Tamara Gilmore
Mrs. Slobod
English 113B
9 February 2012
It
is worth working?
As long as America has been a liberated nation, men and
woman alike have been working back breaking jobs to ensure economic stability
for their families as well as circulate funds within the nation. Many of the initial
jobs worked across the nation required employers to work on their hands and
feet for long periods of time all week long. Some of them even went without
breaks and went home at late hours in the evening only to return a few hours
later. However as time passed in history, the conditions in the working field
improved allowing comfort ability for them and they began receiving much more
than they did in the past. Jobs began offering benefits, lighter workloads were
established, and a new found respect was granted to the employers over time. These
conditions were recorded in various places in history but also in present day
literature such as books and journal entries; some were even short stories. In an essay called, “Broke and Bored; The Summer Job” by Ashley Hall and a short story
called, “Why I quit the Company” by
Tomoyuki Iwashita, both authors underwent difficult working conditions that
made them quit their jobs. Their reasons to discontinue employment were very
different and it is rather common. Working under a professional establishment
of any kind, requires people of the proper age and maturity level. Otherwise
workers are prone to; perform poorly, protest, and play around or even quit.
When young people
hit a certain age, they have the desire to work. They begin applying for jobs and many of them
are hired for various positions of any kind. Most of them include working with
fast food, looking after children or as assistant to older people on average. Some
argue that jobs like these are not enough to teach them the value of hard work
or even encourages them proper work ethic. Newt Gingrich had much to say on the
topic of teenage employment, stating that, “Americans have lost their work
ethic, and some never had one to lose. They grow up -- or put more precisely,
they're raised -- thinking of so many jobs as beneath them that they wake up
one day not knowing how to do any job.”(CNN.com) Gingrich’s point is not the
type of jobs worked, but rather those that apply for these positions have no
experience and believe themselves worthy of such a responsibility. While there
are jobs that demand such responsibility, there are those that would care less
what one did on duty.
There
are millions of jobs across the United States that are fast-food based alone
and many of them are hard working, while just as many are not. In Ashley Hall’s
student essay, “Broke and Bored: The Summer Job”, she goes down a list of jobs
she had that required very little, work ethic, or even sanitation for that
matter, what so ever. Often times she was, “usually tasked with the absurdly
dull and messy job of combining the content of ketchup containers when any of
them were low”, which is not considered real work to some (Hall 102). That in itself is boring and disturbing to
know that different ketchups are combined so that others do not run out, but
also was one of the pesky tasks she had to deal with. As people began working in
these factories many of them had no idea of how they should be treated. A lot
of times workers were mistreated and made to work harder and harder each day.
Along with being bombarded with tedious tasks, she saw fit to “dump food into a
customer’s lap” in order to be taken home early. She saw it as being “clumsy”
and an “easy way to be sent home early, but others would argue she was not old
enough or even mature enough to handle her job correctly. Although she would
purposefully have fun or do things her way on the job, she was still getting
hired. It was something she did or was able to show the people hiring, that she
was capable of working no matter her age. As a teenager barely doing anything
now behind a counter or serving customers, there have been those twice as young
as she was that did way more work than she could have imagined.
During
the early nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution took over the hearts
and minds of the wealthy to keep up with advancing means of transportation but
also money making. At this time workers
were being pushed to exceed many heights and lengths to please their bosses or overseers.
While many worked dangerous jobs like working in mills, others worked in factories
and coal mines. These were more than examples of such hard times offered for
men, woman, and children of all ages. In those times it did not matter the
maturity level of the individual. If they were healthy and stood on two feet,
they were seen fit to work. Those that worked were pulled from everywhere,
often times leaving their families. Many found it hard to work not because they
were not being treated fairly but because mainly they did not have a choice
like we do now. In the short story “Why I
Quit the Company”, Tomoyuki Iwashita explains the hardships endured by the
company that offered him employment. He was forced to uphold standards that
were previously set for him; for everybody. He was forced to go to dinners and
golf with co-workers even “drinking with colleagues after work [was] part of
the job; so you can’t say no”,(Iwashita 213). It was if he was almost being
controlled and his every move was monitored.
All the while he was going by every rule and doing everything that was
expected of him, he was still being mistreated. Every day at five o’clock pm,
it was understood by the Labor Union that the workers went home at that time.
Little did they know that was not the case in fac they were being held much
later and forced to return hours later for the new day. (Iwashita 213) He was
also shocked at the fact that no one else felt that same way about this as he
did. After all, everyone was connected and affected by the same rules,
regulations and expectations set by them by the company itself. Ultimately,
Iwashita quit his company due to the lack of freedom and respect he longed for
as a worker. He felt that the Labor Union was being deceived and could care
less if any of the workers had a complaint what so ever. . It was unfair to him and he was shocked
that no one else could see it too. Even with a vast amount of education and
maturity, Iwashita had, he could not do
his job the way he wanted to. Without fair
and just treatment he decided to leave to factory on his own terms, refusing to
work there any longer. In leaving on own personal reasons there are those that
leave on the different accounts.
While people leave jobs for lack of just and fair treatment,
others leave their positions on the account of the boss’s decision to “let them
go” or to simply “fire them”. In the past, all types of people from all ages
were known to work in factories and much harder working areas, jobs with lower
status were expected to be occupied by teenagers and adolescents. A job that
included flipping hamburgers, baby sitting or associated with a newspaper in
any fashion was designed for adolescent and young adults. These jobs were
starter jobs and served as an example of those that could help them understand
the value of a dollar and even the value of hard work. That hard work included
waking up every morning and not leaving until the evening. They were also expected
to follow instruction from a higher authority every day on the job. These jobs offered
good enough pay and also were designed to be enough to where they were not overwhelmed,
but while they were not enough work, some of them saw fit to have a little bit
of recreation. Hall shared her experience as a worker in a fast food
restaurant, a baby sitter and also as a writer for a newspaper, all one summer
after another. Her first job was almost a disaster. She worked only to mess up
patties and play around in the back on and off break. She claimed that “she was
bored”. When she was on duty over the kids during the next summer, the kids she
looked after saw it fit to load slingshots and shoot items across the yard
outside. (Hall 104) She was bored on the job and her working conditions were anything
but professional. She was informally over the children and they were able to
talk her into playing with them. As a young adult, she was subject to do so
because she naturally wanted to have fun. Due to her informal working conditions, she
was subject to perform poorly and unable to work without being “let go”. Her
maturity level during this job was also not very high o developed. She could
prove that she was worth hiring but when it came down to it, she failed.
When
looking for employers, those seeking them out must test to see not only their
skills, but also if they can handle the job they are offering. It is for these
things that working conditions testing to see if young people should be up for
employment must be modified. It is hard enough to find jobs in present day
America anywhere, and many of them are taken up by immature individuals. In
order for the people to fully benefit from those offering their service, the
work being done must be performed right by those that are more productive.
Work
Cited
Hall, Ashley. "Broke and Bored: The Summer
Job." Writing with a Thesis. 11th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 102-03.
Print.
Iwashita, Tomoyuki. "Why I Quit the Company." Writing
with a Thesis. 11th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 213-15. Print.
Working Conditions in the Industrial Revolution." School
History.org. N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/workingconditions.htm>.
Jr., Ruben Navarrette. "Gingrich Dared to Speak
Truth on Teens' Work Ethic." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World,
Weather, Entertainment & Video News. By Ruben Navarrette Jr., CNN
Contributor, 8 Dec. 2011. Web. 09 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/07/opinion/navarrette-newt-gingrich/index.html>.
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