Catherwood LibraryILR School

On a recent book tour, Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of "Nickel and Dimed," was nearly brought to tears when an information technology marketer told her of growing so desperate after being laid off that she took a job as a janitor. At another reading, a woman complained of an economy so volatile that she did not think of jobs anymore, but of intermittent income streams from tasks like house-sitting and designing Web sites. Inspired by such tales, Ms. Ehrenreich has started an organization called United Professionals to help white-collar workers, be they unemployed, uninsured, downsized, stressed out or merely anxious.