Need this by tomorrow 6/15/2021

Chuck Student

Mrs. Haven Abedin

English 1301

August 10, 2017

The Honor of Unemployment

The cold computer processors known as tech companies have made it an honor to be unemployed. (hook is an intriguing sarcastic statement, which fits the sarcastic tone the title of the article being analyzed has) Dan Lyons wrote an article for the New York Times called “Congratulations! You’ve Been Fired.” This work talks about how tech companies have employed cutthroat tactics when it comes to hiring and firing employees. Workers are treated like gears and cogs or, in this case, like motherboards and processors. The cult-like way in which company leaders treat their workers is rather strange as well. Specifically, they seem to be totally devoid of perceiving reality on the subject of empathizing with a worker. These tech companies think that the employees can be brainwashed into thinking of being fired as a way of graduating. Lyons’s article will be an essential tool to investigate the dark, mysterious abyss that is the tech company. (The last sentence is the thesis statement. The comment that the article will be an “essential tool to investigate” tech companies indicates this evaluation will be positive.)

An especially effective part of the article is a story about the author’s friend, a 35-year-old woman who had been fired by her 28-year-old manager out of the blue. (Topic sentence: Notice how it’s an opinion the rest of the paragraph will support.) The writer definitely creates a lot of sympathy for his friend. One can feel how unfair it was for her to be treated like such a piece of dirt because of the firing seeming to occur arbitrarily. Since Lyons’ friend had worked at the company for several years, she was most likely not a problem employee. In any case, to not tell the woman why she was losing her job was disrespectful. Also, the author didn’t have to mention his friend’s and her boss’s ages; I believe he did this to highlight how especially humiliating being fired was for her. To be fired by someone younger than you can’t feel good even if there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a younger supervisor. Of course, the most shocking part of the story is the “farewell party” the woman’s manager threw for her and the other ways the company pretended like being fired was a positive experience. Losing your livelihood is scary and disorienting; to deny this woman’s reality is just insulting. All of the details Lyons shares about his friend being let go create feelings of anger towards the company in the reader.

In the article, Lyons skillfully uses Amazon as an example of how tech companies can be heartless. (Topic sentence – supports the thesis statement. Also, the rest of this paragraph supports the topic sentence.) For example, he states that “Amazon keeps getting called out for its bruising environment…”(Lyons). The word “bruise” calls to mind a wound from aggression, like a punch. Later on, the author talks about how Jeff Bezos, the CEO, wrote an unapologetic letter to shareholders and showed no signs of clearing the heartless workplace environment with Amazon. I find this business to be an ironic case, because it runs like a computer. In other words, one can consider the programmer and his computer. A computer is made of many parts that can break. After these parts break, the programmer goes inside, takes them out, and replaces them. Then the process starts over again when the next piece breaks. Jeff Bezos is the programmer while the workers are the pieces which make the computer work. In this case, though, the programmer removes and adds pieces arbitrarily. Tech companies consider this relationship to be an innovation, but an academic would most likely agree Amazon is a “glorified sweatshop,” as Lyons notes.

The author makes an important point when mentions the history of his tech employers’ office as an A.H. Davenport furniture factory. (Topic sentence) I find this fascinating because the writer is making a distinction between progress and regression. He admits the furniture factory workers had hard lives, too, but he also highlights the beautiful, treasured work they created. He compares their fine work with the depressing work the current tech workers do “[g]rinding out phone calls, trying to make a number, hooked to a machine that watches you work.” He asks, “[T]his is progress?” He goes on to mention that the furniture workers “didn’t have to go through weeks of training that felt eerily like a cult indoctrination, being told that they could use their ‘superpowers’ to spread ‘delightion.’” The Amazon workplace sounds so silly, depressing, and oppressive based on Lyons’ descriptions, I can agree when he concludes, “Given the choice, I think I’d rather make furniture.”

Dan Lyons has written a fascinating article that exposes the brutal workplace culture of tech companies. My opinions on these companies have changed considerably. I used to think of them as the leaders of progress, but now some are simply cults run by narcissistic people who only care about profits. The current culture associated with these companies must be changed so our workers can under emotionally intelligent leaders that have their best interests at heart. If possible, I would like to have a part in that change. (Conclusion provides closure without merely restating the thesis.)

Works Cited

Lyons, Dan. "Congratulations! You've Been Fired." New York Times, 9 Apr. 2016,

www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/opinion/sunday/congratulations-youve-been-fired.html. Accessed 8 June 2018.