Short stories/poems for literacy classes - suggestions please!

[Isla1648]

I'm about to run a summer Book Club for adult English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) - intermediate level language skills, averagely.

I've been told that any stories or poems have to have be related to job hunting, being in work, seeking promotion, training etc. For funding purposes, I understand.

This rather limits me. I'm used to running a BC in my day job where there are no such restrictions.

I'm trying hard to source materials on the internet - stories short enough for students to be able to read in-between sessions and then discuss in class.

I have found some great Haiku poems about working under lockdown. www.thehaikufoundation.org/2017/11/22/haiku-in-the-workplace-miscommunication/
This won't apply to all of them but they're worth discussing and I might encourage students to write their own Haiku.

Any suggestions would be welcome! I've looked at literacy sites, BBC, British Council etc but can see very little that would be usable. I think I could easily throw in eg a mystery or crime short story into the mix.

Do you need short stories or would an extract from a novel be useful?

Do they need to be fiction or could you use something lime this?
time.com/collection/coronavirus-heroes/5816885/frontline-workers-coronavirus/

Another option could be to poke through Reddit - there are boards devoted to bad bosses and experience of working retail. It was published in 1999, but I imagine a decent library could get you a copy.

There is also the Oxford Book of Work, which is, like other Oxford compendiums, a mix of fiction, non-fiction and various forms of writing.

Wow, that's a tricky one! Language level and very restrictive themes. I'm guessing you've already looked at the graded readers offered by publishers (look in the ELT or ESOL catalogues).

Some ideas:
Poems: Thirty Bob a Week - John Davidson; Dolor - Theodor Roetke; The Song of the Shirt - Thomas Hood; More Time - Linton Kwesi Johnson; Toads - Philip Larkin; Mrs Sisyphus - Carol Ann Duffy; Ebb - Derek Walcott; Leisure - W H Davies (All from Penguin's Poems for Life, and mostly not really bigging up the pleasure of working!) Also the Penguin Book of modern women's short stories, ed Susan Hill, has some stories in it which are work-related - I particularly remember Slaves to the Mushroom by Shena McKay and The man who kept the sweet shop at the bus station by Helen Harris. There may be some others.
Good luck!

Ted Chiang - Stories of your life and others have a high work component but some of his are really long. Liking What You See: a Documentary could be considered work related if you pushed it hard enough

Digging by Seamus Heaney?

Been thinking about this overnight. You have to use the term 'work's as broadly as possible I think.

Woman work by Maya Angelou
This is a good list of poems. Larkin's Toads is his most famous poem about work but Livings is also about work. Might be worth looking for poems about specific jobs rather than just 'work'.

Thinking about short stories Francis Spufford wrote a book of essays about British Engineering which is really interesting called 'Backroom Boys'. Lots of science anthologies talk about the work behind the discoveries. Some of the Little House in the Praire books are quite episodic and could easily stand alone so e.g. a chapter about Pa building their house would fit. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck interweaves the main story with more generic chapters about the move west looking for work, some of those might stand alone. There must be other books about the great depression about looking for work?