The subject discussed in the article is that the old methods of work and the attitude of hard work of the old times no longer exist. Rather than stable jobs and no surprises during a career, workers are currently anticipating the thought that nothing is forever in their jobs, and they must be open to change without notice. Today\’s workers can no longer expect a long-lasting and faithful job or the trust and loyalty they have been given to workers of their parents\’ era. In some ways, Sennett argues that this change is certain in order to boost the economy but at the same time corrodes the character of the workers as they no longer understand the meaning of the word loyalty in their professional lives. The hard and rewarding work attitudes are no longer real and achievable and there is no trust and full dedication on the part of the workers. These progressions are detrimental to maintaining the respect and trust that they (employers and workers) have in each other within the work environment.
The key themes in this book are the generational changes within the workforce, the progressions in the economy that are influencing the work environments and the adjustments in the hard work attitude. In the book, Sennett illustrates his ideas through a conversation with a man named Enrico, a janitor, while writing an earlier book. Enrico is an example of the hard and rewarding work of the Italian immigrant in the United States, who succeed by his own effort moving from an immigrant neighborhood to a \”normal\” one in the American suburbs. Twenty-five years later, Sennett has a similar experience meeting with Enrico\’s son, Rico, at the airport. Rico had the ability to make a decent living for himself as an expert in his field, and he clearly had opportunities for studying that led him to a career that was very different from the one that his father chose in the past. Sennett discusses generational changes within the workforce as a result of the importance of recognizing the serious effects it has had on the lives of a few individuals.
While several workers had the ability to adapt to the progressions that the developing economy had, others had to be taught by force, like the IBM engineers who had to lose their jobs to understand that the market makes the opportunities … Or strip them. Sennett compares the lives of the father (Enrico) and the son (Rico) to illustrate the colossal changes within the work environment between one generation and another. The employment opportunities for Rico are no longer long term, that last from youth to retirement, making employment stability a relic of past times that no longer exists. While the son earns significantly more money than his father did, he faces an uncertain future, since he does not know where his company is going to take him, or to what extent the job will actually last. Enrico\’s work was ordinary, manual and exhausting, but he knew exactly where he would be and how much he would earn until retiring.
Sennett\’s book examines the impact of these new forms of work on people and society. Nowadays we even believe that lifetime stability in a job is not a virtue or a reward for competence, but rather an accommodation of the worker in seeking other opportunities for \”professional growth.\” The hypothetical system that Sennett constructs in his book is composed from the point of view of having free initiative, where it is difficult to separate what it is to be professional or to be against the entrepreneur, since the worker is free to go and seek other more lucrative jobs and not be considered part of the company\’s team. The group and this feeling of belonging to it in the workplace will be encouraged at all costs by modern companies. However, it does clarify that there are no such long-lasting systems in the groups. At the same time that you have to be a team player for the company and become a great worker in a group, there is the possibility of a younger someone, with the same or more motivation, taking your place for less money and same hours. Loyalty does not exist on both sides: from who hires and who works and therefore Rico\’s uncertainty in pointing out where he would be in the future, even in the near future, because there are many opportunities for those who seek them. It is an interesting idea to observe the progressions that are occurring in the current working environment for the young professionals and how their parents have difficulty understanding this lack of attachment to a position or company and professional safety of their children.
At the same time Sennett shows that a person from a previous generation, such as bar owner Rose, who ventures into these new premises of work, can be unwelcome at the workforce. It happens because there is the idea that even with the person willing to adapt to this new way of work, after a certain age the worker will always be seen as a nuisance. Older people are no longer valued by their experience and wisdom, but rather as something to be overcome and very soon. In her year in the beverage advertising area, Rose learned that even though she was hired for her expertise, her reactions to the projects aroused negative attention from her colleagues, who, knowing that they had lost a Russian vodka brand to another company, stopped caring about it and headed for a new project immediately, without any remorse or attachment, while Rose wondered where she had gone wrong.
Sennett also discusses about the truth in new private enterprises and how adaptability has changed the way they work. Adaptability is the word to combat the inflexible organizations of the past and how to face the future. Sennett demonstrates this with the examples of past bakers, who spent their lives from dawn to early morning making bread and many modern bakers who in fact do not know how to make or bake bread by hand, working part-time in bakeries or markets simply by operating machines and and if the machines fail, there is no bread.
As it is written in the book, \”We are all victims of time and place … we are disconnected … and where am I needed? are facts and questions that can not immediately be answered.” and that these attitudes weaken the character, leading to the corrosion described in the title.
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