She Works Hard for the Money

Ever wondered what other people do on the job? Are they blissfully performing work that speaks to their souls while saving the world? Or are they shopping online and watching the clock? Joni B. Cole and B.K. Rakhra, creators of the This Day in the Life blog and books, did wonder and asked 500 women to document their work day on March 27, 2007. The result is Water Cooler Diaries.

The jobs range from the predictable (teacher) to the bizarre (world’s sexiest magician). Women of all ages, all educational levels and all social classes appear. Most have family responsibilities as well as jobs: Many are up at dawn to get children off to school, work a full day and then come home to the proverbial second shift. Most seem committed to working hard, even when they aren’t exactly committed to the specific job.

In the collection, two Nashville women are represented. Erika Mitchell is an orthopedic trauma surgeon, and it’s tiring just to read about her day, let alone live it. By 7 a.m., she has already done rounds and met her first patient: “Simple ankle fracture. A poster child for why you don’t wear six-inch heels and get drunk at a post-St. Patrick’s Day party.” She arrives home after 1 a.m. the next morning with still more work to do.

Lee Carroll-Levine, principal clarinet for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, doesn’t have it much easier. Before heading to work, she takes one of her two teenagers to school and fixes breakfast, lunch and dinner for the entire day—all by 9 a.m. Her description of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center should make every Nashvillian proud: “The architecture resembles something from Berlin or Vienna—very ‘old world’ and appropriate for classical music. But the interior design makes use of ultramodern technology to achieve near-perfect acoustics.”

In addition to chronicling the work day of 500 women, Cole and Rakhra have also culled some statistics from those experiences. Some of them are sad: 52 percent of these women are worried about money, and 31 percent work more than one job. Some are predictable: 37 percent found their co-workers annoying. But one stat was particularly hopeful: 57 percent of the women in Water Cooler Diaries said they were working their dream job.

Their stories are so compelling that it’s hard to leave them on the page. Did the paint tester go on to medical school? Is the used bookstore owner still in business? Did the calf live? This book is better than reality television because no one gets voted off the island and everyone deserves to be cheered on.