The story by Stuart Tannock, "On the Front Lines of the Service Sector" reminds me a lot of my experiences at McDonalds. The stress she describes is very true. There would be days when you would be doing all you possibly could and customers were still very rude. It really ticks you off when cutomers that you can tell are "hicks" call you stupid for something you didn't do. The disrespect from customers was so great that sometimes you couldn't brush it off your shoulder and keep working. I had a manger that was Jamacian. He was a good manager and knew what he was doing. One day this old customer came in and the manager was making food. The customer yells "I don't want that nigger making my food." People look down on workers in fast food joints or grocery stores so much and some of the workers there aren't that dumb. Granted some of them are really dumb but I don't think they can help themselves. I had a manager that was top in his class in pre-med. He was just working there to pay or gas and they worked with his schedule well.
Another point stressed by Tannock is the low wages. When I started working at McDonalds I was making 6.50 an hour. I was making that much while doing seven people's jobs. There would be times I wouldn't get a break for hours and would be dying of thirst. It was a hard stressful job for little pay. I eventually worked my way up to about 7.80 but that's still not enough to really live on. It really got you down when some of the managers would come in with their company paid cars and sit in the office and not come out and help you.
I think many people put down people that work at those types of places but they are working harder than a secretary and making less. Why do you think they have Mexicans working there now? For one they will take any wage and secondly they will work their butts off. Many kids now a days refuse to get their hands dirty. I think many kids are spoiled rotten and have everything handed to them. They don't know the meaning of work. After all is said and done though I am glad I am out of McHell, as we use to call it, and in a somewhat better environment. It's still a grocery store but I'll take it. It gives me a little challenge.

Blogs On a Boring Snow Day

Today, due to the weather, there was no school and I am very grateful for that. Although I did not have my lovely English 150 class so I will try to make this blog involve a little more information than usual to make up for loss of class time (I have to suck up every now and then to show that I care).
Anyways the two stories involved in today's blog are "She Works, He Doesn't" by Tyre and McGinn and "Doctor's Daughter" by McMurray. The overall theme or subject in these stories is women's responsibilities and abilities in the millennium. The ability of women to work and keep their responsibilities as a mother at home.
In our grandparents' or even parents' ages, women were urged to find a man that would provide for the family they would have together. The man was the "breadwinner" and the woman was the "stay-at-home mom" that would clean and tender the home. Well as we all see times have changed and these two stories are examples of this
In "She Works, He Doesn't" it was the intention of one couple to have a traditional family. That tradition had to change when the man was laid off and the woman had to pick up the slack. The term laid off and unemployment are words we hear too often lately which is a reason many women work. It use to be traditionally that a woman would look for a well off stable man but according to Maria Cancian, men consider women a good catch based off of their salaries. Many even agree that it is hard to have a couple with careers and a family. They say they would like more time with their children so one drops their career. They may even flip flop between breaks in each person's career to spend time with the family.
In the second story "Doctor's Daughter" Julia McMurray talks about her childhood. The stories she heard about her father's and her mother's work as doctors before she was born begin her talk. Her mother became a stay at home mom after she was pregnant so she could take care of family situations while Julia's father was always on call for the hospital. Once again this brings up the topic of women working. Her mother was a doctor and had the capability of supporting the family. Well Julia became a doctor but when she started having children she saw what her mother had gone through. Julia made the choice to work part time to take care of her children but even that was hard at times. Overall Julia kept working and still made time for her family.
Even though these two stories expressed their meanings in different ways, the themes were still similar. Work and family are hard things to juggle and I believe that it is possible to be successful and take care of a family. I believe women are much stronger than what some believe them to be. In the end though, man or woman, work and family are important but make sure work does not over power family.

Response to Second-Grade Teacher # 4

In reading this selected story, a question afterwards stated," From reading the selections, how do you think an individual can make his or her outlook and approach to work more positive and rewarding?" My response is similar to the one in the "Second-Grade Teacher", you have to enjoy what you do and be passionate about it. Even if you can't be passionate about your job at least find one thing you find enjoyable while at work.
For example, I use to work at a McDonald's. I'll tell you it sucked, horribly. There would be times I would only get 1 break or none at all for an 8 hour shift. There would be times where it would be me and one other person running the whole restaurant and cutomers would be getting so angry at us for not being fast enough when we were doing the best we could.
With all that turmoil I found some enjoyment out of working there. For one I got a free meal everyday that I worked so that saved me from buying food and wasting my money. Another thing I did was joke around with employees and managers. They were all grouchy and didn't want to be there either so we joked around a lot. Like one time we took a piece of hamburger meat and left it on the grill for a half hour and when we took it out it crumbled ha ha. We even put a pickle in the fryer to make fried pickles but that didn't turn out so well.
Just little actions like that can make one's work enviroment a little more enjoyable. Although I may have enjoyed to an extent working at a fast food joint, some may be sitting at a desk all day starring at a computer screen. If that's the case read a newspaper to check up on politics or sports and it may even strengthen your vocablulary. Work can be enjoyable but it's up to the employee to make that possible.

1st Blog Creation

Hello to anyone bored enough to read this or Captain Kirk, Sir-Your highness soon to be Dr Boyle. This is a lovely blog created by me for my 150 English class. To be quiet honest I am going to flat out say this, I am not very good at writing so forgive me now for the awfulness anyone may possibly read. I am more of a personal one on one kind of gal. This blog will feature responses to readings or disscusions I may have throughought this spring semester. Enjoy!