Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir

By Iain Levison

Iain Levison can find work but not fulfillment. The frustration of dead-end, deadhead labor induces a kind of pink-slip payback syndrome as the realization sets in that his college degree 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, the bright shining blah blah blah."

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, 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.

A Working Stiff's Manifesto makes Nickel and Dimed look like chump change. 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 to square one for the next day's labors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 1, 2003
• ISBN: 9781569479209

Reviews for Working Stiff's Manifesto

[csweder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun, quick read. Exactly what I was looking for to counter-balance the dense, serious books I've been reading.

Although, I believe the job to be mis-named. I certainly do not recall him actually mentioning 42 different jobs...and I guess it kind of bothers me that it is in the title. He could have just as simply titled it, "A Memior of Jobs I've Quit, Been Fired From, and Some I Can't Remember" No need for numbers that will become inconsequential, right?

There's not much I can say about the book except that it was a fun read about a guy talking about all of the crappy jobs that are out there.

[julierh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

awesome. i loved this book. it is funny and really thought-provoking. it's about the author's struggle to support himself financially by holding various unappealing jobs. highly recommended!

[debnance_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yes, Levison has had lots of yucky jobs, but at least part of his problem is himself. I wouldn't hire him.

[jenners26 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The subtitle to this book is "A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember." That pretty much sums it up. The author recounts his misadventures of a variety of jobs that are either low paying, extremely difficult or both. The author has a good sense of humor and sarcasm that make the book a good, fast read, but you also get the taste of what it is like to work some of these jobs -- including working a fishing boat in Alaska. I really enjoyed this book, and I know the author wrote a novel after this one so I hope he has finally broken out of his cycle of dead-end jobs and is making a living as a writer. One can only hope!

[madaboutcymru · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favourite book ever : for all those who've been through rough years, workwise and financially, this book will make you feel better. It proves that having a stupid job doesn't mean you're stupid, and will make you laugh, highlighting the stupidity of some aspects of our society...

[kf4vkp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This a cute collection of short stories about various jobs the writer has had over the years. It's quite cute.