Shakespeare on the Shop Floor: Literature at Work and in the Community

At the Philadelphia-area manufacturer GGBearings, employees representing every corner of the plant--from the company president to machinists, engineers, and finance staff members--have assembled in the conference room. The balanced mix of men and women varies in age, race, and background. Some are i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Liberal Education 2019-03, Vol.105 (2), p.38-43
Main Author: Smith, Ann Kowal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academically Gifted
Analysis
Books and reading
Classics (Literature)
Clubs
Collaboration
College Faculty
Communication Skills
Community Relations
Elizabethan drama
Employees
Engineers
Females
General Education
Group Discussion
Humanistic education
Industry
Interpersonal Relationship
Job Performance
Learning
Liberal Arts
Literature
Manufacturing
Nonprofit organizations
Pilot Projects
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Presidents
Reading Programs
School Business Relationship
Skilled Workers
Social aspects
Veterans
Workers
Workplace diversity
Workplace Learning
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Summary:At the Philadelphia-area manufacturer GGBearings, employees representing every corner of the plant--from the company president to machinists, engineers, and finance staff members--have assembled in the conference room. The balanced mix of men and women varies in age, race, and background. Some are in uniform, others in business-casual dress. A few wear steel toed shoes and have safety goggles strapped to their heads. At first glance, the gathering might appear to be a typical factory meeting. Leading the discussion, though, is not the company president but a literature professor from Bryn Mawr College. The topic? Othello. While a four-hundred-year-old play whose main characters speak in iambic pentameter might not seem related to a twenty-first-century manufacturing plant, it turns out that Shakespeare has a lot to offer contemporary employees. This article describes the reading program at GGBearings. Run by the nonprofit Books@Work, it is much more than a book club for nostalgic English majors. It is a bridge between a liberal education and the workplace which delivers book and story discussions facilitated by local college professors. It aims to demonstrate the impact of literature in workplaces and communities across the country and around the globe.
ISSN:0024-1822