Serving in Florida

This essay was very thought provoking. How many of us are living this same nightmare over and over again. The only difference is Ehrenreich knew she could leave at any time and was only forced to stay in her situation because of her desire to fulfill some experiment. She was able to touch on several points that people find themselves in. Those points dealt with the eventual acceptance of the lifestyle and also with the dynamics of the work place. To many people in this country have to live paycheck to paycheck in order to survive.

It is amazing what people can and will accept in order to survive or to obtain the next paycheck. Ehrenreich found herself devouring advil and other over the counter drugs just so she could go to work. She also felt that she was not able to miss a day of work for fear of not being able to pay her rent. With the economic turn of 2008 many of the people of today find themselves in this postition. She was able to protray the desperation of her co workers by noticing that they could not leave the lives they had. Her friend who was living in a trailer behind the place where she worked was a great example of the working homeless in this country. People soon work to live who have been in this situation because of being so dependent on the paycheck.

Dependency on this paycheck creates a social network that people who have not been in this situation will not understand. Ehrenreich describes the dynamics of the workplace wonderfully. People become afraid to offend those that control their paycheck. These middle management enforcers gain a large amount of control over people. Her boss "BJ" was described as being one of those personalities. She was so focused on moving people out of the restaurant that she forgot that they were the people paying her paycheck. Those that feel this same oppression begin to form bonds and sometimes hidden mutanies. Ehrenreich finally had her final mutany when she left.