Serving In Florida Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Serving In Florida - Essay Example The story â€Å"serving in Florida† is a story about a woman, Barbara Enrenreich, who started her life on a â€Å"low-wage life† in the Key West of Florida.  Among her  main  fears is that some locals may  possibly  recognize  her.  This recognition from locals interferes with her  main  task of investigating lives of the working poor. Barbara starts her life in Florida with an allotment of about $1,300 (Ehrenreich 16). The  amount  seemed too convenient to  enable  her pay two months’ rent on the apartment she rented. Afterwards, she embarks on hunting for a job. As her search for  job  continues, she realizes that there is no correlation between the number of vacancies or jobs available with the amount number of the available adverts. Moreover, it became apparent to her that the low wage jobs had high turnover. The high turnover  job  markets  facilitate  the main restaurants and hotels to keep the ads running. Regardless o f the tussle in the job search, the author proceeded with job search, and  eventually  managed to be hired. Her first job experience in Florida was the  application  of the job to the Winn-Dixie that had a computerized interview. The question asked wanted her to  determine  the  amount  of dollar  worth  the stolen goods the  prospective  employee had purchased in the previous year, or would he or she have turned in one of the employee to  steal. The  final  computer interview question was, â€Å"are you an honest person?†... Barbara engages herself into  several  job searches; however, she declines to  accept  the job offer at the Hearthside restaurant. The rejection might be because Barbara contemplates on spending  additional  $2.15 per hour on the trips that are associated with that job. Nonetheless, she settles in being a  waiter, and a  waiter  named Gail takes the  task  of training Barbara. Gail is a  woman  in her forties, has ever been homeless, and has for most her life  spend  her nights in her truck. Just recently, her boyfriend is murdered in prison. Another waiter by the name Joan also starts liking Barbara. Joan has three kids to whom she raises in a mobile home all by herself. There seems to be a  tremendous  generosity within these women that have never been noticed. Some of these traits are witnessed in their extra croutons in serving salad whenever the  management  allow  them to only  extra  six, or an  extra  rolls whenever the  manag ement  allow  them only one. Barbara after a while begins to develop these traits of  generosity  and caring, particularly towards customers and her coworkers. These ideals are clearly demonstrated, when Barbara clienteles and serves customers and her fellow workers with the  best  of  dinner  experiences she  acquired  before she became a narcotic (Ehrenreich 293). It is  apparent  that as Barbara is carrying out her duties as a waiter, she  truly  accomplishes her  mission  of investigating the lives of the poor employees. One day while wrapping some silverware, Gail told Barbara that she (Gail) was contemplating of hiring a  room  that would cost her between $40 and $60 per day (Ehrenreich 48). Barbara then asks her why she could  go  for