I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating.
Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becoming, a chef.
On the kitchen thread, try Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, which describes his experience as a dishwasher in 1930's Paris.
For an interesting study of casual labor in the gig economy for house painters in the 1910's, see The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell,
Anthony Sampson's The Seven Sisters about the oil industry was also good although pretty old at this point. It does go into how the powers split things up post-WWI though.
Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becoming, a chef.