|
Paradoxish posted:I think it's questionable how far these jobs could be improved before they just end up being replaced by automated solutions. A lot of work in the service and retail industries is considered bad in part because it involves rote, menial tasks. There's also the bigger issue that improving the working environment doesn't necessarily improve the job, so we're back to the idea that there's no real personal value in the work beyond financial compensation. Getting that financial compensation can be made less arduous, but that doesn't mean workers are getting more out of their jobs. I think he does have a point that, in addition to the drudgery and low pay, a significant part of what makes low wage work so unpleasant is the attendant sneering/social abuse workers in those positions endure fairly regularly. Not to play into the hands of those on the right that love to bleat about the "dignity of work" (usually as cover for cutting benefits for, say, single mothers on welfare), but working a fast food counter would likely suck less if people didn't treat those doing it as losers/burnouts deserving nothing but contempt.
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2014 18:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 05:54 |
|
|
I'm a huge fan of George Orwell, the consequence of having read 1984 at far too young an age, and for my money his two best books (hard to choose, admittedly) are Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier, both of which deal in large part with the conditions of the working class/the poor in the interwar period. There's several passages in Down and Out that I think is relevant to this discussion, that come from his reflections on his time working as a plongeur in Paris kitchens:quote:A plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure. And educated people, who should be on his side, acquiesce in the process, because they know nothing about him and consequently are afraid of him.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2014 21:03
|
|