I'm encouraging people to send me notes about your working life: What’s the worst smell in a slaughterhouse? How do you and your coworkers pass the time at McDonald's? What do you learn about the world from behind the counter at Sephora? What are the weirdest things customers do? What does the assembly line in your factory sound like? Give me specificity and detail! Make me laugh, recoil, weep. Part literary project, part labor reporting, part sociological survey. Studs Terkel for the digital age. Submit notes at alexnatashapress [at] gmail [dot] com
—Alex Press
one time a customer asked me to leave food inside the trash can because no one would steal it there / I had to take clothes to be washed / delivering a single pack of chewing gum late at night to a house only two blocks away—the customer insisted on contactless delivery but kept giving confusing directions and when I finally arrived, they asked me to place it on a chair in the driveway
going up inside those tall buildings and seeing the whole city below / you can travel just a few blocks and the culture, pace, and atmosphere completely change
once I delivered food to a model in a photography studio; they asked me to be part of the photo shoot / one time somebody invited me to share the meal with him but I was on duty and I can’t be working and having a meal / once I delivered food during a heavy rainstorm and the customer came outside with an umbrella and offered me a hot drink / it’s strange being made to wait outside a restaurant in the cold
in 2026, I’d like the companies to give back all the tips they’ve stolen / in 2026, I’d like the companies to remember that during the pandemic, we went out into the streets in fear to deliver everything people needed to their homes / in 2026, I’d like more respect and support for delivery workers
we are human beings, not machines / we have the right to work at least forty hours a week and not to be unfairly deactivated by corporate algorithms
we are not powerless / without us, these companies wouldn’t exist / ask their investors what they would do without us—would they deliver the food to customers themselves?
