Hired
Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain
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Hired
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Narrated by:
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Alister Austin
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By:
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James Bloodworth
About this listen
From the Orwellian reach of an Amazon warehouse to the time trials of a council care worker and the grim reality behind the glossy Uber app, Hired is a clear-eyed analysis of a divided nation and a riveting dispatch from the very front line of low-wage Britain.
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 taxicabs 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.
©2019 James Bloodworth (P)2019 W. F. Howes LtdCritic Reviews
"A very discomforting book, no matter what your politics might be...very good." (Sunday Times)
"Potent, disturbing and revelatory." (Evening Standard)
What listeners say about Hired
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robyn
- 29-10-2024
Revealing
In the UK, James Bloodworth took a series of poorly-paid zero hours contract jobs to report on conditions on the job and the lives workers can live on their meagre earnings. He describes the bleak outlook for communities which were impoverished by the closure of old industries and the effects of large corporations offering, in many cases, just about the only jobs going. It's a sobering look at ways in which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ELIZABETH
- 03-08-2019
Eye-opener
The author goes under-cover in four different UK locations in four markedly different zero-hours contract jobs. Although the jobs are different the conditions are predictably similar. In each case, the workers are exploited to the hilt to earn millions and billions for the owners of the companies - minimal breaks (or, in one case, no breaks), barely tolerable working conditions, positive propaganda from the firms in question "aren't you so lucky to have such a good job", big-brother style surveillance and generous tax breaks for the employers and employment agencies. A little too much soapboxing from the author, probably preaching to the converted anyway, and rambles on at the end, but overall worth listening to, despite the idiosyncrasies of the narrator.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Someone
- 17-08-2024
Good writing. Great narration.
Love the narrator. Love the writing. Would highly recommend this as worth listening to. Insightful for the modern day working conditions of the UK.
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