Justin Yap
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Shawna Ryan English 93 07/15/08 Low Wage Jobs Are Insufficient Have you ever wondered on how people survive by living on minimum wage? If so, have you ever wondered what it is like? Author Rose Castillo Guilbault, who wrote “The Conveyor Belt Ladies”, talks about her experience working as a conveyor belt lady who picks up bad tomatoes from the conveyor belt. Author Eric Schlosser, who wrote “Fast Food Nation: Behind the Counter” describes how fast food chains work as a factory production. On the other hand, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed” decided to work on a project to understand how people survive on minimum age. Guilbault, Schlosser and Ehrenreich, authors of three different writings, writes about low wage skills and low wage jobs on how people get through each day while showing few examples of what those people do in their everyday life. Guilbault’s working experience as a conveyor belt lady talks about her personal summer job experience at tomato sorting plants. Guilbault’s relationships with her managers were strictly, "get to work and stop talking." She found her way to talk to her co-workers while still having fun at the same time. “He would stamp his foot and forbid us from talking until break time” from “The Conveyor Belt Ladies” written by Rose Castillo Guilbault, mentions how the supervisor didn’t quite understand English, but knew the ladies were laughing and talking about him. As you can see, her supervisor is easy going. Guilbault states, “I would have preferred working in a dress shop or babysitting like my friends, but I had a dream that would cost a lot of money -college- and the fact was that sorting tomatoes was the highest-paying work in town.”
Yap 02 If he were not easy going, she would have likely been babysitting just like her friends. She also talks about her experiences that she had with her co-workers as they were always giggling and laughing with each other during work. Guilbault mentions that, “they were an entertaining group, easing the long, monotonous hours with bawdy humor and spicy gossip.” This shows that her relationship with her co-workers was more like a family since they were able to gossip. At work, she got respect since her co-workers were able to have fun with her and gossip which shows that they respect her and she is a person who they can trust. As Guilbault states, “I learned to respect the conveyor belt ladies.” The factory runs as your typical factory runs with assembly lines, which is an arrangement of machines, tools, and workers in which a product is assemble by having each perform a specific, successive operation on an incomplete unit as it passes by in a series of stages organized in a direct line. Overall, Guilbault’s work experience was having her treated as if she was a human and not as a robot, which is program to do certain things. Schlosser explains the fast food chain industry as if it was a factory due to their machines and to their employees. In his writing, Schlosser gives us an idea of what the relationship is with the management, impersonal. He does not show that McDonalds gives a personal relationship with an employee, but instead more of machines like personality. Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation: Behind the Counter” claims, “the management no longer depends upon the talents or skills of its workers – those things are built into operating system and machines.” This shows that fast food industries, such as McDonalds in Colorado Springs, does not really show care towards their employees but instead of getting the job done and getting the most orders out in a fast, speedy time, throughput. As far as we know, Schlosser’s implied message of the relationship with co-workers would most likely be the same with the management since one third
Yap 03 of employees speak no English at all, but instead the items that are on the menu, also known as “McDonald’s English.” According to Schlosser, “the fast food industry now employs some of the most disadvantaged members of American society. It often teachers basic job skills – such as getting to work on time – to people who can barely read, whose lives has been chaotic or shut off from the mainstream.” I would assume the only relationship with co-workers an employee can get working at a fast food industry is if both side of the employees speak the same native tongue or if they knew each other before they were hired. Employees who work in McDonalds treat as if they were robots or machines. The management does not care about the other employee’s personal life as far as we can imply from Schlosser’s writing- just get the job done. How the restaurant runs is if the employees were robots or machines. Based on Schlosser’s writing, “the labor practices of the fast food industry have their origins in the assembly line systems adopted by American manufacturers in the early twentieth century.” This shows that the American manufacturers use machines to replace manual labor that saves the company money and at the same time, produce more. Ehrenreich’s experience towards the low wage job is tough and depressing since she is experimenting on how people survive with low wage jobs. Ehrenreich’s relationships with the managers are negative and dehumanized. According to Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed,” claims that, “I try to refuel with a purloined cup of clam chowder…but Stu catches me and hisses ‘No eating!’ although there’s not a customer around to be offended by the sight of food making contact with the server’s lips.” This shows that even when the customers are not around and when the employees are hungry, the managers will not allow employees to eat when they are hungry. It really shows how management for low wage jobs, such as waitressing, can be
Yap 04 so rude and dehumanized, and cannot even let an employee to eat a small thing. Especially if an employee is taking on two jobs, there ought to be some kind of meal or snack in between jobs. Ehrenreich’s management with co-workers is both good and bad since they have a negative attitude while also showing loyalty and helpfulness. According to Ehrenreich, “we form a reliable mutual-support group: if one of us is feeling sick or overwhelmed, another one will ‘bev’ a table or even carry trays for her. If one of us is off sneaking a cigarette or a pee, the others will do their best to conceal her absence from the enforcers of corporate rationality.” This shows that her co-workers are nice and will do their best to help the other co-worker cover up while they do their own business such as using the bathroom. How people treat in the low wage jobs is that people are easily replaceable since people are constantly leaving the job and people hired. The low wage job keeps their sign up majority of the time saying, “Now Hiring” since people is in and out most of the time. How the restaurants run is by the book explaining specific details what you do in your job and what kind of responsibilities the employee should be taking care of during work. Most low wage jobs have manuals, which explain policies and dress code; I know I did that for my job when I employed at a large retail store, Abercrombie & Fitch. To conclude this, low wage jobs are not always a negative thing since you also have the chance of meeting new and friendly people who are willing to help you, just like Guilbault and Ehrenreich. Unlike Schlosser, employees is dehumanized since they are treated like robots or machines who is just told what to do and managers expecting them doing their job fast in a timely manner. Guilbault’s experience upon work was positive and memorable since she left her job at the end of the summer feeling good and joyful. As for Ehrenreich, her experience is all over the place since she is constantly meeting new people and finding different jobs. On the
Yap 05 other hand, Schlosser writes only detail information about McDonalds and does not show any relationship with co-workers. All three writings have a similar connection since they write about how low wage jobs are simple and dealing with a fast working environment. Low wage jobs should have their pay high enough at least to get people started in life since nowadays people are struggling to get the next month’s rent due.