Saturday, October 1, 2011

"Serving in Florida" from Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

     This story by Barbara Ehrenreich has allowed me to look at waiters and waitresses in a whole other perspective. I had no idea that what she wrote about happened in a restaurant. The life of someone in poverty seems quite hard. Barbara has a Ph.D. and she did this as an experiment. She learned a lot from this little journey and she wrote a best seller. I really liked this story although a lot of it was really sad. These people live in hotels, cars and terrible environments. They work so hard but they do not get what they deserve. The managers get everything and they do not do half as much as a typical waiter does. Waiters always seem so happy but that is because they have no choice, we have no idea what is really happening in their life and we (the customers) are not always very nice to them. I do not like to send back my food or drink if I am not fond of it because I feel so bad for all the work they put in. Restaurant workers are brave souls because they have to put up with so many stressful things. This was a well written story and although it was a little long, it did not seem that long because I could not stop reading. I really liked this story. I feel bad for waitresses because they usually are not happy and a customer that actually cares can tell.  Waiting on people all day and not really earning much from it can be quite stressful and I can understand why a waiter looks disheveled or just tired. 

2 comments:

  1. I love your blog!! I totally agree with you! I had no idea what kind of stuff servers had to go through. They put up with so much and get so little in return. Poverty is stricking american hard now-a days and this story outlines it pefectly. It addresses all the issues that people are faced with everyday not just servers. I mentioned the same thing in my post about how this story was a lot longer but it didnt really seem like it because it was written so well, in a way that didnt make you wanna stop reading it. I really liked this author, she did a fantastic job with this story and you come out of it with a new appreciation for the working class :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Kathleen,
    I agree with you this story really changed my outlook of people in poverty and the life of people who work in restaurants. I really liked this story too and it was sad to hear where they lived and the terrible environments they had to endure. It really opened my eyes about the lives of people who seem to always be happy but underneath they have such stress building up. I don’t like to send back food either I always feel bad and that there going to spit in my food. In the end, I liked this blog and the story was great too.
    Stefan

    ReplyDelete