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The short story "A and P" wrote by John Updike and the article "Up Against Wal-Mart" wrote by Karen Olsson both share ideas on human existence in the work place. Such as the disrespect workers face, the lack of better career prospects and low wages. Workers are also made to change into what the company wants them to be and prevented from speaking their minds. People that work in businesses like Walmart and A and P, retail stores, are expected to behave and appear in whichever way the company sees fit. They are considered to represent the business and that means changing the way they dress and sometimes companies can even try to change the way their employees think. In each texts described it is seen that they both put emphasis on how the workers …show more content…
This can be seen in the story "A and P" when the young worker removes his apron and bow tie and states that the bow tie was the stores. "I fold the apron, "Sammy" stitched in red on the pocket, and put it on the counter, and drop the bow tie on top of it. The bow tie is theirs, if you've ever wondered." (A&P, John Updike) This shows that he does not see the bow tie as something that characterizes him, just as an image the store wanted him to appear as. This also seen in the article in multiple ways. Walmart campaigns strongly against unionization in their stores, they go as far as preventing associates from wearing clothing that may advocate unions and give employees who oppose unions buttons that are "pro-associate". "Employees opposed to the union were given "pro-associate" buttons to wear, while managers amended the dress code to exclude T-shirts with any kind of writing on …show more content…
Many foremen in a workplace will try to belittle workers of lower standard in order to get what they want from them, and over work their employees in order to save money on hiring more staff. Many times it is not only the managers that mistreat the workers but the customers do as well. At the beginning of the short story by John Updike, the young cashier was targeted by a customer when he accidently scanned an item twice, this cause a ruckus from the customer, "I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not. I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell…By the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag -- she gives me alittle snort in passing…". (A&P, John Updike) Many cashiers are disrespect on a daily bases and are looked down upon for the job they do. Disrespect directed at this cashier is also seen by his manager, in the sentence paired with the context of the story, "'Did you say something, Sammy?'". (A&P, John Updike) Maltreatment of staff can also be seen in the article by Karen Olsson, Walmart goes out of its way to make the wages of their associates as long as possible by cutting their hours and coercing managers to force employees to work overtime without extra pay. This was told by a former manager at Walmart who was interviewed, "In the Oregon wage-and-hour case, a former personnel manager
In Deenu Parmar's "Labouring the Wal Mart Way," the author discusses the business practices of Wal Mart, their impact on systemic poverty, and on existing work unions. Their business model forces competition to align with them, or close up shop. Wal Mart hires workers that would usually have a difficult time finding employment. That said, they pay them well below a living wage. Staff are also subject to abuses like overtime without pay. Wal Mart is resolute in their feelings towards unions. Their hiring process designed to cut out union sympathizers. This way, they can prevent any retaliation from staff seeking a better work environment. If anti-union efforts are unsuccessful, they close the store. It also forces existing unions to take pay
The Tucker vs. Walgreen Company was a nationwide known class action case. It fell into the category of race discrimination. This cases was brought to the attention of the law by African Americans who were employed at this retail and pharmacy store. This pledged that they were being discriminated to by the following acts:failure to move up in positions (promotion), dieing them the opportunity to apply for assistant manager and manager, and being assigned to an undesirable store for an extended period of time compared to whites. They filed a class action lawsuit with the demand of compensatory and punitive damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. Along with these demands, the plaintiffs desired class certification for those who have been previously affected by the defendant’s discriminatory acts as well as any who will suffer from them in the future.
Two Works Cited In John Updike’s "A & P," Sammy is accused of quitting his job for childlike, immature reasons. Nathan Hatcher states, "In reality, Sammy quit his job not on a matter of ideals, but rather as a means of showing off and trying to impress the girls, specially Queenie" (37), but Sammy’s motive runs much deeper than that. He was searching for a sense of personal gain and satisfaction. By taking sides with the girls, he momentarily rises in class to meet their standards and the standards of the upper-class.
Most of the time the cashier working at the place will treat the customer like complete garbage and not showing any concern for them. They often go through their routine of “Have a good day” when most of them could care less about how the rest of the customers day really goes. Squidward is always treating the customer awful. Squidward has lied to the customers and has said some nasty words to the customers. He has denied customers items such as salt and ice cubes. Squidward has also fallen asleep on the job many times which is disrespectful to the customer. All of these things Squidward has done, is something that the average fast food cashier is accustom to. This type of working habits represents fast food cashiers
The short story by John Updike called “A&P” is a very interesting little story. The way that it is written is quite amusing. It seems as though the story takes place around the seventies maybe, but the reader never really knows because it is not specified. One might think this is the time frame because of how Sammy, the narrator of the story, writes as if this is the time period in which he is living.
Employment is hard to find and hard to keep and a job isn’t always what one hoped for. Sometimes jobs do not sufficiently support our lifestyles, and all too frequently we’re convinced that our boss’s real job is to make us miserable. However, every now and then there are reprieves such as company holiday parties or bonuses, raises, promotions and even a half hour or hour to eat lunch that allows escape from monotonous workloads. Aside from our complaints, employment today for majority of American’s isn’t totally dreadful, and there always lies opportunity for promotion. American’s did not always experience this reality in their work places though, and not long past are days of abysmal and disgusting work conditions. In 1906 Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was published. His novel drastically transformed the way Americans felt about the unmitigated power corporations wielded in the ‘free’ market economy that was heavily propagandized at the turn of the century. Corporations do not have the same unscrupulous practices today because of actions taken by former President Theodore Roosevelt who felt deeply impacted by Sinclair’s famous novel. Back in early 1900’s in the meatpacking plants of Chicago the incarnation of greed ruled over the working man and dictated his role as a simple cog within an enormous insatiable industrial machine. Executives of the 1900’s meatpacking industry in Chicago, IL, conspired to work men to death, obliterate worker’s unions and lie to American citizens about what they were actually consuming in order to simply acquire more money.
Early in American history during colonial times and into the middle of the 19th centry, relations between employers and those whom they employed were many times hostile and adversarial. Sometimes these disagreements between employee and employer would explode into violent confrontations. Workers wether skilled or not would fight with management over improved/safer working conditions, fair pay, long exhausting hours by uniting and form...
Within an excerpt from, “The United States of Wal-Mart,” John Dicker explains that Wal-Mart is a troubling corporation. Dicker begins his article by discussing why the store is so popular within the news in an age of global terrorism, coming to the conclusion that Wal-Mart has a huge scope in the United States and that it has more scandals, lawsuits, and stories than any other supercenter. Continually, he goes on to explain that Wal-Mart outsources jobs and their companies demands makes it hard for employees to have livable wages and good working conditions. Furthermore, Dicker addresses the claim that Wal-Mart provides good jobs, by destroying this perception with statistics showing how employees live in poverty and that their union scene
Selling in Minnesota by Barbara Ehrenreich is about the disadvantages of working as a Walmart employee.the author talks about her experience with Walmart from the beginning when she stared orientation. Throughout the story the author is informing readers about what Walmart is doing to the workers and reasons not to work there for example she states “you might lose even your wages and benefits because she they would all be a risk…” with the little pay at Walmart that was given, Ehrenreich knew that it wasn't worth the labor hours what was given to her. She really didn't have a choice back in Minnesota because there wasn't a lot of jobs available and the wages were low. That is why she choose to stick with Walmart even though she didn't like the business that they were dealing with.
In the case of Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Dukes), the court found that there was a lack of significant proof that Wal-Mart had a general policy of discrimination (Schipani, 2013). The plaintiffs needed commonality to establish uniformed disparity within the Wal-Mart organization, and statistical evidence was deemed unworthy of proving this commonality (Schipani, 2013). The numbers were astounding; seventy-two percent of the hourly workforce of Wal-Mart are women, yet only 10% are store managers, and a mere 4% of female Wal-Mart employees are district managers (Bernardin & Russell, 2013). The numbers seem to reflect a painfully obvious presence of discrimination, and with Wal-Mart’s market power within its industry, it can be frightening to evaluate the impact their practices have on the American employment culture.
John Updike's A&P provides numerous perspectives for critical interpretation. His descriptive metaphors and underlying sexual tones are just the tip of the iceberg. A gender analysis could be drawn from the initial outline of the story and Sammy's chauvinism towards the female. Further reading opens up a formalist and biographical perspective to the critic. After several readings I began seeing the Marxist perspective on the surreal environment of A&P. The economic and social differences are evident through Sammy's storytelling techniques and even further open up a biographical look at Updike's own view's and opinions. According to an essay posted on the internet Updike was a womanizer in his own era and displayed boyish immaturity into his adulthood. A second analysis of this story roots more from a reader-response/formalist view. Although Sammy centered his dramatization around three young females, more specifically the Queen of the trio, it was a poignant detailed head to toe description of scene. I'll touch on that later.
He made his employees feel as if working at the stores was an abyss of opportunities. He taught them customer approach, which involved looking the customer in the eye, greeting them and finally inquiring how the employees could assist the customer (Williams, 2007). Today the company...
The most significant component of Wal-Mart’s success was the way it treated its employees or as they are known as in Wal-Mart “associates”, the beliefs or rules of the Wal-Mart culture makes associates want to provide excellent service to its customers. During visits Walton encouraged associates to pledge to greet customers and ask if they assist them or walking into a Wal-Mart store customers are met by a greeter, an associate who welcomed them and handed out shopping carts (Farhoomand, 2006).
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our society. From grocery shopping, to changing your oil and even filing your annual tax returns, Walmart is always there, everyday. Started by Sam Walton in 1962, it began as a small operation catering to a small Arkansas community. It was started on principles very similar to small local businesses in small towns. Today Walmart has gotten a different, darker reputation. On the surface, Walmart may seem like the solution to everyday issues. Low-income families are attracted to the low prices, and people who work odd hours benefit greatly from the 24 hours a day that many Walmarts are open. Lately, Walmart has also managed to be publicly recognized as a store that sells many of today’s green products, including organic food, environmental conscious cleaning products, as well as, paper products made from recycled paper. However, underneath all this, Walmart has a different side. Exploitation of its workers is widespread amongst Walmarts who do not belong to a union, especially in the United States. Wal...
Employee stakeholders have another story. The discrimination lawsuits ranging from female employees not getting equal pay or equal positions, to disabled employees, class-action lawsuits stating that Wal-Mart doctors questionnaires to prevent disabled workers from applying, Wal-Mart does not rank very high with these employees. Lawsuits stemming from Wal-Mart’s failure to monitor labor conditions at oversea factories and hires illegal immigrants add to the rift in relations between the employees and the company. Wal-Mart continues to deny charges...