Staplerfahrer Klaus
If you’re heading out onto the job for the first time, you’d probably better wait a moment and watch Staplerfahrer Klaus, the most important safety-training video in any language. Matter of fact, it...
View ArticleWhy Does No One Write About Their Day Job?
In a manifesto (er, “ideas piece”) about the importance of the workplace in writing, Alain de Botton calls on contemporary writers to write about work. “If a proverbial alien landed on earth,” he says,...
View ArticleThe Cost of a Thing
A couple months ago, we wrote about Matthew Crawford’s book Shop Class as Soulcraft, and around the same time I read another interesting review of the book, by Caleb Crain. (I refrained from posting...
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The Rumpus Interview with Trucker Desiree
“I really had nothing left in my life when I came to trucking, just the clothes on my back.”When my last novel was published I did a book tour in truck stops. Publicity stunt aside, it gave me the...
View ArticleYou Mean Writing Can’t Be My Career?!
“What the profiles fail to reveal is that the literary apprenticeship is a lengthy one for the majority, that getting published at all is difficult, and to get paid enough to not do anything else but...
View ArticleThe Joys Of Freelancin’
“The great thing about freelance, of course, is the numerous freedoms it embraces, chief among them being the freedom to work in your underwear. This seems to be the one that everyone knows. I was...
View ArticleThe Freelance Revolution
“Today, careers consist of piecing together various types of work, juggling multiple clients, learning to be marketing and accounting experts, and creating offices in bedrooms/coffee shops/coworking...
View ArticleWorkdays Worldwide
This infographic breaks down the workdays of countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic and Co-operation and Development). Distinguishing between paid and unpaid work, the graphic reveals which...
View ArticleFlexible Working
A British thinktank, the New Economics Foundation, is advocating for a shorter work week as a cure for Britain’s economic, social, and environmental woes. The economists argue that the solution to...
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In Case of Emergency
In a state of near-delirium, around 8 a.m. on the second day of June, I pulled my car into the parking lot of a Holiday Inn near an exit off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. To my left, a steady stream of...
View ArticleDo You Really Want to “Do What You Love”?
Superficially, ["do what you love"] is an uplifting piece of advice, urging us to ponder what it is we most enjoy doing and then turn that activity into a wage-generating enterprise. But why should our...
View ArticleMaintaining Human Life
Writing may be hard work, but it isn’t the kind that pays the bills. Tillie Olsen’s seminal Silences wonders just what kind of work writing really is, and who has the privilege to do it:Though access...
View ArticleArt Doesn’t Pay
The arts don’t pay very well, and working as a professional in a creative field like writing, music, or film has grown more precarious. High student debt doesn’t help, but it might explain why almost a...
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The Saturday Rumpus Review of The Martian
Ridley Scott’s latest release, The Martian, is a spectacularly filmed, well-acted, technologically astute movie. Unfortunately, its technophilia almost takes over. You will spend a little over two...
View ArticleWeekly Geekery
Bad news from the free-Internet fight is also good news in the war on Google.A bit of sexist schadenfreude.Are psychologists who study morality evil?Want to make things really scary? Here’s how to do...
View ArticleSelf-Help
Self-help books, like diet books, are ever-popular. But, according to Louis Menand at the New Yorker, they aren’t necessarily making us better human beings—just workers who better fit current business...
View ArticleWomen and Workplace Fiction
Over at the New Yorker, Lydia Kiesling writes about workplace fiction, typically seen as a male-centric dominion overseen by writers like Kafka, as written by women from Helen Phillips in The Beautiful...
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Mandarin Imperial
It was the summer before I left for college, and Aunt Minda was cutting ties with us. She called me to her office where she uncapped a metal tea canister, drew a small, tight square of paper from...
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Robot Office: Photocopier
Related Posts: Robot Office: Performance Review Robot Office: Calendar Robot Office: Personal Service Announcement Robot Office: Thanksgiving Robot Office: Coffee
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Robot Office: Paper Clip
Related Posts: Robot Office: Personal Service Announcement Robot Office: Hump Day Robot Office: Meal Prepping ROBOT OFFICE: Working from Home Robot Office: Holiday Party
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