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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Stories I'm Reading: Nickel and Dimed



When I went to purchase Kathy G's memoir, I found another book that I couldn't resist purchasing. I know Barbara Ehrenreich from Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy which she wrote with Arlie Hochschild. It's called Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. Barbara is an activist and journalist and is the author of many amazing stories of a similar nature and I was confident that this book would be enlightening, especially consider the high rate of unemployment and the current state of the economy. In this one she goes undercover to test the idea that low-wage workers or the 'working poor' are unskilled and lazy and that getting a higher-paying job is the way to defeat poverty. I am only half way through but she has thus far described working as a waitress, a housecleaner Merry Maids, and a dietary aide at a retirement home. She experiences over and again that working in these types of jobs are taxing , uninteresting, and degrading. She describes that the work required incredible feats of stamina, focus, memory, quick thinking, and fast learning, but with very little reward or appreciation. Constant and repeated movement creates a risk of repetative stress injury, pain must often be worked through to hold a job in a market with constant turnover; and the days are filled with degrading and uninteresting tasks (e.g. toilet-cleaning and shirt-reordering).

I want to share a portion of the book that really jumped out at me while reading and in many ways encapsulates Barbara's message:
"But I will say this for myself: I have never employed a cleaning person or service... even after all my upper-middle-class friends had, guiltily and as covertly as possible, hired help themselves, because this is just not the kind of relationship I want to have with another human being. 

Let's talk about shit for example. It happens, as the bumper sticker says, and it happens to a cleaning person every day. The first time I encountered a shit-stained toilet as a maid, I was shocked by the sense of unwanted intimacy. A few hours ago, some well-fed butt was straining away on this toilet seat, and now here I am wiping up after it. For those who have never cleaned a really dirty toilet, I should explain that there are three kinds of shit stains. There are remnants of landslides running down the inside of the toilet bowls. There are the splash-back remains on the underside of the toilet seats. And, perhaps most repulsively, there's sometimes a crust of brown on the rim of a toilet seat, where a turd happened to collide on its dive to the water. You don't want to know this? Well, it's not something I would have chosen to dwell on myself, but the different kinds of stains require different cleaning approaches. One prefers those that are interior to the toilet bowl, since they can be attacked by brush, which is a kind of action-at-a-distance weapon. And one dreads the crusts on the seats, especially when they require the intervention of a [scrubbing sponge] as well as a rag" (p. 91-2).

This portion, to me, really exemplifies the experience of an average member of the "working poor." It takes every possible ounce of humility and diligence to get down on your knees for hours every day and clean-up another person's waste. If you think you could not be paid enough money to complete tasks like these than you've never been faced with the choice. Because it's either do it and accept the low-wages and ill treatment or you won't be able to pay for you food, shelter, medicine or take care of your family. 

I have had a couple of jobs in the service industry during school and right after graduation and thus have a connection to some of the experiences she describes. She provides a more apt description that anyone else, but the elmenet that I cannot identify with is that of participating in the low-wage work force for 24-7-365 for consecutive years. I cannot imagine being asked to support myself with this type of work and lucky for me I have been offered every advantage such as a supportive family and adequate education. And the very fact that I cannot imagine the experiences of these workers is really just another way to think of the separation between haves and have nots. In other words, its not just what we have and don't have that determines where we live, but the fact that one's possessions (or lack thereof) which determines whether we will have empathy for someone else's situation when they are lucky enough to have the same fortunate opportunities and experience. Unfortunately, there are probably many people who are all to happy for the chance to do the work that Barbara describes as the rate of unemployment continues to rise.  

Barbara's work in this book is so important, especially because it is still relevant 8 years later. So you can imagine my surprise and excitement this morning when I turned on NPR's On Point where Tom Ashbrook was talking with Barbara Ehrenreich herself on the very topics she discusses in Nickel and Dimed! What a great topic for the show, especially if it means raising awareness about the poor work conditions that exist right here in the Land of Opportunity. 

You really should listen because Barbara is not the only one with interesting things to say. Two women who were laid off after working for the Hyatt Hotel for a number of years join Tom and Barbara for the show. Their experience is an important one to hear so check it out!