Reading Mirabelli's article Learning to Serve, was entertaining because one can see how different people can perceive a task to be more prestigious and more complex than others. Also, some people do not value certain tasks in jobs that they view as "simple", such as that of a waiter/waitress. I was surprised to learn that there was a website in which waiters/waitresses can reply to reviews made by their customers.
I found it amusing to read that a waitress was more knowledgeable than a customer who left negative feedback and discriminated the servers by using complex terms, which goes to show that usually, people perceive servers, customer service employees, or "simple" job workers as uneducated and low-skilled. I think that people should never underestimate such workers because they might realize that those workers may be educated or know more than they assume they do. I have never worked as a waiter before but after reading the article I gained a better understanding of the challenges that being a server implicates. For instance, I never thought of how servers needed to memorize the entire menu and the process of elaborating a dish.
I personally have a retail job as a jeweler and I am also an inter at a chamber of commerce, these jobs are quite different and I can point out the major differences of each one and how the interaction among co-workers and clients differ. For example, working in retail, I think that customers tend to be rude and disrespectful, moreover, I also feel underestimated. However, this is a generalization, I am not saying that I always feel this way. Working as a jeweler implicates understanding how jewels are priced and minerals and processes that go into elaborating them and many customers assume that as a sales person I am only standing there without having any special skills or knowledge whatsoever. In contrast, working as an intern at the chamber of commerce I feel more respected by those that interact with me as I usually surround myself with business owners and I always wear a suit, and usually, people think it is a very challenging job that requires much education, but this is not always the case. I see each job as different, maybe the retail one requires a lot more physical work while the internship requires more knowledge, yet each one requires effort and being part of these allows me to understand that we should not underestimate anyone.
Also, in my view, having a degree does not always mean that a person is more educated than one that did not attend college, I often encounter people that read a lot and are just as informed as people that have a college degree.
After reading the article I realized that forming part of a discourse community requires a lot of learning and effort.
I agree that it is an over generalization to say that a job is simple just because it does not require very much formal education to do. Although many jobs may not require much education, these jobs often require specific skills and abilities which even a person with a high level of education may have to learn from scratch. Although a job as a server does not require a degree, it does require an ability to work well with others. This alone is a difficult skill to come by.
ReplyDelete- Joseph Cashman
I definitely agree with you when you say having a degree doesn't mean that you're smarter than someone that didn't attend college. I feel like this way of thinking is so prominent in our society that it's brainwashing the minds of kids and degrading adults that don't have degrees. For some people, it may have been out of their control not to go to college i.e. supporting their family or other personal things. And for some maybe school just wasn't for them, no where does it say that a person has to go to college and get a degree to be "smart". If people want to compare people with a college education and people without, they should take a look at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. But now im just drifting off topic. lol
ReplyDeleteBrenda