Barbara Ehrenreich begins by setting up the parameters of her experiment in living in a minimum wage lifestyle. The first rule was that she could not rely on her skills from her education or career. Second, she had to take the highest paying job she could get. Lastly, she had to use the cheapest accommodations she could find. She starts her first minimum wage job in the Key West. She can only find affordable housing 45 minutes away from the job market. She applies to over 20 jobs with no call backs. Ehrenreich eventually lands a waitressing job at a hotel restaurant called Hearthside.
She begins by following an experienced waitress around to learn the ropes of the job. In the beginning she makes mistakes but gets the hang of it in no time. Hearthside is filled with an assortment of employees, cooks, busboys, and servers. Ehrenreich starts investigating how the rest of these working class folk make it by day to day. She finds that many share rent with a boyfriend or husband and the one even lives out of her car. Had it not been for Ehrenreich’s original starting funds she would not have been able to procure her current residence. As the first couple weeks roll by, she begins to slowly lose money and determines it impossible to continue without a second job. Ehrenreich gathers all her saved funds and purchases a trailer in a nearby trailer park so that she may pick up the second employment opportunity.
Ehrenreich puts in job applications all over and once again receives no reply in the beginning. Later, she receives a second waitressing job at another hotel restraint called Jerry’s. Jerry’s has a much heavier customer load and requires a lot more energy. Soon after starting at Jerry’s Ehrenreich quits at Hearthside and searches for another second job. This time none of her job interviews receive any attention. This causes her to ask the hotel that the restraint is attached to for a second job if she is to continue to pay her rent. They give her a housekeeping job. For the next few days she bounces between housekeeping and waitressing.
One night shift at Jerry’s a customer complains that they did not receive what they had ordered and brings the problem to the manager. The manager flips out on Ehrenreich for not noticing the difference. With her lack of energy to deal with the problem, Ehrenreich breaks down and walks out of the restraunt. She was defeated by minimum wage.
Throughout the reading there were many examples of behavior throughout the book. At the first establishment that Ehrenreich works at there is obviously a high performing team element. There is a heavy interdependence within the group of servers. If one of them is not feeling well or is having a bad day, the others will help with tables to the best of their abilities to hide it all from management. I believe the reason for the interdependence in the common goal element. The servers are all working for tips and know that each person needs every cent to survive.
There was also a moment when I recognized something resembling Tuckman’s Stages of Development. I remembered back to the last stage of adjourning and how the team would lose a little of its cohesiveness due to the leaving of old teammates and the arrival of new ones. At the second establishment, Jerry’s, the first day of work no one really acknowledged Ehrenreich. She had felt a cold shoulder from everyone. Her second day on the job she found out why. The reason for the cold shoulder was because most did not make it past the first day. I believe this is a reaction to the arrival of new teammates so often. There was no need for the serving crew to create interdependence with a server that would not show up the next day. However, once Ehrenreich did show up the next day at Jerry’s she was accepted into the group.
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