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Analysis Of Richard Sennett's No Long Term: New Work

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In his profound essay on the economy and American labor classes, No Long Term: New Work and the Corrosion of Character, sociologist Richard Sennett uses personal accounts to target the change in America’s labor system, the corrosion of long-term work, and the lack of value placed on ethics in the workplace. Particularly, he examines the benefits of lower and middle-class life styles.

Beginning with the story of his personal friend, a man named Enrico, Sennett presents an account of a low-class family in the 1970s. “Though clear, Enrico's life story was not simple.” Enrico was a janitor for the majority of his life, saved for fifteen years to buy his first house, and worked nonstop to provide for his family. The exact opposite of the American …show more content…
“Rico, I learned, has fulfilled his father's desire for upward mobility, but has indeed rejected the way of his father,” Sennett observes. Rico pursued the keen interest he’d had in math since childhood, and scored a well-paying job at a firm where he met his wife. Despite moving nearly six times in ten years, Rico’s occupation has provided funds abundant to help raise his family. However, Sennett subtly points out that this ambitious lifestyle may not be all it seems. Rico’s work ethic and lifestyle has led him to extreme dysphoria in both his, and his wife Jeanette’s, lives. Fear has accumulated in both of their workplaces, manifesting in different ways; as Sennett puts it, “both husband and wife often fear they are on the edge of losing control over their lives.” Rico fears lacking control through lacking time, the one thing his father’s generation had in abundance. Jeanette fears lacking control through being guarded by the strict rules of her workplace. “The gravity of this fear comes from a gap separating Enrico and Rico's generations,” Sennett writes. The generation gap has provided more differences than just rules time management, however. After all, why would such a well-providing lifestyle be so dissatisfying to Rico and Jeanette? As it turns out, the very nature of the work force has changed

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