I changed the last part of essay # 3

As we saw it in Mike’s case, the excess of “physical labor” if not perceived as a carrier, can induce some emotional state of being. It can make the worker feel some negative emotions about his work, himself and others.
For customer-service representatives what matter the most is the pressure exerted by the boss on workers to do the job in a very specific way, it is not the job itself. Because it make the workers swing between happy to very sad moods. But for the workers who see customer-service as a carrier, the performance of the job is like practicing one of their hobbies.
In any case, maybe workers should start choosing their carriers in function of what they are good at, and more what they enjoy doing. Because as mentioned by Burling in his article, the happiest workers he observed were the ones that weren’t forced to display an emotion that wasn’t theirs. These people have fun and enjoy their jobs whether physical or service. Because in Mike’s case all he’s asking for is some recognition of his work.
In sum, for both type of job maybe what can make a difference in the “emotional cost” of working is what the worker himself is looking for in a job. Some of us need to see a result of our work like a finished product for others, it might be just the sentiment of belonging to a certain type of group and the interactions they have with the people in the group; more some are looking for a good monetary compensation for their work while others it is the sentiment of creating happiness in others.
As for my friend Severine, she changed department. At the beginning of May, she went to the Cargo department where she will have a very different assignment and a nine to five fixed schedule with no risk of having to stay overtime. Her problem she said with the tickets sales department was her constant late night shifts; she had to find a babysitter who would stay late with her son until she’s back. This was always a struggle for her because no one wanted to work late babysitting her one year old son. Well, just as many low wage workers in the United States, one more who’s struggling with child care.

A new version of essay 3

“We do costumer service” responded Severine, when I once asked my friend and coworker Severine how she would call our job at the airport as airline employees. This is how the whole discussion on job types, and workers emotions started between us. We were on our way home that night after work and I told her that I learned from my English class that same day that service jobs were considered as “emotional labor” as well as some “physical labor”. She still couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Then, I told her that there is a relationship between the type of job people perform and the emotions they display at work and in real life. That’s when she told me that her emotions have nothing to do with her work. She just smiles while taking care of people at work, and keeps her emotions for real life. In other words, you have to detach all emotions related to this type of job in order to perform it at the best of your abilities.
Well, that’s what I used to believe too, until the day I read a passage from “Exploring the Managed Heart.” a book from Arlie Hoschild that talks about the “commercialization of human feeling” and started wondering what is “emotional labor” how is it related to “physical labor” and “mental labor”; what is emotional labor’s impact on workers’ private life, and their life at work itself.
But first let’s see how the nature of labor changed trough time in the United States. Until the 1800sthe type of labor that was practiced in U.S was farming. Millions of enslaved African-Americans were working in the plantations o cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice in the southern region of the U.S. Then what follows is a period of rapid industrialization that was favorable to the massive production and commercialization of goods. In other words, the 19th century was more characterized by factory jobs which are commonly known as “physical labor” because of the physical effort they demand. From the advent of the 2000s to present, the type of labor that is practiced is more of service type; demanding more interpersonal contact, and a certain state of mind from the worker in order to perform the job.
Nowadays, we still see both “physical and service labor with a predominance for service jobs. In the case of this discussion, we are more concerned by what they both might have in common: the emotional cost of doing their job. What is the impact of these two types of jobs on workers; eventually which one affects more workers emotions? Hoschild described their individual implications in these terms: physical labor require “coordination of mind and arm, mind and finger, and mind and shoulder” while service labor in the case of a flight attendant pushing heavy meals carts, preparing and organizing emergency landings for example, require “physical labor,…mental work,…she is doing something more, something I define as emotional labor.”(Hoschild 7). Yes it is in trying to draw a line between what both physical and service jobs require from workers that she came up with the term of “emotional labor”.
Obviously, both physical and service labors imply emotions. Again in this case we are referring to the feelings of workers toward their job or just the feelings induced by the practice of a job while on the job or more in their private life.
Certain type of emotions for workers like Severine and I, who perform a service job may be part of the job requirements. We have to display “happiness to serve” others at work. But, some other emotions displayed by workers toward work and outside work are the consequence of practicing a job that they may not like or enjoy doing as discussed later.
For workers who do physical labor, officially their work requires nothing more than physical effort. But, as we are about to see in Mike Lefevre’s interview with Terkel “Who Build the Pyramids?” in the book “Working” there is more involved in this type of labor. These workers deal with muscles pain that they have to deny in order to continuing working; there is no social life at work as interpersonal interactions are not necessary; alienation from self and from work itself is a major issue among workers.
Here is a longtime worker in a steel Mill, Mike who’s testimony describe his feelings toward his work and how these feelings affect his everyday life as follows: “It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross,…You’re mass-producing things and you never see the end result of it.”(Terkel xxxi). Because he’s at the beginning of a chain line, he doesn’t see the finished product of his work; he doesn’t know where the steel bars him and his coworkers lift everyday go. It is indeed hard to appreciate a job if one can’t tell what the result of his work is and can’t point it to anyone. This is why Mike compares the finished product of his work to the Pyramids, the Empire State Building; no one thinks of the hard work of their builders, people just enjoy them.(Terkel xxxii). There is so much frustration, and lack of self-esteem in Mike that he directs his anger to anyone that annoys him including his wife. This is a price of physical work that is not exposed.
Now in the case of service labor employees, the involvement of emotions in their work is a very different case. For most or all these jobs, workers have to be willing to “suppress” some emotions and “display” other ones as predetermined by their future or actual employers.
In fact, management of “service Jobs” put a high pressure on their employees to make them display an attitude that represents their goodwill of delivering an outstanding service to their clients. For those customer-service representatives who are not comfortable in interpersonal interactions, these techniques may push them to their limit, and induce them in a situation of stress.
In the article “May I Help You Becomes an Issue in Customer-Service Jobs”, written after a Verizon call center employees complain about the stress they endure at work, the author reports that as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics “nearly half of all recorded occupational stress cases occur among technical, sales and administrative support workers, the category that includes customer-service representatives and the median length of absence for occupational stress is more than four times that of other work place injuries and illnesses.” (Williams Walsh 14). As per this article, the customer-service jobs are the cause of half of the reported occupation stress by workers. In other words customer-service jobs put many people in work related disability that is four times harder to heal than any other work related disability. Employees of the Verizon call center told Williams Walsh that the cause of their stress “is not selling …but having to do it according to standard scripts and procedures when common sense tells them not to.” (Williams Walsh 14). Because they are watched and they know that the evaluation of their works depend not on the “good job performance” but, on how well they follow the company’s instructions on proposing to the client a product he doesn’t need. These workers do everything they can to save a job that requires frequent mandatory overtime that take over their family time. This just reminds me of Severine. As a ticket sales agent who has a one year old son at home, she almost never gets to leave work on time. Every time our incoming flights are delayed from Paris, she has to stay and rebook delayed and angry passengers who are going beyond New York. She’s not happy because of the workload she has to endure but at the same time she has a son to feed; she can’t afford to lose her job, and more sometimes she needs that extra money. So, she chose not to show her unhappiness at work and just do her job. This is exactly what is creating stress and unhappiness in customer-service worker’s personal life. By repressing their real feelings in order to induce happiness in other people they end up with ambiguous emotions toward their work and even outside work.
Speaking of workers happiness and their work conditions, the research the University of California conducted revealed that “Faking your feelings at work, especially if your boss pressures you to do it, is an important factor in burnout.” (Burling F4). These findings were discussed in the article “ Faking happiness detrimental to workers.”. The author in explaining the relationship between worker’s happiness and their work conditions says that workers who work without any pressure from their boss are the happiest customer-service representatives.(Burling F4). In other words people who see customer-service as a carrier weren’t sensitive to management’s supervision because they don’t fake anything while doing their job; everything they do comes naturally and freely. But for others, like some of the call center employees the article is about, the management has to help them persuade the client that they are happy to serve by giving them mirrors so they can look at their own image while on the phone with clients.(Burling F4). If they see a happy worker talking that means the client perceives a happy worker therefore the transaction will have a happy ending.
As we saw Mike’s case, the excess of “physical labor” if not perceived as a carrier it can induce some emotional state of being. It can make the worker feel some negative emotions about his work, himself and others. For customer-service representatives what matter the most is the pressure exerted by the boss on workers to do the job in a very specific way, it is not the job itself. Because it make the workers swing between happy to very sad moods.
In any case, maybe workers should start choosing their carriers in function of what they are good at, and more what they enjoy doing. Because as mentioned by Burling in his article, the happiest workers he observed were the ones that weren’t forced to display an emotion that wasn’t theirs. These people have fun and enjoy their jobs whether physical or service.
As for my friend Severine, she changed department. At the beginning of May, she went to the Cargo department where she will have a very different assignment and a nine to five fixed schedule with no risk of having to stay overtime. Her problem she said with the tickets sales department was with her constant late shifts she had to find a babysitter who would stay late with her son until she’s back. This was always a struggle for her because no one wanted to work late babysitting a one year old.

HERE WE GO !

The almost last essay is here but I still don't have a title yet for it !

Prof. T. I was wondering how to get your feed back on this essay so that I can correct it before Friday. Since I can't attend any of the afternoon tutoring sessions this week then, I'll see you in class tomorrow.

“We do costumer service” responded Severine, when I once asked my friend and coworker Severine how she will call our job type. This is how the whole discussion on job types, and workers emotions started between us. We were on our way home that night after work and I told her that I learned from my English class that same day that service jobs were considered as “emotional labor” as well as some “physical labor”. She still couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Then, I told her that, there is a relationship between the type of job people perform and the emotions they display at work and in real life. That’s when she told me that her emotions have nothing to do with her work as at work, she just smiles while taking care of people and keeps her emotions for her real life. In other words, you have to detach all emotions related to this type of job in order to perform it well.Well, that’s what I use to believe too, until the day I read “Exploring the Managed Heart.” from Arlie Hoschild and started wondering what is “emotional labor” how is it related to “physical labor” and “mental labor”; what is emotional labor’s impact on workers private life and at work itself.
But first, let’s define labor to have a better idea of what we are talking about. As per the online merrian-webster dictionary, labor is a “human activity that provides the goods or services in an economy”. That means anyone who works for wages by producing a product or something that is not tangible that we commonly call "service". Its nature has changed through time in America through time. Until the 1800 the type of labor that was practiced in the United States was farming. Millions of enslaved African-Americans were working in the plantations of cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice in the southern region of the U.S. Then what follows is a period of rapid industrialization that was favorable to the massive production and commercialization of goods. In others words the 19th century was more characterized by factory jobs which are commonly known as “physical labor” because of the physical effort they demand. From the advent of the 2000s to present, the type of labor that is practiced is more of service type; demanding more mental implication or certain state of minds from the worker in order to sale it.
Nowadays, we still see both “physical labor” and “mental labor” but in the case of this discussion, we are more concerned by what they both might have in common: the feelings they require workers to produce or to exclude from their consciousness in order to do their job. Hoschild described their individual implications as follows in her book, physical labor “require coordination of mind and arm, mind and finger, and mind and shoulder” while mental labor simply require “mental coordination” (Hoschild 6). But, in trying to draw a line between what they both require from the workers she came up with the term of “emotional labor”.
Apparently, both physical and mental labors imply emotions. But again, let’s define the word emotions. They are “conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body.” In this case, one is referring to the feelings of the workers toward their job or, just the feelings induced by the practice of a job on the job, and in their private life.
Emotions for some workers (mental or service jobs) are part of the job requirements for others (both service and physical jobs), it is not a requirement but a consequence of practicing a job that they do not like or enjoy doing for a long time. But the ways they affect both types of workers are different.
For workers who do physical work, officially their work requires nothing more than “strong muscles”. But, in order to do this job one has to deny physical pain and most of the time suffers alienation from self and the job itself. Some of these workers who do not enjoy and like their job have hard time feeling proud of their work. Terkell in his book “Working” used interviews of workers talking about the way they feel about their jobs to expose some of these emotions.
This is the case of Mike Lefevre who works in a steel mill. In his interview “Who Built the Pyramids?”, Mike explains how he feels about his work in these words “It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross,…You’re mass-producing things and you never see the end result of it.”. Mike has been doing this job now for many years and because he’s at the beginning of a chain line, he doesn’t see the finished product of his job. As a matter of fact he doesn’t get to appreciate, enjoy, and be proud of this product. He compares the finished product of his work to the pyramids of Egypt that the Pharaohs were so proud of but never showed that they are the result of the hard work of many workers who putted those rocks one on top of another.
As we can see it takes not only physical strength but some mental and emotional stability to perform a “physical labor”. Depending on what exactly one chose to do as (physical) work and for how long, the emotions involved can be surprising. In Mike’s case there is a sense of worthlessness because he spends so much time and energy in his work and he still doesn’t get to point a finished product and say this is the product of my hard work.
Now, in the case of “service jobs” employees, the involvement of emotions in their jobs is a very different case. For most or all these jobs, workers have to be willing to “suppress” some emotions and “display” different types of emotions that may be the ones their employers want them to display in order to be hired.
In fact, management of “service jobs” put a high pressure on their employees to display an attitude that represents the company’s image of always wanting to deliver an outstanding service to their clients. For those customer-service representatives who are not comfortable in dealing with people, these techniques may push them to their limit, and induce them in a situation of stress.
In the article “May I Help You Becomes an Issue in Customer-Service Jobs” published in the New York Times, Mary Williams Walsh explains how customer-service representatives of a Verizon call center are prompted to follow a designed script while on the phone with clients instead of being natural even when the clients are the one initiating a natural dialogue. Employees have to stick to the script that may include trying to make the client buy a product even if he didn’t call to buy a product; asking specific questions even if the client doesn’t want to go through the questionnaire because the management is monitoring the call. As per the Verizon employees “it is not selling that causes the stress, but having to do it according to standard scripts and procedures when common sense tell them not to.” Because for most of the time clients call for specific reasons, even when they call to buy a product they know what they need. Selling a product that has nothing to do with want the clients need just because that product is on sale today put customer service-representatives in a stress that sometimes damage their family life, and moreover their health as per the Bureau of Labor’s statistics.(Williams Walsh 2). The statistics report that nearly half of all reported occupational stress occurs in customer-service jobs and the length of their occupational absence is four times longer than for other jobs.
In the same line, an article published in the state of California (U.S.A.) titled “Faking Happiness Detrimental to Workers” in the newspaper Contra Costa Times emphasizes on the fact that pressure at work burnout employees. This article too is about “call center” employees because of the required perfect behavior they have to have while on the phone with the company’s clients. The employees this article is about are persuaded by their company that customers have the ability to detect trough their voice if they are really happy to serve them or not. The customer-service representatives are therefore given mirrors so they can see their own image while on the phone with clients. The image of their face is correlated to the sound of their voice and the emotions they are feeling in that moment. So, they have to smile while on the phone, suppress all negative feelings, and “fake” positive ones in order to finish well the transaction.
The consequence of this is that employees and up having a mood swing issue because they lose the ability to distinguish the limit between the real happiness and the fake one. They fake their behavior or get confused when they have to be real, and take it too personal at work when they are supposed to fake it; they end up being sad or depressive. As Burling reported it in his article “What really struck us were these pockets of happy and pockets of very sad.”(1). these employees are losing themselves in the name of the practice of customer-service.
As we saw it with Mike in “Who Build the Pyramids?” the excess of “physical labor” induce the workers to feel certain emotions that are not always positive. For people who do “service job” it is even worse because the emotional state of being in which they have to be in order to perform their jobs are not in some cases genuine. The companies dictate to their employees ways of making the client believe that the emotion he perceives from them is genuine. Moreover companies are making applicants for customer-service position ability to induce the client to have a positive attitude toward them a job requirement and criteria of promotion for the employees that are already working for them.
In any case, maybe people should start choosing their carriers in function of what they are good at, and more what they enjoy doing. Because as mentioned by Burling in his article, the happiest workers he observed were the ones that weren’t forced by their bosses to endure the emotional pressure from clients and the ones who chose to do the jobs they like the most. These people have a tendency of having fun and enjoying their jobs, because they are just good at doing them and don’t have to fake their feelings and emotions while doing them. In others words, working is like doing one their hobbies.

Intro of essay # 3

What do you mean by what type of work do I think we do? “We do costumer service” responded Severine, when I once asked my friend and coworker Severine how she will call our job type. This is how the whole discussion on job types, and workers emotions started between us. We were on our way home that night after work and I told her that I learned from my English class that same day that l service jobs were considered as “emotional labor” as well as some “industrial labor”. She still couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Then, I told her that there is relationship between the type of job people perform and the emotions they display at work and in real life. That’s when she told me that her emotions have nothing to do with her work as at work, she just smiles while taking care of people and keeps her emotions for her real life. In other words, you have to detach all emotions related to this type of job in order to perform it well.
Well, that’s what I use to believe too, until the day I read “Exploring The Managed Heart” from Arlie Hoschild and started wondering what is “emotional labor”, “industrial labor” and what is their impact on workers emotions.

Bonus Post: The Most Dangerous Job

I even don't know what to say about Kenny. His attitude goes wayyyy beyond dedication to his job and his company. Kenny gave all he had to these people, his body, mind and life that's how I'll describe it.

He shouldn't disinfect that plant just like his coworkers. That's against the law. Now he is in a big trouble (health related) and no one cares, his coworkers are still probably working for the same company or another one.

I wonder though if Kenny did all these things for this company because he "loves" his job or its because he thinks he couldn't do anything else. In others words he didn't have an option because of his background that lead him to become uneducated.

I still don't understand this type of dedication because I am not willing to do this no matter what. To me there is always another way around. He could have gone back to learning something else, moved to another city, state or I don't know.

Kenny shouldn't be frustrated because he should have known that if the management of this company cared about him he would have seeing it; he should have had a carrier advancement.

I see very few people with a certain level of "dedication" at my work but, I don't think they would go this far. Anyway, in NY companies are more likely to follow the rules, we don't have to worry about things like these. ( at least where I work).

QUESTION

Prof. T.

I have a quick question, if I am using the text "Who Built the Pyramids?" from the book "Working", do I cite the book or that part of the book ? Because I don't see an example of work cited of a text from a book. It looks like it is just book titles.

Thanks for quick response.

Post # 7: Annotated bibliography for essay # 3

The question of my research is " What is the impact of switching from physical labor to service labor on workers in the United States ?"

The documents I'll be using are the following:

2 course texts:

Terkel,Studs."Who Built the Pyramids?" Working (1972),page xxxi-xxxviii.

This article is an interview with a worker in a Steel Mill, Mike Lefevre who does strict physical work. Mike explains what are the conditions in which he works, with whom and how he feels about what he does as work. Most importantly, he explains how the stress of his job affect his personal life, his vision of the future for his children, and how he releases that stress.

I think this interview can help me show what is the effect of long term physical labor on workers mentally.

Hochschild, Arlie. "Exploring The Managed Heart" The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. California:University of California Press,(1983). Page 3-9.

This is a book in which Hochschild explains and compare the concepts of job accomplishment, and how to measure it. She uses interview with several front line agents to have their testimonies about how they perform their jobs and what are the emotions involved in their work. She explains how she came up with the notion of "emotional labor" and how she defines it.

This part of her book can help me I think, define, and explain the historic of the term "emotional labor" in my research.

2 outside sources:

Williams Walsh, Mary. " When May I Help You Is a Labor Issue." New York Times August 12 2000,Pg. C1,14. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 18 May 2010.

In this article, Walsh addresses the issues costumer service agents face while performing their job. The costumer service representatives of Verizon express to her how they are listened to while working by their supervisors, and that they have to follow the scripts designed by the company while talking to costumers on the phone, the big work load they have to face on a daily basis.

This article can help me show the stress costumer service representative endure and what are the consequences of that stress on their physical and emotional being over a long term.

Burling, Stacey. "Faking Happiness Detrimental to Workers." Contra Costa Times December 15 2005, Pg. F4. LexisNexis Academic Web 20 May 2010.

This article is about a recent study conducted in a call center of a telecommunications company by the University of Pennsylvania. It studied what it takes to workers to manage their feelings while on the phone no matter how rude the caller is; what is the impact of the type of pressure they endure on their job performance, and their mood in general. Also it has some examples of this particular company shows it employees how to change their emotions; how the happiest employees were the one that knew that, their managers are more understanding when it comes to their handling of difficult costumers.

The particularity of this study is that it shows the relationship between doing the job "by the book" and the employees emotional being. Bottom line of the study is that people who love this job are better at doing it.

Post # 6: Step 2 of essay # 3

For this part of essay # 3, the interviews I choose in Terkel are:

"Cleaning Up" Nick Salermo

"Telepnone Solicitor" Enid du Bois

The 1rst one interested me because I clean up every night almost at work and all the time at home. I don't mind doing it. It's fun relaxing, and it is usually when we agents "debrief" about what happened during the evening. But, some of my colleagues do not like doing it. They find it degrading and are always arguing about it." It is not in my assignment" you will hear them say while, we all know that the last shift is the one assigned to it. Because of the problems it always raises at closing time, the supervisors changed its name to "close up". I guess it makes people feel better knowing that they are "closing up" instead of "cleaning up". I was wondering how is Nick Salermo feeling about his job.

Very surprisingly, he is proud of what he does because he knows that he honestly earns good money from it even though, it is overwhelming.

The workload is big, and it is not easy to deal with people trash; it's like you are entering their personal space. Psychologically,it is demanding to know that you are being watched so you waste the company's money, and yourself you have to watch out for a well done job and children playing while you are working.

Also, people's view of "cleaners" is very biased, they look down at them, and even stereotype them. Their children are picked at at school because of their parents jobs.

I picked the 2nd interview because, I was wondering what make people like Enid, do a job like this one. We have all being once or many times bothered by one of their phone calls and we end up hanging up the phone on them. So how do they feel about doing a job like this one puzzles me.

Enid is a telephone solicitor who had to do this job because she needs to. The pay is not good at all, and she doesn't like it. She is "subsidized" with $1.60 an Hr plus commission if she is able to make people to subscribe to the newspaper she's selling.She is made to lie to people she is calling which she finds immoral. she relate to some of these people because herself she is not wealthy. Women are not well treated, they are watched while working by their boss. The pressure is very high: it is either you get people to subscribe or you leave, because there are many people who are willing to take your job out there.

In both these interviews I see that the environment in which you work matter, people you work with, and the kind of job itself make a difference for workers. Both Enid and Nick tell how they rely sometimes on their colleagues for support. Know that you are not alone feeling bad about your work put you at ease, and sometimes people you work with become your friends or even more.

It makes you really wonder if gender plays a role in the type of work people "choose" to do, and what is the role of the social class of an individual in the the type of work he/she will do.

In other words, are women more prone to do some type of work than men? Because, in Enid's case she says that women weren't well treated but at the same time, the majority of her colleagues were women.

Do your work determine your social class, or your social class make you do some type of work ?

Question

Hello prof. T.

I was wondering if I decide to go with the privacy and work issue what texts can I use from what we saw in class. I know I can find the outside sources in the library database, but I am not sure about the in class texts and the question itself. Do you think I can formulate it the way we wrote it in class ?

Thank you again for your valuable support.

Mariama

Step # 2 of essay 3

Prof. T ,

I just wanted to update you on where I am at with this essay. I am doing option two and am a little bit behind in posting step #2. I am working on having it posted on the 11th of May.
Thank you your understanding again.
Mariama

Bonus post # 2: Wal-Mart in the spotlight again !

About a decade ! That's the time it took the juridical system to rule on whether or not thousand of women who worked at Wal-Mart can sue the giant retailer as a single class for gender discrimination. Now, that means if you are planning on taking this company to court you better be very patient because as we see it in this case, the trial hasn't started yet after about 10yrs. They are still debating on whether or not the steps being followed are legal or not.

I really have an admiration for these women because, it would have been others, they would have already desisted after all the time, and money it would have taken.

One more time this article shows us how difficult it is to bring down the giant retailer. Obviously it is going to take more than unions and court. The Government realy needs to take care of this matter; this is a shame for a country like the USA where you have to wait this long ofr a trial.

Wal-Mart claims that it improved allot in term of supporting its female employees since this case started but, in the mid-time the women the article is talking about have been psychologically and probably emotionally affected by the discrimination they faced during the time they worked for this company. Hopefully the case is going to move forward this time, and.

Post # 5 Archives interview

For this post, I am choosing the interview of Antony Avena with David Osborn.

This one seems to be easy to work on for me because of the length of the answers given by the interviewee to the questions. They are short, and that make the paper look "lite " or easy to read to me. I figured at the end though, that it wasn't an easy interview to figure out.

This is an interview of a Queens long time resident and businessman that took place on August 28th 1996. It looks like to me that the interviewer Mr David Osborn is trying to figure out how did Antony Avena and his family start their family business in Flushing, what was their life like as an immigrant working class during a specific time. At the end of the interview Anthony's answer to one the questions makes you think that it is about how he started to get in trouble in Flushing with the neighborhood boys.

His personality is very hard to determine because he doesn't give a direct answer to some of the questions . It looks like he still cherishes these memories from his youth and take great pride in what is today the result of his father's initiative; first to come to America and next the to buy this store in Flushing. He looks happy, and proud to share his story.

The historical context is around the early 1900, more specifically1910-1934. This period corresponds to the years of the Great depression, World War I, and the period preceding World War II I'll say.

From what I understood, Antony comes from a family that immigrated from Italy, and made it trough in America during a very difficult economic situation; his father became a "capitalist" in America as he said it(the famous "American dream"). They went from being poor to a working class family. His Dad experience unemployment once, yet he had to work very hard (7 days a week) at a another time to make it through. He had some serious concerns about the environment in which his children were growing into; his son(Anthony) , was already starting to get in trouble in their neighborhood; that's why he made his family move to Flushing.

I am not sure why at the end, Anthony got involved in a fight with a group of boys that asked him he was a "coward" if that's can be related to discrimination or not; maybe the boys figured from the way he was dressed that he was an immigrant ?

Essay # 2

Tis is the introduction and the body of my essay #2. Still working on the conclusion, but it will be ready by Monday !

The issue on Race and Racism has existed in the United States for a long time. Although, the country has progressed notably from slavery to having an African American President, the problem still seems to be unsolved. Nowadays there's a possibility that race and racism play a role in the opportunity of individuals to move from one social class to another.
In one of his election speeches in March 2008 “A More Perfect Union,” then-senator Barack Obama to answer controversial statements made by his former pastor about racial inequality in the United States said:”…that history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white,…A lack of economic opportunity among black men…a problem that Welfare policies for many years may have worsened,…lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods …” (Durst 368). In other words, racial inequality is an issue that emanated from the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow that got reinforced by the legislation on Welfare for example and passed on to future generations without really been the object of public debate.
Along the same lines, Michael Luo, in his article “In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap” published in The New York Times says:”That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.”(Luo 1). Apparently even after the election of an African-American President, America is still unable to move beyond the racial issue.
According to then-senator Obama, to understand why the gap between the African-American community and the white community is becoming wider, one has to look back all the way to slavery. During that time, the foundations of segregation were established by certain laws like Jim Crow that enforced segregation, primarily in the south of the United States after the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress. The black community became then a victim of lack of opportunity due to a poor education system which is still not fixed since, an exclusion from certain type of jobs, and unions like the fire departments, or more to own a property. These practices have continued thanks to policies on fields like healthcare, education, and other basic services in urban black neighborhoods that lead to a poor education system, and healthcare. Also, he stressed that one of the most influential things that is still contributing to inequality and racism is stereotyping. Stereotypes had been built up for centuries, and they still exist in both black and white communities. They may be based in some cases, but not in all cases; all black people are not criminals, and all white people are not rich either. This is the case of this confession once made to him by his grandmother:“…her fear of black men who passed by her on the street…uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes…”(Durst 366). This is a phenomenon that Americans need to break, as it doesn’t help build a “perfect union”. The black men his grandmother is referring to may be good people, but they are not given the benefit of doubt. If only the black people weren’t stereotyped and condemned without being understood, the diversity in America would have been perfect. People from all social classes regardless of their race will have the same opportunities.


Now that may be possible because, things have notably changed since the segregation time. Black children can go to the same school as whites; they can ride the same bus, even seat next to each other and drink from the same fountain now. However, since Barack Obama’s election to the presidency of the United States of America, there is still no change in the way the black community is treated compared to the time when he made that speech. In his article “In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap,” Michael Luo says that there is work to do when it comes to the opportunity given to African Americans men when it come to hiring for prestigious jobs. Therefore, it seems that race and racism still have an effect on the chances people have for class mobility.
Actually, joblessness in the black community is striking especially with those with a college degree. This seems paradoxical because, for a long time the idea was that black men did not occupy prestigious positions because they didn’t have the necessary education. Luo’s article shows that in 2009, black men with a college degree had an unemployment rate of 8.4% compared to 4.4% for their white counterpart (Luo 4). In other words, white men with a college degree are being two times more hired than black men. When companies see their names, and some others details on their resumes, they tend to not call them for an interview. When they succeed in arriving at the interview without the recruiter paying attention to their names and other details, they see the disappointment on the face of the recruiter as soon as they meet. Here is the testimony of Mr. Williams who applied for a position with top business schools at a Dallas money management firm. The hiring manager had already told him how excited he’s about him moving down to Dallas; no one from the prestigious schools wanted to that. When they meet says Mr. Williams, talking about the recruiters:” Their eyes kind hit the ceiling a bit…It was kind of quiet for about 45seconds”. This reduces their chance for class mobility by half; at least for those with a college degree. Beside the fact that it‘s illegal to discriminate based on race. Some companies don’t even post the openings anymore to avoid someone they don’t want to apply for it; the announcement is made by mouth in their circle of friends.

Update of post # 3

The relation between the texts "Who Built the Pyramids ?" and the movie "Born Rich" may be in the description of how one social class (the working one) wishes to have more time for leisure, and how the second one (the rich one) is tired of too much time for leisure. The dream or fantasy of one is the life of the other !

Also, Mike in "Who built the Pyramids" says that all he wishes for is that one day there will be a place where the college kids and the steelworker could sit down and talk without any shame and difference. basically no separation of working class and rich class: Respect if not equality of classes.

In "Born Rich" we see that these kids are taught to not feel sorry for other people's poverty and to take pride in their life as they deserve what they got. They don't/can't even imagine what life looks like for poors and working families. There is also no chance from their perspective that a person from the working(or poor) class can mix with them. They always hang out together with no one else outside their social group. They all know each other and are all planning on making their future fiances sign a "Prenup" before getting married. So no chance for anyone who think that they can by getting married to a heir to get rich.

Am not sure if this what you were referring to Prof. T, let me know.

Will post essay #2 for you after this.

Update of 1rst bonus post

Here we go !

What I mean by increase in pre-tax is the amount of money people earn before taxes get deducted from it. In an effort to attract and retain employees, lately employers have been providing compensation packages that include wages and benefits. Benefits that are paid for by the employer generally are not taxable to the employee. If benefits, such as group life insurance, are paid for by the employee, generally the money used to pay for the benefits is taxable. In recent years, tax laws have been created that permit certain benefits like 401(k), retirement benefits, cafeteria benefits, and health savings accounts to be paid for with pretax money. Pretax benefits enable both employers and employees to set aside money on a tax-free, salary-reduction basis for retirement expenses as well as for qualified dependent care and healthcare expenses.
The others causes of increasing inequality we learn from Krugman's article are (to name only few):

Income inequality: apparently, some people are earning way much more than others;

The rich are living in a virtual world that separate them from other social classes;

Debt: middle class families are taking on more debt to either send their children to good schools, or to buy houses they can't afford;

Education: schools in the poor neighborhoods are degrading,

Lack of good healthcare for low income families;

Innequal opprtuny given to chidren based on their socio-economical environment;

The tax sytem that gives a break to the weathy, and not to the poor;

Working on writing

Hello Prof. T,

Thank you for calling me on Friday regarding tutoring !

Also,I think I am done working on essay # 1 now. I have a draft for the #2 essay which will be based on topic 1, and will start constructing it this week.

See you in class tomorrow.

Revision of essay # 1

Here is a new version of my essay #1, please feel free to give me a ffed-back.

Thanks.

Although, I agree with Sebastian Mallaby that Wal-Mart should make sure it secures profit for its shareholders and that low-income families benefit from the company’s low prices on food and other products, I support Karen Olsson’s point of view. People rush at Wal-Mart’s doors when a new store opens in their area to look for a job, because they need to work; and so far, this company is the one that is offering them one. Still, it is unacceptable to me that, in America, people get treated this way. Wal-Mart’s associates are working in conditions that can be described as slavery for a company that represents the world’s largest retailer with $220 billion in sales, and is the biggest private employer in America (Olsson 1). When Karen Olsson spoke to some of Wal-Mart’s employees, they described their working conditions in these words to her: “I was asked to work off the clock, sometimes by the store manager (…) they would know you’d clocked out already, and they’d say ‘do me a favor, I don’t have anyone coming in (…) could you stay here?’ ” says Liberty Morales Serna, a former employee in Houston, just to explain how he was made to work without been paid; a fact that goes against the labor law (Olsson 3). The associates should be paid at least for the work they do if the company cannot pay their overtime. The United States Department of Labor (USDL) has clear rules established regarding the rights of workers and responsibilities of employers, which are been deliberately ignored by Wal-Mart’s management. We should wonder where the people, who are responsible for the strict application of these rules by this company, are. These associates do not have a union, and cannot have one anyway to fight for them by negotiating a contract with Wal-Mart on their behalf. Wal-Mart is so determined to keep its costs low that it would stop at nothing to impose its anti-union politics in all its stores. Indeed, the company has engaged a firm of consultant that developed a program specifically designed to banish the unions in all its stores by using intimidation tactics. The store manager sometimes confronts his associates to make sure he is going to make the fight against union a personal problem to treat.

Bonus Post

In this article, the health care bill signed by president Obama is described as an attack to the economic inequality.Inequality that increased over the last 50years due to primarily to an increase of the pre-tax and, decrease of the rates of taxes for the wealthy. The middle class in the meanwhile, find itself with less expandable income in a world where the cost of living( food, fuel, education, health care,...) is more and more high. Health care for example, represent a major issue for middle class and poor families who, because of lack of financial resources end up not having one. The recently passed health care reform will do two(2) things immediately to help middle class: provide health care for those who lost their jobs, and remove the conditions that the insurance companies have often used to deny insurance to individuals with pre-existing conditions. Another important aspect of the reform is the fact that, the wealthy will bear a larger part of financing health care through their taxes for people(from middle class and poor families) who are getting it now; most for the first time.

To finish, this article is seen the newly passed health care bill as the weapon used by President Obama to reduce inequality between social classes in America by having the wealthy pay for a part of the middle class's health care.

The Social Class Business

In "Who Build the Pyramids" Mike Lefevre describe to us his workings experiences as a steelworker. He explains how frustrated he feels, and how he hates the job he's doing. He thinks or feels that people who do his job should be replaced by machines since the technology is getting so advanced, so he could get to work 20hrs a week, and spend the rest of his time with his family. To him it is horrible to not feel recognised in the society for the work he's doing. He wishes he could take his children or grand children to the places where he used to work just to show them something he contributed to make for the society.

In the movie "Born Rich" it is also about life style, but a way too different type of life style. This time it is about children of the richest people in America (mostly) and Europe. They described to one of their friend how they got to know that they were rich, what their school experiences were like, what are they up to now in life and mostly what do they do to earn leaving.

To theses people, being rich means partying, shopping, not having to worry about money and the people who don't have money to live with. Work ? not necessarily, unless you want to do it as a leisure. They live in a close circle that do not know what are the realities of the people who don't belong to their circle.

There is no connection to me between the actors of "Born Rich" and the one in "Who Built the Pyramids" . They belong two(2) separated classes that almost never meet. When you are born in a working class family, it is very hard then or even impossible to access the very rich class, as these children say it themselves: they don't thing of dating people who are out their circle of friends or lets say social class.

IRREGULARITY

5 aircrafts grounded, terminal One open 24hrs, passengers sleeping all over the place on cots given by PAPD: a sight never seen at T1. Thousands of AF passengers stocked both ways (CDG<--->JFK) every single day, now this is an irregularity !
Work usually is calm, sometimes slow but smooth, or some nights like Thursdays, very busy and noisy.
But right now, because of the Iceland volcano eruption, I don't know how to describe it. On the first day, it was like been a Social worker. You put passengers on buses which took them to hotels (exceptionally for the first night only, as the airline is not responsible of weather related irregularities). The second day, just talk to passengers, answers their questions, give them emotional support, distribute some drinks and so on. Passengers are calm though except some that are really "Waco", the one that are afraid of loosing their jobs, or missing school (like their safety wasn't a priority). For the first time, passengers are really understanding during an irregularity !
The only thing we know for sure is that we don't know when is this mess going to end, and when is the bigger mess going to start. The one that consist of deciding of who's going first, who's going to wait for the next flight, and checking them all in, when of course the sky will be clear again.
Am looking forward to the end of these days. I can see the line to sign the OT sheet already from here.
The only thing is that at least we get paid for the job done, and it feels good to lend a hand when it becomes chaotic, and passengers are thankful to you.

Hey everyone, just want to share with you a piece of my not done yet work. Thank you in advance for your comments.

Although, I agree with Sebastian Mallaby that Wal-Mart should make sure it secures profit for its shareholders and that low income families benefit from the company’s low prices on food and first necessity goods, I support Karen Olsson’s point of view.People might still rush at Wal-Mart’s doors when they open a new store to look for a job, because they need to work; and so far this company is the one that is offering them one. Still, it is unacceptable to me that, in America, people get treated this way. America is the leader of democracy and there is a strong discrepancy between the values of the “promised land” and the Wal-Mart’s working conditions. How come that people are still working in an environment that can be described as slavery? Also let’s remind everyone that we are talking here about the world’s largest retailer with $220 billion in sales and the biggest private employer in America (Olsson, “Up Against Wal-Mart”). Wal-Mart’s employees themselves described their working conditions to Karen Olsson. “I was asked to work off the clock, sometimes by the store manager, sometimes by the assistant manager” says Liberty Morales Serna, a former employee in Houston just to explain how he was made to work without been paid for that time; a fact that goes against the labor law.

My name is Mariama , I grew up in a working class family in West Africa.

Whether I should work or not has never being a question for me when I was growing up.

I got my first job in America six(6) years ago at JFK airport as a costumer service representative for an airline company. It is a very fun, and prestigious job I do part-time as I am married with two (2) children.

I've made a big deal of friends since I am working there, and a lot of growing since since 6 years.

I have to mention that, this is a very stressful environment to work in with all the variety of people to deal with, and more importantly the security measures to respect.

Anyway, after watching the movie The High Price of Low Prices in class, I just saw myself and all my colleagues as front line agent, and one more time I became more dedicated to pursuing my dream of working in the medical field; both my parents are doctors in Guinea (if I forgot to mention it). My job offer good medical, travel and retirement benefits also the pay is not that good but the schedule is what disturb me the must.

As a mother and wife, helping my children with their homework, and spending some time with my family is just crutial.

Also, I think that people should really take education seriously cause all these problems we are looking at in class are just related to education. When you are educated and apply for a high ranked job guys, noone will request a drug and alcohol test from you. What do you think ?