We all define ourselves by our profession. But what if our job was demeaning, poorly paid, and tedious? Cracking open Britain’s divisions, journalist James Bloodworth spends six months living and working across Britain, taking on the country’s most gruelling jobs. He lives on the meagre proceeds and discovers the anxieties and hopes of those he encounters, including working-class British, young students striving to make ends meet, and Eastern European immigrants.
From the Staffordshire Amazon warehouse to the taxi-cabs of Uber, Bloodworth narrates how traditional working-class communities have been decimated by the move to soulless service jobs with no security, advancement or satisfaction. This is a gripping examination of Brexit Britain, a divided nation which needs to understand the true reality of how other people live and work before it can heal.
Guardian review, March 2018
Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain - review
e perpetrate a swindle every time we use that hip phrase "the gig economy" to describe the modern labour market. If we wanted to be accurate, we could call it the "piece-rate" or the "precarious" economy. If we wanted to be polemical, we would call it the "rapacious" or the "boss-takes-all" economy.
www.theguardian.com
Intergenerational Foundation review, February 2019
Book review: "Hired" by James Bloodworth - undercover in low-wage Britain - Intergenerational Foundation
"Hired: six months undercover in low-wage Britain" paints a vivid picture of life in some of the toughest corners of the world of work. It also - as Angus Hanton, Co-founder of IF, reports - raises issues of intergenerational fairness To find out what it's like to be a poor and downtrodden worker, James Bloodworth put himself in exactly that position: he went to work in four of the lowest paid jobs in the British economy.
www.if.org.uk
Angry workers review, August 2019
Review of 'Hired' by James Bloodworth - Angry Workers
Comparisons with George Orwell abound as Bloodworth goes undercover to investigate the murky depths of the low-waged sector in the UK. He says his aim is to merely describe what he sees - although as a former editor of Left Foot Forward, he is, of course, partisan.
www.angryworkers.org
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