More degrading: Working 35 hours a week in fast food or 1 hour a week as a call girl? - Page 2

Fast food work or any sort of retail work is beyond degrading for most.

I got a 2 page document telling me how not to be different from the big boys at Music Land Corp. about a week ago. Funny shit. Sick and noisome, but funny.

Fast food sucks, like mikah I worked at Hardees for a while way back when. I just couldn't ever say, and this goes to mikah as well you just posted first Dev, that I would rather my daughter be a hooker than work in fast food. I have nothing against pros or there profession but if I had a daughter I wouldn't want to know she was having sex with her boyfriend/husband let alone strangers for cash.

I think one of the things you learn quickly in fast food jobs is that there is no point in being good. Otherwise they'd pay you more.

no, but i did learn that there is no shame in honest work.

I'd look at it the other way & say there is no shame in ripping off a company that is fucking you in the ass.

When that's all you can get (in my case, I had no papers, and neither did my family - the manager knew we had fake ones - so we would be threaten by them calling the INS. and he actually did with some other people), you learn to do your job well and not jepordize it.

Do your work to the best of your abilities no matter the circumstances. Maybe I was bought up wrong.

I believe what goes round, comes around.

I even get a good night's sleep every night.

wink

The question, then, is at what point is one exploited?

==
tr.v. ex·ploit·ed, ex·ploit·ing, ex·ploits (k-sploit, ksploit)
1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage: exploit one's talents.
2. To make use of selfishly or unethically: a country that exploited peasant labor. See Synonyms at manipulate.
3. To advertise; promote.
==

If you're fully aware of your duties and pay up front, regardless of how shitty a job is, are you truly being exploited in a free market?

Granted, in communities where there aren't many jobs, you might be forced to work in an exploitive situation, but most towns big enough to sustain a fast food place probably offer other job opportunities, don't you think? I'd say anyone who OPTS (not forced due to economic necessity) to work in fast food over another job is NOT being exploited.

Nelson, it sounds as though your situation was a bit different. You had motivations to work well at your FF job under threat of losing it. I did the gig off and on for three years, and at some points worked my ass off, and other times did D- work. I was rewarded for both equally. And I learned to only work hard for the people I liked, or when I felt like it.

By the end of my run I worked at the level expected of me, and when you're running grill or making sandwiches or running the register, you have lots of room for not caring. I think though, I knew this wouldn't be a job I would ever had once I graduated from high school, so I never had to take it too seriously.

No you weren't brought up wrong. But neither is the guy who believes that being treated like human shit isn't worth $6.50 an hour. I'm not saying punch customers. I'm saying bring home dinner. Grab some burgers for your friends. Don't pretend like an employer is doing you a favor. You're actually doing him/her a favor by working for so little.

I worked for Musicland (Sam Goody) all through high school. The one thing that always blew my mind was how out of touch the regional managers were. No matter how much you know about music you're still totally expendable to them because everybody wants to work in a record store.

Another interesting point. Nearly all folks working in the fast food industry know that their time there will be limited.

This is the same vibe I got when working factory jobs during my summers off from college. And it's the same vibe I got when working at a newspaper for sub-fast food wages right after college.

You've gotta start somewhere, and that somewhere is almost always shitty. I'm not sure that makes it "exploitation," though.

Don't you think hiring teens & immigrants for minimum wage (because they can't get a job anywhere else) is exploitive? They can afford to pay more, instead they take advantage of people who need to look to McDonalds (for instance) for job training (as horrible as that is).

I happen to agree they're nuts, but I know people who worked in fast food through high school, and there were certainly alternatives. Whether it was finding another part time job or giving up the spending money that allowed them luxuries, like CDs or seeing movies, they didn't NEED to work at McDonald's.

Some people just don't mind that sort of work as much as others.

I think it depends entirely on the circumstances. Like I said, I knew plenty of kids in high school who took on jobs at McDonald's and the like and had no problem with them, whatsoever.

Some teenagers don't necessarily NEED more than the low pay they're given. It's not a matter of survival, and starter jobs just start with low pay.

Like I said, I've actually earned less working as a newspaper reporter, post college graduation - the popular joke is that we were going to flee across the street and get comparatively high-paying jobs at Wendy's! I was a skilled worker, and I was getting paid less by the hour than untrained high school kids. The newspaper couldn't afford any more than that. That's just the way it goes. Now is a job exploitive simply due to the low pay or because the company can AFFORD to give more?

As for people in a bind, like immigrants and people who are trying to support entire families, it is arguably exploitive, but I think it depends in large part on the community. As mentioned, if there are other job opportunities for unskilled workers, I see no problem with fast food places paying as low as they want to.

I'd gladly let my non-existent (to my knowledge, anyway) daughter work the 35 hrs/wk if it was at In-N-Out Burger. Every one I've ever been to seems to have the happiest employees under the sun.

Actually if I recall right, from a couple friends who worked there, it was quite the place to work.

In-N-Out Burger, eh?

I can't tell: Is that the fast food option or the call girl option?

I liked working at McDonalds.

???

But was it better than when you were a call girl?

It sucked to work there in retrospect, and I'd be a call girl if i had a choice...or a gigolo...but I liked it when i was working there.

That makes NO sense.

And you were expecting?

Does it chaff the inner thigh, sitting on the fence like that?

C'mon Rath - love it or hate it? Pick a side!

But it makes his bulge appear bigger...

I liked it when I was working there, if only because I didn't know there was anything better.

Now I have vowed never to work there again. I'd rather be a call girl.

That still doesn't make sense...

You just enjoyed the way your manager prepared his Big N Tasty, didn't you?

And as to not derail the thread more: I'd rather be a call girl. Call girls dictate what they do, McDonald's employees don't. I worked at a supermarket for 2 years, wasn't too much fun either.