Ehrenreich's Stick Approach

As explained in Gordon’s article, most corporations in the United States use the “stick” approach when dealing with their employees. In the stick approach of management, employees have little wage benefits or job security, and certainly a lack of bargaining power with their employers. Without these measures in place, employees do not have a strong incentive to work their hardest (Gordon, 1996: 30). This is why it is necessary for corporations to hire supervisors to watch over employees and their work. However, this leads to a bloated hierarchical system because for every supervisor, there needs to be another supervisor for them (Gordon, 1996: 27).
Four out of the five jobs held by Ehrenreich by chapter three of her book apply the stick approach. Beginning at Hearthside, she recognizes the disconnect between the roles performed by the

them” mentality amongst the workers, which creates more resistance to management. To combat this, more supervision is needed thus creating the cycle that has caused the bureaucratic bloat described by Gordon. Unlike at her restaurant jobs, Ehrenreich’s supervisor for Merry Maids, Ted, is not always with his employees. Instead, he creates the threat that the home owners who hire the service are always watching (Ehrenreich, 2001: 107). They serve as his pseudo-supervisors with their hidden cameras and other tricks to catch the employees failing their duties. By deflecting most of the evils associated with a supervisor off of himself, Ted is able to gain control over his employees by giving them the incentive of praise. For most of the girls, he is their only source of approval for the menial labor they are performing. Ted uses this to his advantage by getting the girls to spy on each other and therefore breaking down the bond that could be formed between low wage employees (Ehrenreich, 2001: 115). This tactic could be described as using a stick disguised as a