Questions on Ehrenreich

1.      Why does Ehrenreich so dislike management? Consider her response to the meeting at the beginning of the essay, and her confrontations with Stu throughout. Do you think she’s right to be untrusting of management?

·         Because a lot of people who get a management position become hypocrites and shady. They don’t really seem to care about the employees. They like to abuse their authority. In the mandatory meeting there was no “we” as a team, it seemed the regional manager only talked about how lazy, and filthy the employees were. Stu was a hypocrite, because he was the one suspected of doing drugs, while he told the team that there would be mandatory drug screening.

2.      What are some of the ways that Ehrenreich’s fellow workers live? What kinds of homes do they have (or not have)? Write out at least three examples. 

·         Every worker she asked had very poor living conditions. Andy lives on a dry docked boat (small 20 ft. vessel).   Joan lives in a van she parks behind a shopping center.  And Tina lives in a hotel that’s $60 a night.

3.      Does Ehrenreich’s background (especially the way she grew up) contribute to why she does this project or how she believes about low-income workers? Give some examples of why.

·         Her parents were hard working, blue collar citizens. Her father was a copper miner, who went to school and became senior executive at the Gillette Corporation. Her mother was a liberal Democrat. This might have sparked her interest in her experiment. It sounds like her mother was really into politics and protesting, and talked a lot about racial injustice.

4.      Ehrenreich is working these jobs and attempting to live on low-income wages in spite of the fact that she has a “real” job (she’s a biology professor at a university in Florida) at the time she’s writing this (she took a break for a few months in order to do this experiment). Can she really understand what it is to be a waitress? Why or why not?

·         I think she did understand the struggles of waitressing. She did it for a while, and actually got two jobs and she observed every detail. She engaged in many conversations with the employees as well. Plus she only had a little money to start. I thought she captured and experienced restaurant work perfectly. This could also affect her normal life, once she goes out to eat. She will respect their profession more and probably tip better in the future, or not complain as much because she actually got to put herself in their shoes.

5.      Towards the end of the essay, the management gives a waitress the “gift” of being able to live out of her car on the motel property. Ehrenreich interprets this gift as cruel, and feels that the management should’ve gone more out of their way to help the waitress. Others have criticized Ehrenreich for this view and claimed that the manager was giving more than he had to in this case. What do you think? How responsible should an employer be for aiding an employee?

·         I think the management could help out more with making sure the health benefits were properly processed, and maybe help with letting them have “free” food, and proper breaks. As far as housing, what can you do? I know I wouldn't have the money to lend for housing. Management can only help so much. There is good management and corrupt management. It all depends on what type of person they are.