Underemployed Is the New Organic

Several years ago, at the beginning of the Great American Recession, Linda Ferro abruptly lost her well-paying job. Supremely (and foolishly) confident in the marketability of her skills, at first she was looking to go up to the next level on the corporate escalator. But all too soon, she was desperately seeking any full-time job she could take a bus to. As Ferro says, "If you're an American, you've either been through this, are going through it now, or live in constant dread of the possibility." Ferro was lucky enough to find "full-time underemployment," that is to say, a 21st century revival of good old-fashioned feudalism. In an effort to save her sanity, and the last vestiges of her self-esteem, she started blogging about her adventures: certifiably crazy customers, cranky patients, clueless bosses, bizarre commutes, and other you-had-to-be-there-to-believe-it experiences encountered by a (reasonably) normal, educated adult working at a succession of minimum-wage jobs. Highlights from her blog have now been condensed into this book: a wicked, unvarnished, laugh-out-loud look at what Americans of all stripes are facing in today's uncertain labor market. "Talented blogger Linda Ferro somehow manages to make getting fired, feeling old, and finding underpaid work in dead-end jobs sound like fun! 'Underemployed Is the New Organic' is a confidential head-trip into Ferro's world, where any problem can be solved with a flask, a credit card, and a whip-smart sense of humor." - Joyce Hanson, author, A Couple of Savages