Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein

Hi, I am Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, a freelance essayist, critic, and journalist. I write about the workplace, economic life, New York City, criminal justice and culture. I’ve written for numerous outlets including the Appeal, the Baffler, Harper’s, Mother Jones, the Nation, New York magazine, the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, and the New Yorker. I grew up in St. Paul, MN and live today in New York City.

I’m at work on a book for Harper about the authoritarianism of the American workplace and how it has made the dream of a democratic society impossible.

The book is called “Tyranny at Work.” It concerns the tools and laws—from “at-will” employment, to coercive contracts, surveillance, employer-driven debt, and mandatory arbitration—that make us uniquely unfree on the job, revealing how much of our lives is spent outside of democracy, and what a different arrangement might look like. The book is a blend of in-person reporting, historical narrative, and first person essay and analysis that attempt to clarify America as it is experienced by most working people today, from the highest paid workers laboring under constant surveillance to the most precarious, most overlooked, and lowest wage employees.