The Rhetorical Analysis on Serving in Florida People slave for a number of hours of work and find themselves with minimum wage salaries and working with people they don’t want to be around with. In her article Serving in Florida, Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover as a low-wage worker for various jobs to expose the working conditions of working class Americans. Throughout her essay, she discusses how the employees are fearful of losing their jobs even though they are forced to work in inhumane conditions such as long hours, with no breaks between shifts. While undercover, Ehrenreich attempts to make an argument on how the upper and middle class can find it difficult to survive under minimum wage jobs and allow readers to figure out what can be done to change the restaurant business. Barbara starts her undercover mission with her first job as a waitress in Hearthside restaurant. From her experience, I can understand how exhausting her job was with the hourly shifts the staff worked under, especially with the manager Stu always keeping the workers busy. When she was reading USA Today, she had to vacuum with a broken vacuum cleaner. She found the attitude of her manager towards his staff insulting. For example, one …show more content…
They have no support or any opportunity to attain a degree because they continuously work to pay their bills. On the other hand, I realized that individuals in low-paying jobs are also the ones who made their choices to obtain their perspective jobs and they are the ones that have to deal with the consequences. Though I have to disagree because as individuals, one thing we believe in is we are stronger together and if we do not help one another in times of need then we are going against our own beliefs. Everyone makes mistakes because we are of course human and we are obliged to help one
The invisible workforce consists of the low-wage workers that face harsh working conditions, a few or no benefits, and long hours of labor that exceed the regular business week. Barbara Ehrenreich, narrates her experience of entering the service workforce, in the book Nickel and Dimed. She proves that getting by in America working a minimum wage job is impossible. Although, the book was written in the 1990’s, the conditions in which minimum wage workers lived still prevail today. Minimum wage no longer serves its original purpose of providing a living wage for the invisible workforce.
Since the Industrial Revolution in the United States of America, working conditions for women and minorities have not been given equal pay or top positions in the work place. Women being degraded by the men in charge, and minorities constantly at odds with one another so they will not form a Union. Such things keep those with low-status in the job in line, and not feel they are equal to the ones in charge. People from other countries are in search for a better life elsewhere, and take the risk of going to the United States illegally to seek out the American Dream. The articles Working at Bazooms by Meika Loe and At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die by Charlie LeDuff deal with the working conditions for women and minorities. Workers in both articles have to deal with having terrible working conditions, harassment in the workplace, low-status within the job, and the constant fear of job loss.
In her unforgettable memoir, Barbara Ehrenreich sets out to explore the lives of the working poor under the proposed welfare reforms in her hometown, Key West, Florida. Temporarily discarding her middle class status, she resides in a small cheap cabin located in a swampy background that is forty-five minutes from work, dines at fast food restaurants, and searches all over the city for a job. This heart-wrenching yet infuriating account of hers reveals the struggles that the low-income workers have to face just to survive. In the except from Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich uses many rhetorical strategies to illustrate the conditions of the low wage workers including personal anecdotes of humiliation at interviews, lists of restrictions due to limited
In her narrative, “Serving in Florida”, she describes life as low income American through her experiences as a hotel maid. Ehrenreich vividly describes the inhumane working conditions in which many Americans must endure in order to survive. Employees are fearful of losing their jobs if they do not meet the certain demands of managers who unfairly exert control on them. In addition, Ehrenreich addresses a common misconception among Americans, that those living in poverty are not hard working people, she proves this to be an unfair portrayal of the underprivileged. Ehrenreich works alongside Maria, a Hispanic woman who is the housekeeping manager and Carla, an African American woman who is also a maid. Carla and Ehrenreich are given nineteen rooms to clean with one half hour break. Carla suffers from joint pain which causes her to move slowly. Ehrenreich notes that Carla’s slow pace will probably result in the loss of her job at the hotel because of the other immigrant workers who are much faster than she. Even Carla is fully aware that she is not valued as an employee, “She broods, too, about all the little evidences of disrespect that come her way, and not only from management. ‘They don’t care about us,’ she tells me of the hotel guests; in fact, they don’t notice us at all unless something gets stolen from a room— ‘then they’re all over you’” (277). Individuals such as Carla are extremely hard working, but despite their strong work ethic, low income citizens are seen as disposable by their employers. Not only are they looked down upon by their employers, but they also are treated with disrespect by the people in which they serve. The guests make automatic assumptions because she is from a lower class standing. They assume that she must degrade herself to theft in order to survive because she is not as fortunate. The
In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich, a prominent and prolific journalist in Florida, posed an interesting question to her editor: “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled” (Ehrenreich, 2001, p. 1). In this idea, Ehrenreich set out on a journey to discover just how “the other half” lived on the low wages that they receive. During her project, Ehrenreich set out playing the role of a divorcee hoping to re enter the workforce by taking on the task of finding an unskilled, low paying job in hopes to see just how the poorer class made it with such low pay. Throughout the book, Ehrenreich takes jobs that pay typically between 5to 7 dollars per hour. It is interesting to look into how the attitude of Ehrenreich changes in respect to the
In “Serving in Florida,” author Barbara Ehrenreich describes her month-long project: living in relative poverty as a minimum wage worker. Her thesis is that earning only minimum wage contributes to a life of struggle and finds that she cannot make ends meet. Ehrenreich describes her job hunting journey and how she tries to survive in a low-wage job, working as a diner waitress in Key West, Florida. Finding a job, Ehrenreich describes her trials working with non-sympathetic management and rude customers. An example she mentions is that “managers can sit—for hours at a time if they want—but it’s their job to see that no one else ever does, even when there’s nothing to do.” She also expresses in the article
In understanding how my worldview was subconsciously constructed by my life experiences from the past nineteen years, I had to first think about my roots. I was born in Tampa, Florida to a Puerto Rican mother and white father. They divorced when I was too young to remember, and while I did have a relationship with my dad, I lived with my mother and was raised in a tight-knit Puerto Rican family, often times being cared for by my grandmother. I was an only child for ten years which I’m sure has impacted my personality, and at ten I got a baby sister whom I am very close to. Growing up in Florida was interesting because I was half white and half Hispanic, which mirror the main demographics of Florida well, but I never quite fit in with either group because while I look very white and this is what people perceive me as, I was not raised by the white side of my family but rather the Puerto Rican side. Still, I don’t quite fit into this group either because I don’t speak perfect Spanish at home and most Hispanic people treat me as an “outgroup” and not one of them.
Hsu, Tiffany, ed. "Nearly 90% of fast-food workers allege wage theft, survey finds." Los Angeles
Barbara Ehrenreich was faced with many problems in her undercover role as a low wage American worker. Some of the hardships she faced were malnutrition, invasion of privacy, being underpaid, and inequality. Ehrenreich describes the “culture of extreme equality’ as a never-ending cycle.She describes how upper level management is at such a higher economical position to that of the workforce they employ. These people in upper level positions create a repression of the people they employ by using such tactics like searching bags and giving them prescreening drug tests. In return the cost of these services are expensive which keeps low wages low. Barbara even compares her experiences to the larger economy in that of cutting public services to the
We are appalled by the facts presented and we think that it’s not right anymore. The author wants us to see the truth behind the working conditions and feel like they are unacceptable. I feel as though we should protest the laws in place now that enable the dangerous conditions of these workplaces. As mentioned before, the “OSHA Reform Act” should be repealed because it prohibits OSHA from being able to inspect the factories. I think this is unacceptable and unethical because the act was put in place so factories do not lose money. Also, the rules in place at fast food restaurants, such as being trained before starting the job, should be more brutally enforced to ensure the workers’ safety. When I worked at a restaurant, the manager sometimes slacked on executing the rules so I didn’t know much about the job. I worked in a pizza restaurant that used cornmeal on the pans so the dough didn’t stick. When the cook took the pizza out of the oven, the cornmeal would fall on the floor making it slippery, but the manager never explained how to clean this up. Because of this, I would always slip on the piles of cornmeal while getting a pizza. Instead of owners and managers of fast food restaurants being worried about getting workers on the job more quickly, I think they should take their time explaining the job more carefully to prevent injury in the long
It is almost automatic when Americans meet a stranger in a social setting to ask “What do you do for a living?” This question is not surprising given that adults spend most of their waking hours at work than spending time with family and friends. Work, for most people, is the defining aspect of life and thus becomes an individual’s identity outside of the workplace. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines identity as: The distinguishing character or personality of an individual (401). Today’s Americans are consciously or subconsciously bringing their work identities home, ultimately affecting social status, standard of living, relationships, and resulting personal sacrifices.
Work. How many different ways can there be to write about work? Well, the author of "Serving in Florida", Barbara Ehrenreich, lives a privileged lifestyle which gives her the option to leave her low income job allowing her to be more critical and judgmental of low income jobs in comparison to Lars Eighner, the author of "On Dumpster Diving", who is trapped, being homeless, so he is more accepting of people who have low income jobs, or no jobs at all. Although, there are many similarities between these two pieces, the author's background plays a large role in their writing style and opinions of similar topics.
Lack of education can leave those with low-level or no qualifications at all which could lead to the individuals struggling to find full or part time work which results in low or no money whatsoever to be able to
The truth about the fast food industry is they only care about making money and nothing else. First of all, the workers are treated poorly in many different ways. They don't care about anything except money, even though it's their workers. One way they are treated poorly is by how much they are getting paid. On page 76 it says, “One of the reasons fast-food workers leave their jobs so often is that the pay is so low”.
The owners, bourgeoisie, of the restaurant did not have to sell the burgers and fries themselves, but I the worker, proletarian, sell their products and is compensated at the minimum wage of $8 dollars an hour. “A wage labor is what is absolutely necessary to keep the laborer in t bare existence as a laborer” (Ruiz, 2017). If there was no minimum wage law, I am sure that I would have been paid far less and faced greater exploitation. I worked before attending my afternoon classes, and work whenever I had no classes like on the weekend. However, I started disliking my job about after six months because my hours were unexpectedly cut short. I worked 4 hours shift, and between 4-5 days a week. When sells are low, the managers would start sending workers home. I would be sent home, and never even make the hours that I was scheduled to work. This treatment became absurd when the managers hired more, new workers, and my schedule was once a week. “While wage earners are free to quit or refuse a particular job, they nevertheless must sell their labor power to someone in the capitalist class in order to live” (Applerouth 2017:24). Eventually, I decided to resigned to focus only on school since I cannot save any money while working there, thus my labor’s value was deemed to be