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Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

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Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#21

Post by RHSeeger »

ipaddr wrote: post #10
cafard wrote: post #2

I don't know. I never graduated to waiter, but I worked as a busboy a few times. I have much sympathy for wait staff. My recollection is that the waitresses were always decent to me. Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." One of my other low-paying jobs was as a copy editor, and I have seen how commonly schools have failed to teach PhDs to be…

Everyone learns to write in school. A waiting job most can pick up but not all. I couldn't get past serving training. Carrying four plates and keeping them straight takes without spilling is for others.

Everyone learns to carry plates while growing up. There's a lot more to being a good waiter than just writing down orders and carrying plates. And there's a lot more to being a good writer than just knowing how to write sentences.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#22

Post by hotpotamus »

M3L0NM4N wrote: post #12
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

That was excellent! > The life of the American worker is inherently undignified This is true, and even goes for highly-paid, high-status gigs. In fact, I think that sometimes, companies consider high pay, a license to humiliate.

Many people are willing to sell their dignity for the right price, however. Me included.

I once got a below average performance review paired with an above average raise, to which I told my boss that he could call me ugly if it came with money like that. I will say that it helped a lot that I really liked him and he wasn't all that thrilled with the company review process either and was apologetic about it.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#23

Post by JohnFen »

refulgentis wrote: post #20
JohnFen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." Yeah, I don't buy that either. I know that the best software engineering work I've done in my entire life happened when I was working as a hotel housekeeper, before I was programming professionally. It was because cleaning hotel rooms is a purely physical, and highly repetitive job. Every day at work,…

Is that an example of you: A) being a waitress learning to be a writer? B) an intellectual learning to be a waiter? I would have thought A, but you imply it's B. That's interesting to me, because when I was a waiter, I certainly didn't feel B. My high school classmate who went to Cornell and I spent an hour or two a day with senior year pretended they didn't remember me. Customers constantly talked down to me. I buil…

I meant it as "A", but on second thought, you're right, it's more like "B".

I suppose that my real, underlying point is that you can't reliably tell what a person's skillset is by what they do for a living.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#24

Post by projektfu »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #16
Scubabear68 wrote: post #8

I gave up on this article about 1/3 of the way through. I could fill dozens of pages with my aimless years after I quit college, but I wouldn’t think to bore people with it.

I read the whole thing in one sitting. I found it interesting in a slice-of-life way. Basically a journey to maturity and self-discovery. You might jot down your aimless years after college, for your own future reminiscences if nothing else. But everyone, I believe, has a story to tell, something of value. We tend not to tell our stories anymore, because we’re too busy and overstimulated and no longer need to fill up…

It reminded me a bit of the oral history in Studs Terkel's "Working". The interview with the stewardess (as she called herself) was interesting like this.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#26

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

emodendroket wrote: post #15
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

That was excellent! > The life of the American worker is inherently undignified This is true, and even goes for highly-paid, high-status gigs. In fact, I think that sometimes, companies consider high pay, a license to humiliate.

> In fact, I think that sometimes, companies consider high pay, a license to humiliate. This is easier to think if you haven't had or don't remember low-wage work.

I used to work for Roy Rogers, when we had to call the customers “Pardner.”

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#27

Post by projektfu »

cafard wrote: post #2

I don't know. I never graduated to waiter, but I worked as a busboy a few times. I have much sympathy for wait staff. My recollection is that the waitresses were always decent to me. Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." One of my other low-paying jobs was as a copy editor, and I have seen how commonly schools have failed to teach PhDs to be…

I'm not sure that schools teach the PhD track to be writers. They must write, but they are not really expected to write well. An MFA in creative writing, sure, but that's a different sort.

I think of the modern or contemporary "intellectuals" I have read and many are mediocre writers. For every William James there's a Pearse or a Lewis who is hard to read.

But I think that the author has a different idea in mind, that of the novelist, story writer or journalist. A lack of life experience and appreciation for dialog can lead to poor writing in these domains, and perhaps a waiter would have a leg up.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#28

Post by waiseristy »

cafard wrote: post #2

I don't know. I never graduated to waiter, but I worked as a busboy a few times. I have much sympathy for wait staff. My recollection is that the waitresses were always decent to me. Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." One of my other low-paying jobs was as a copy editor, and I have seen how commonly schools have failed to teach PhDs to be…

Lemme modify the writers words for you to more accurately describe the phenomena : “I suspect it’s easier to teach a good waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a good waiter.”

Being excellent at balancing a stressful, fast paced, work environment applies to many jobs. But being excellent at being an “intellectual” whatever the hell that even means (writers? Programmers?), does not really apply to very many jobs.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#30

Post by rcoveson »

Scubabear68 wrote: post #8

I gave up on this article about 1/3 of the way through. I could fill dozens of pages with my aimless years after I quit college, but I wouldn’t think to bore people with it.

I'm just glad you saw fit to let us read your insightful critique. Let me know if you ever do decide to get those pages out; you've got a fan in me!
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