Time S Exchange Rate
Greavu 1
John Greavu
WRIT 1301
Mr. Anderson
25 OCT 2011
Reading Response #5: Time’s Exchange Rate
“Time is money”: Bejamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States of America seemed to imply his country’s priorities fairly well in his famous three-word quote. Time and money are valued almost above all in the U.S., and sacrificing one or the other usually is at least a minor struggle for most Americans. In the capitalist society that we live in, people are always competing. They are always competing to “rise to the top” one day so everyone second of their day and every penny to their name counts. Human respect and even relationships often get pushed aside on their personal journey. For some, the time to eat (a basic human right) is extremely limited, as so that they can no longer sit down to eat, and maybe even enjoy, their meal and must choke their food down while driving to walking. For each minute you gain speeding home you also rush through and ignore a beautiful minute of life. If you wanted to be a successful fast food restaurant, you’re going to have to crunch time to please customers at the expense of your employees. When people got to get going somewhere, they are going to swing through the drive-thru of the restaurant they know has speedy customer service. But “service” does this do to the employees? Says the young Fry House cashier in “On the Front Lines of the Service Sector”:
“Stress can be caused by many aspects of grocery and fast-food work: difficult relations with customers and managers; repetitive work tasks; low occupational status and small pay-checks; continual workplace surveillance; and hot, greasy, and often dangerous work environments . . .
Greavu 2 Lack of time lies behind almost all other causes of workplace stress. Young workers regularly endure abuse from their customers. Workers are yelled at, sworn at, and insulted by customers; they are frowned at, glared at, and sneered at; they are ignored, treated as social
John Greavu
WRIT 1301
Mr. Anderson
25 OCT 2011
Reading Response #5: Time’s Exchange Rate
“Time is money”: Bejamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States of America seemed to imply his country’s priorities fairly well in his famous three-word quote. Time and money are valued almost above all in the U.S., and sacrificing one or the other usually is at least a minor struggle for most Americans. In the capitalist society that we live in, people are always competing. They are always competing to “rise to the top” one day so everyone second of their day and every penny to their name counts. Human respect and even relationships often get pushed aside on their personal journey. For some, the time to eat (a basic human right) is extremely limited, as so that they can no longer sit down to eat, and maybe even enjoy, their meal and must choke their food down while driving to walking. For each minute you gain speeding home you also rush through and ignore a beautiful minute of life. If you wanted to be a successful fast food restaurant, you’re going to have to crunch time to please customers at the expense of your employees. When people got to get going somewhere, they are going to swing through the drive-thru of the restaurant they know has speedy customer service. But “service” does this do to the employees? Says the young Fry House cashier in “On the Front Lines of the Service Sector”:
“Stress can be caused by many aspects of grocery and fast-food work: difficult relations with customers and managers; repetitive work tasks; low occupational status and small pay-checks; continual workplace surveillance; and hot, greasy, and often dangerous work environments . . .
Greavu 2 Lack of time lies behind almost all other causes of workplace stress. Young workers regularly endure abuse from their customers. Workers are yelled at, sworn at, and insulted by customers; they are frowned at, glared at, and sneered at; they are ignored, treated as social