Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed shined a light on the hardships encountered by the average low wage worker. I admire Enrenreich for giving up her comfortable life as a middle class citizen with a stable job, cozy home, and a car, to experience living as an unskilled low wage worker.
I find it astonishing how people have the assumption that just by having a job, everything else will miraculously fall into place. In the passage Ehnrenreich writes, “… is that work will lift poor women out of poverty while simultaneously inflating their self esteem and hence their future value in the labor market”. This belief that dwells in the minds of many people, clearly portray their ignorance toward those who have to work one or more full time, minimum wage jobs, in an attempt make ends meet.
In the passage, Ehrenreich tells about her experience during a “meeting” that the restaurant managers held. She spoke about how the managers, lacking respect, spoke distastefully. She also spoke of how it was just the managers that were talking. The staff was not given a chance to provide any sort of input. There was a point in time when Ehrenreich attempts to give some input, expecting the rest of the staff to support her. Unexpectedly, the staff stood silent. In the passage Ehrenreich writes, “… and I throw in my two bits about the vacuum cleaner. But I don’t see any backup coming from my fellow servers”. This showed her “middle class” thinking. In a middle class instance, employees would willingly speak up about issues that they have in terms of the workplace. However, these unskilled workers know how hard it is to find a job and therefore, would prefer to deal with their unpleasant working environment; rather than speak up and risk losing their job.
No comments:
Post a Comment