{"product_id":"book-b7l5","title":"Bait and Switch","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eNickel and Dimed\u003c\/i\u003e goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBarbara Ehrenreich's \u003ci\u003eNickel and Dimed\u003c\/i\u003e explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in BAIT AND SWITCH, she enters another hidden realm of the economy—the world of the white-collar unemployed. Armed with a plausible resume of a professional \"in transition,\" attempts to land a \"middle class job\" undergoing career coaching and personality testing, then begins trawling a series of EST-like \"boot camps,\" job fairs, \"networking events,\" and evangelical job-search \"ministries.\" She gets an \"image makeover\" to prepare her for the corporate world and works hard to project the \"winning attitude\" recommended for a successful job search. She is proselytized, scammed, lectured and, again and again, rejected.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBAIT AND SWITCH highlights the people who've done everything right—gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive resumes—yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster and not simply due to the vagaries of the business cycle. Today's ultra-lean corporations take pride in shedding their \"surplus\" employees—plunging them, for months or years at a stretch, into the twilight zone of white-collar unemployment, where job-searching becomes a full-time job in itself. As Ehrenreich discovers, there are few social supports for the new disposable workers—and little security even for those who have jobs. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike the now classic \u003ci\u003eNickel and Dimed\u003c\/i\u003e, BAIT AND SWITCH is alternately hilarious and tragic, a searing expose of economic cruelty where we least expect it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Audio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49394455675184,"sku":"BDb7l5","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/296339-b7l5-Square.jpg?v=1735371557","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-b7l5","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}