The Working Life

Timely, smart, and hip, this engaging reader teaches students to think critically about the importance and place of work in their lives.

A particularly relevant reader given the career-minded orientation of today's students, The Working Life helps students “see” work more practically and critically, both in terms of their eventual career paths and their immediate college environment. Approaching the idea of work from multiple perspectives, the readings present work as both a source of fulfillment and meaning and a place of frustration and fatigue. Throughout The Working Life helps students use writing to examine their own complex attitudes, values, and beliefs about work in life, work as life, and our lives at work. Each of the six sections focuses on a different aspect of work and contains readings ranging from scholarly articles to contemporary journalism, visual representations of work from the media and fine arts, fiction and non-fiction stories about work, and a sample of screenshorts from a work-related Website.