A company of one : insecurity, independence, and the new world of white-collar unemployment / Carrie M. Lane.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lane, Carrie M., 1974-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Displaced workers--United States.

Displaced workers.

Unemployed--United States.

Unemployed.

White collar workers--United States.

White collar workers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (212 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : ILR Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Being laid off can be a traumatic event. The unemployed worry about how they will pay their bills and find a new job. In the American economy's boom-and-bust business cycle since the 1980's, repeated layoffs have become part of working life. In A Company of One, Carrie M. Lane finds that the new culture of corporate employment, changes to the job search process, and dual-income marriage have reshaped how today's skilled workers view unemployment. Through interviews with seventy-five unemployed and underemployed high-tech white-collar workers in the Dallas area over the course of the 2000's, Lane shows that they have embraced a new definition of employment in which all jobs are temporary and all workers are, or should be, independent "companies of one. "Following the experiences of individual jobseekers over time, Lane explores the central role that organized networking events, working spouses, and neoliberal ideology play in forging and reinforcing a new individualist, pro-market response to the increasingly insecure nature of contemporary employment. She also explores how this new perspective is transforming traditional ideas about masculinity and the role of men as breadwinners. Sympathetic to the benefits that this "company of one" ideology can hold for its adherents, Lane also details how it hides the true costs of an insecure workforce and makes collective and political responses to job loss and downward mobility unlikely.

Contents:

Introduction : fortitude, faith, and the free market

Silicon prairie

A company of one

The hardest job you'll ever have

Rituals of unemployment

Man enough to let my wife support me.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780801461279

0801461278

9780801460791

0801460794

OCLC:

728082246