and disability. She earned a BA in cultural anthropology with a concentration in women’s studies at Princeton University and a PhD in American Studies at Yale University. Her research focuses on how work is changing in the Unites States, and what that means for individual workers as well as their families, communities, and country.
Lane applied the “Page 99 Test” to her newest book, More Than Pretty Boxes: How the Rise of Professional Organizing Shows Us the Way We Work Isn’t Working, and reported the following:
From page 99:Visit Carrie M. Lane's website.… to convince her that was not the life for her. Thus, while she knew that whatever freedom she’d gain would need to be secured firmly within air quotes, at some core level, she still knew it felt freer, at least to her.Page 99 gives the reader a decent sense of the argument of Part One of the book, namely that organizers pursue this career as an alternative to standard employment, one that offers variety, flexibility, and (though this part isn’t on page 99) an opportunity to do meaningful work that helps people. What page 99 misses is the gist of the book’s second half, that through their work with clients, organizers help people manage the feelings of overwork, overwhelm, and self-blame that come from having too much to do and too little time in which to do it.
In the two years since she started organizing full-time, Maggie’s time working with corporate clients has only confirmed her impression of standard employment. “I do really like variety,” she said. “When I go in and work at [corporate client offices] and I see these people, I do not envy them at all going to the same place every day and having a boss. I think that might be something I also don’t want—a boss. They just all seem really miserable.” When organizing work is slow and finances are tight, “there are moments when having that stability seems really, really great.” In those down times, she takes on as many side jobs as she can find, and she’s grateful for her partner’s steadier income, but she’s uncomfortable not always being able to pay her full share of expenses. She’s even talked with her partner, she told me, “about how I should just apply for a full-time job and let all this craziness just go away and just go to one place every day.” And yet, ten years have passed since Maggie and I first spoke, and she still hasn’t opted to return to full-time employment.
For Maggie, a brief taste of full-time work and occasional forays into corporate environments were all it took to compel her to start her own business. For others, the decision to leave full-time employment took much longer and, when it came, was not entirely voluntary.
At fifty-three, organizer Lara had spent most of her adult life working for someone else. Originally from the East Coast, she moved to California in the 1970s to attend college but dropped out to work full-time as a receptionist at a large financial services company. Her attention to detail and straightforward manner earned her a quick promotion to secretary, then personal assistant. She started attending night school and, upon earning her associate’s degree, was promoted to office manager, a position she held for nearly twenty years. In 2010, she was laid off without warning due to budget cuts. Lara’s husband also worked, but she’d always earned the bigger income. “Not working,” she told me, “was not an option. I had to get to work.” But after three decades of working for someone else, she was dreading the…
Happily, page 99 effectively conveys the book’s focus on real people talking about the work they do and why they do it. Other pages might highlight scholarly arguments about the cultural and historical significance of organizing’s rise, but the book’s heart lies squarely in the words and perspectives of organizers themselves. My hope is that any reader could pick up this book and resonate with the stories in its pages, stories of people looking for meaningful work, organizers offering empathy and connection to their clients, and clients—especially women—seeking help managing the overwhelming too-muchness of contemporary life.
I’d have loved for page 99 to have landed on one of the “organizing stories” I sandwich between the book’s chapters, which offer glimpses into the real-life organizing jobs I assisted on for my research. There, in the stories of sorting through mugs and storage units and memorabilia, readers can see for themselves how complicated, intimate, and emotional the organizing process can be.
--Marshal Zeringue
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