working with the working poor. I and millions of others had no such choice. I recognized that I and the working poor were not her intended audience. Instead, I bitterly thought, her audience was socially-conscious yuppie-types with plenty of disposable income, and the purpose was to make these people feel bad for the working poor for at least the duration of the 300-page book before they returned to their electronic toys and family vacations. Needless to say, Nickled and Dimed did not sit very well for me.

But despite that, the book was well-crafted and well-written, and would have even been interesting if it hadn't told me things that I was living - it was one of those books that I can say, I didn't like it but it's not bad. So several years later, in a different job that cover the bills, when Bait and Switch came my way, I decided to read it.

Bait and Switch tells of the trials of upper-middle class America and the struggle to find jobs when one is laid off at middle age. Ms Ehrenreich, whom I'm starting to think of as "master of disguises," changed her name, allotted herself a budget, created a resume only slightly stretching her actual skills and experience, and set off in search of a job in public relations or event planning. Her first step? She hired two coaches, one to craft her resume and the other to somehow, vaguely and peppily, help her find a job.

I recognized at this point that this book was also not written for the likes of me, since almost everything that Ms Ehrenreich went through in her job hunting - hiring people to help and networking, networking, networking - all seemed a little bizarre to me. Anyone who can hire "life coaches" to sort out their joblessness is (in my humble opinion) wasting money that they might eventually need to groceries, rent, gas. (Ms Ehrenreich points out that there is no certifications or qualifications for one to become a "life coach" or the like - people can simply hang out their shingle and charge exorbitant amounts for their "services.") Networking events seem like a sham - all sorts of unemployed people hitting up other unemployed people for contacts seems like an exercise in futility. And in fact it was: in the period of time that Ms. Ehrenreich was job hunting, she received exactly two offers: one from Mary Kay, the other from AFLAC, though the job at AFLAC was in sales and apparently that company works well more like a triangle scheme than I'd ever realized. So the quest was unfulfilled.

I was left with the same two puzzling questions I had from Nicked and Dimed. One, what was her audience, and two, what was her purpose? As for audience I'm still a little puzzled: I wouldn't recommend this to anyone past about age forty who works in the corporate world, since it may be panic-inducing, but I'm not certain who else is going to be really moved by Bait and Switch. Twenty-somethings in the corporate world so they can see what's coming up for them? Those in the non-profit, educational, or government sector so they can feel secure that their sectors don't treat people this way? (I work in a non-profit and nearly always have, and I felt no better about the book for this fact.) As for purpose I'm still equally perplexed. I'm not certain I see one in Bait and Switch, outside of perhaps informative entertainment. Perhaps there doesn't need to be one, but I tend to think of nonfiction books as ones that have a purpose or point, if only to educate, and if that's the case with Bait and Switch I've only learned that I still have no intention of working in for-profits.

Despite this, I really can't say it's a bad book. Ms Ehrenreich does know how to tell a story, and her chapters are liberally sprinkled with instructive facts. She does her research, she tries to live the life, and she puts it all together in very readable books. So even though I'm still puzzling over this one, I wouldn't hesitate to still say it was a well-written book or even pass my copy off to a friend to borrow. Bait and Switch simply falls under the same category as Nickeled and Dimed: I didn't like it, but it's not a bad book.

How's that for an ambivalent review?