Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee

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Overview

Curious to know just what happens behind the "employees only" doors of big companies, journalist Alex Frankel embarked on an undercover reporting project to find out how some of America's well-known companies win the hearts and minds of their retail and service employees. Frankel knew the only way to find answers was to go native.

During a two-year urban adventure through the world of commerce, Frankel applied for and was hired by a half-dozen companies: he proudly wore the brown uniform of the UPS driver, folded endless stacks of T-shirts at Gap, brewed espressos for the hordes at Starbucks, interviewed (but failed to get hired) at Whole Foods, enrolled...

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More About This Book

Overview

Curious to know just what happens behind the "employees only" doors of big companies, journalist Alex Frankel embarked on an undercover reporting project to find out how some of America's well-known companies win the hearts and minds of their retail and service employees. Frankel knew the only way to find answers was to go native.

During a two-year urban adventure through the world of commerce, Frankel applied for and was hired by a half-dozen companies: he proudly wore the brown uniform of the UPS driver, folded endless stacks of T-shirts at Gap, brewed espressos for the hordes at Starbucks, interviewed (but failed to get hired) at Whole Foods, enrolled in management training at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and sold iPods at the Apple Store.

At the heart of Punching In lies Frankel's quest to find out how some of the giants of commerce turn thousands of average job applicants into loyal—even fanatical—workers. How do they identify and recruit workers who will best fit their companies? How do they indoctrinate employees into their corporate cultures and make them perfect messengers of their brands? Along the way Frankel pauses long enough to wonder why he is so often immune to corporate attempts to win employees over.

In this lively and entertaining narrative, Frankel takes readers on a personal journey into the land of front-line employees to discover why some workers are so eager to drink the corporate Kool-Aid and which companies know how to serve it up best.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
It's just possible that the UPS guy who asked you to sign for a recent delivery was the author of this book. For two years, freelance writer Alex Frankel went undercover to investigate business cultures at large companies including Starbucks, the Gap, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Whole Foods, and The Container Store. What he discovered about laboring in retail and services industries will surprise readers, reassuring some and alarming others. An all-purpose access card into "Employees Only" sections.
Wall Street Journal
“Savor the reporting on offer...”
More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews
From The Critics
“A book that takes readers behind the scenes at some of the country’s best-known companies...”
The Barnes & Noble Review
Intuitively you understand the appeal. Who hasn't bought a drink at Starbucks, shopped at the Gap, or had a package delivered by UPS and wondered -- if only for a moment -- what it would be like to be on the other side of the transaction? True, the idea of spending every working day making complicated caffeinated drinks, selling jeans, or delivering packages probably doesn't have much long-term appeal for most of us, but there is a certain voyeuristic pleasure that comes from knowing what is going behind the door marked "employees only."

Frankel, a freelance journalist, set out to find out. Over the course of two years, he worked on the front lines of the Apple Store and Enterprise Rent-a-Car, as well as the aforementioned Gap, Starbucks, and UPS. As he is quick to point out "I was not so much interested in exposing some sort of corporate evil, but in exposing the workplace: what it felt like to work there, and what culture, if any, was handed down from the top or grew organically from the bottom."

But while that may have been the grander goal, the smaller insights he learned along the way are what make the book truly compelling. For example: want to know the secret to making it through a full day of delivering as many as 180 packages for UPS? Pack an extra pair of socks and change into them after lunch. And Frankel delivers simple but convincing insight on Apple's reputation for superior employees: They hire people who are already fanatically loyal consumers of its products.

Perhaps of even more interest to the rest of us, he learned that while the rental car company Enterprise prides itself on providing excellent customer service -- getting the rental car to the person who needs it -- the vast majority of its training materials are devoted to teaching employees how to sell high-margin insurance to renters.

In many ways Frankel is an interesting choice to write the book. The author of a book on corporate "namers" (2004's Word Craft) he doesn't seem to have much real-world business experience and so was surprised to learn that the computerized tests he takes to try to get hired at places he would like to work -- Best Buy, Home Depot, and Whole Foods -- have been designed to identify employees similar to those who have worked out well in the past. Try as he might, he can't figure out what are the right answers to questions such as these asked by Home Depot:

Suppose we contacted your most recent supervisors (or teachers). What would they say about how often you make snap decisions?
And
Compared to your peers, how often do you lead others?
Guessing about what Home Depot wanted to hear, Frankel said he rarely made snap decisions ("impulsive decision making does not sound like a good thing in an employee") and that he led "somewhat more often" than his peers, figuring "maybe they wanted to hire followers."

He failed to get the job every time he was confronted with this kind of test -- which probably says more of the companies (they know the kind of person who is going to succeed) that it does about Frankel. But when he was hired he worked diligently through the training, never disclosing he was a reporter.

So what was it like being a frontline service employee for two years? While Frankel found his stint at the Gap stupefying -- endless days refolding clothes customers had rejected made time seem not only to stop but to actually go backward, he writes -- for the most part he found the work harder than expected. Not only were the basic tasks (such as mastering all the drinks Starbucks serves and learning the exact sequence of keys to hit to fill out a rental contract using Enterprise's antiquated computer system) more difficult than he would have thought; for the most part, he was on his feet all day, leading him to come home exhausted most nights.

As for finding a corporate culture in which employees believe deeply in the company's goals, Frankel was consistently disappointed. While he found an employee or two in each workplace who was sincerely committed to the company's mission, most seemed to be trading their time for the organization's money.

The exception was at UPS, where employees truly seemed to like their jobs, enjoyed interacting with customers -- many of whom they see every day -- and felt they were performing a vital service. Working as a driver's assistant during the Christmas season, Frankel, too, got caught up in the challenge in making sure all the packages were delivered by the holidays and came dangerously close to going native. "At UPS I gained a strong sense that I was a part of the thumping, beating heart of capitalism," he writes. "UPS was the only workplace where I felt as if I was actually learning a craft and helping shape the final product, instead of acting the part of a craftsman."

And he came to understand what makes the best service companies so successful. It's not their product offering. After all, there isn't much difference between one airline or another -- they all get you from point A to point B -- or one middle-of-the-road hotel chain compared to another, except for the people who provide the service. And that point of differentiation is only going to become more important in coming years. Indeed, as companies continue to streamline processes and handle more and more transactions via computers, the number of interactions with employees -- what the former head of SAS Airlines, Jan Carlson, called "moments of truth" nearly two decades ago, in his book of the same name -- are going to decrease. That means the importance of each of those interactions is going to increase. Companies, especially service companies, that understand this and get correspondingly better at hiring, training, and employee support are the ones that are going to win.

That, ultimately, is the message of Frankel's book. Well, that and the importance of a pair of clean, dry socks if you plan to be on your feet all day. --Paul B. Brown

Coauthor of the bestseller Customers for Life and author of more than a dozen other books, Paul B. Brown is a former reporter and editor for BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Inc. His reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Book Page.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780060849665
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 11/20/2007
  • Pages: 240
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.85 (d)

Meet the Author

Alex FrankeL is a writer based in San Francisco. He has written about business culture and adventure for Wired, Fast Company, The New York Times Magazine, and Outside, and he is the author of Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business.

Read an Excerpt

Punching In
The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee

Chapter One

The Other Army

After the call came inviting me to interview at UPS that November, I drove over to the building. I was directed to a snack room, where I joined a dozen other applicants, and together we sat in silence. Soon the local head of human resources, Jed Barnes, entered the room to give us an overview of the job. He had salt-and-pepper hair and was of medium muscular build. Those of us hired would ride shotgun in a truck to help reduce the amount of work for each driver during December's uptick in package movement. Barnes emphasized that it would be a fun and "energetic" job.

He handed out a job description with a checklist that reduced our required set of skills to a surprisingly specific group.

You have to be able to: Illustrate spatial awareness; Read words and numbers; Concentrate; Memorize; Recollect; Identify logical connections and determine sequence of response; Process up to two or three steps ahead.

The sheet noted that we would handle packages of up to 150 pounds and that the average package weighed 11 pounds. Barnes cautioned that we would be exposed to the season's inclement weather and that we had to like that in a job.

As he told us that UPS would supply us with uniforms, I stifled a smile—if I was going to go undercover, I wanted to look and feel the part. He said we would be paid $8.25 an hour and charged a union fee. He then handed out applications.

Before I joined UPS, I felt that I knew a fair amount about its brand, one that had held up remarkably well for decades. The image ofthis company in my mind was one where solid customer service and cutting-edge technology reigned, where the customer was always right, and where there was tremendous goodwill between customer and company, personified by its eager and enthusiastic, competent drivers. Like many others in the room that day, I had been exposed to global UPS advertising that recast the company simply as Brown and asked, "What can Brown do for you?"

UPS used that tagline in everything from recruitment advertising to prime-time TV ads, reaching both internal and external audiences. By extolling the importance of the organization to the world at large, UPS gave its employees a rallying cry, a connection to the brand, another reason to want to be a part of UPS. There was an unstated equation that also shaped how the UPS troops thought of the company: UPS = Brown—>Brown = me—>I am Brown What can we do for you?

Whereas the relative newcomer FedEx was known mainly for the speed of its deliveries ("When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight," declared its classic slogan), UPS was known for the care and responsibility with which it delivered. I wanted to know what it felt like to wear the brown uniform—to be Brown.

As I filled out my application, I struggled to make my real employment background fit into the boxes on the form. I stated that I had been mostly self-employed and listed a friend who could vouch for several years of self-employment. My main goal was to not raise any red flags, to sneak in unchallenged; knowing that I would do the required work, I was not concerned with falsifying my work history.

After we completed the paperwork, we were called next door, one by one, into a cluttered conference room. Barnes's colleague Lou, dressed in a cheap blue suit, was lower in rank and less articulate than Barnes. He asked me why UPS should hire me.

"I am responsible, and I'll work well as a team player with the driver. I am fit," I told him. "As a customer of UPS, I am a big fan of the brand, and I think that working here will be a good experience. I am available during the dates you would need me." And that was the extent of our dialogue. I got a call about five days later asking if I was still available and interested. I said yes and was told to come in the following week for a four-hour orientation.

My first day on the clock was this half-day orientation, which was loosely broken into four segments: filling out more paperwork, getting a security briefing, learning how to use the UPS handheld field computers, and listening to a safety overview in which our group checked out the inside of the iconic brown trucks for the first time.

Although most people think the approachability of UPS's drivers is one of the company's stellar qualities, we were given only a brief lesson in how to treat customers. It went something like this: If a customer is angry at you or upset that a package has not been delivered, tell them that you are sorry. Do not confront them or engage them.

The local UPS loss-prevention director came in and stared at the dozen of us filling out forms. "It takes a lot of paperwork to get a job at UPS," he said, "but very little paperwork to lose your job here." He told us that we were not to open boxes or look inside them, and that we could not conceal anything in our pockets.

We were paired up, handed a delivery information acquisition device, or DIAD, and taught how to use it. The clipboard-size computers were covered with buttons and had small screens and a user interface that was not intuitive. We practiced entering information about a hypothetical delivery, and I quickly got lost. The boards we would have in the field, we were told, were the newest technology and would allow us to move on autopilot; simply scanning bar codes would be the drill.

Bruce, the tall, skinny, middle-aged manager who had shown us how to operate the DIADs, offered some advice. He'd worked as a driver years before, he said, and the winter months could be cold. . . .

Punching In
The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee. Copyright © by Alex Frankel. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents


Author's Note     xi
Introduction: Becoming One of Them     1
The Other Army     11
One Great Employee     51
Two Truths and One Lie     79
Into the Fold     119
Get Big, Stay Small     149
In the Red Zone     187
Conclusion: Self-Selection     201
Endnotes     209
Acknowledgments     213
Index     215
Customer Reviews
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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 24, 2008

    Attn: Employee Communicators and HR--Read This!

    A great lesson in why those whose jobs are to motivate employees on behalf of their companies actually need to interact with the target employees in order to complete this task effectively. Granted, Frankel's own personal biases come into play. However, he is up-front about this wherever his opinions appear, and I believe that Frankel's biases provide an added experiential perspective that interview- and survey-based studies lack. In addition, Frankel's inside information and observations are well fleshed-out with citations from credible authorities. The fact that 'Punching In' is an enjoyable read was just icing on the cake.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 14, 2008

    Service Industry exposed - from the front line!

    Overall I really loved this book: It had great insight, and brought out an interesting new view of things. I found myself laughing with the author while other times questioning his motives & judgements. Frankel does a great job of outlining some interesting practices and processes from each organization, but his views are not always objective, and readers can sense his political views and personality coming into his assumptions (even he admits he doesn't match the typical personality profile of a front-line worker). Still - it offers great inside information that's important for all levels of the service industry to consider. Very good if read with an objective, and non-judgemental eye!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 24, 2007

    ¿Behind the Scenes of the Front Lines¿

    This is a great book! All business owners/entrepreneurs, sociologists, and industrial psychologists must read ¿Punching In¿. The author informally studied different cultures of well-known businesses, such as UPS, Starbucks, and Enterprise. Only one of these companies would I work for, after reading this book. The bonds between the employees are profound. The attempt to ¿brainwash¿ the employees into accepting the company culture is incredible. Even more amazing is the willingness of certain employees to adapt to this environment. Being an entrepreneur, I cannot understand this. The tidbits of information about each workplace are hilarious. For instance, UPS workers think that women find them attractive and lust after them. So today, I was at Subway. A UPS worker sat next to me. I kept looking at him out of the corner of my eye. Did I think he was attractive? Yes, strangely I did. The ways Enterprise employees try to sell insurance was disgusting. Starbucks workers take coffee way to seriously. The training and hiring practices varied from company to company. Some stores use statistics to determine the best employees. ¿Punching In¿ is fascinating for those who are business-minded. It is hilarious, and it is from the personal experience of the author. Professors of human sciences and business should add this to the required reading list. Reviewed by: Stephanie Rollins for ReviewYourBook.com

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    Posted November 27, 2010

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    Posted July 24, 2009

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    Posted October 29, 2008

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