MEAN JOBS (May/June 2001 Issue)

Barbara Ehrenreich, a wonderful writer, has written a new book of interest to career counselors, called Nickel and Dimed. In this book, she works at several "mean jobs," jobs that pay little and are physically and emotionally demanding, such as waitressing, cleaning houses, etc. John Coleman did similar "undercover" research of laboring jobs when he was President of Haverford College in the 60’s. His book was called Blue Collar Journal.

Ehrenreich wanted to see if a person can survive financially on low- wage jobs and how it feels to try. She raises interesting questions for us. In all our efforts to help clients attain "bliss, authenticity, and self-actualization," in their work, are low-paying jobs relevant? How possible is it to feel satisfied and fulfilled when struggling with tough restaurant jobs and other work that may crush the spirit more than uplifting it? Somebody has to do the menial service jobs. Are we not talking to service workers when we preach about fulfillment?

Maybe we’re counseling people to get out of those jobs as fast as they can. I suppose that’s one approach, but it still begs the question. Can people find spirit and meaning in menial jobs, should they, will they?

Do our career philosophies apply to all people or just to those who are upwardly mobile themselves above a certain level?

There is something about the dignity of all work that applies here, especially work done with genuine effort and concern toward those being served. That’s one answer but it's too easy. Many who labor in the food pits and scrub on their hands on knees would laugh about such "dignity."

Still, its hard for me to imagine telling a client, "you can’t find any nourishment in those jobs," because every job has the potential for a human exchange of energy. In fact, service jobs, no matter how lowly, often have more opportunity for human contact than the scores of boring administrative jobs where people are pushing paper and wishing forlornly that they had any face-to-face contact at all.

While many clients would not willingly jump into low-level service jobs, if their circumstances lead them there, these jobs have valuable lessons. Effort, discipline, human relations, dealing with setbacks, and conflict resolution. The lessons are there every day and night.

How a person does a given job reveals a lot about him/her. A message of service jobs in America is that you don’t have to stay "stuck" in them. If your work habits are strong and your contacts with customers are positive, better work opportunities will come your way.

It would be enlightening for people who are used to being served at restaurants to step across the line to the other side. Interestingly, Ehrenreich said that no one "noticed" her education or middle-class ways. To the other waitresses, she was simply another worker. Anyone would benefit from such an experience, "walking a mile in another’s moccasins." From the vantage point of a menial job, one can often see what is genuine and what is buffoonery. Customers who -flaunt their status and pretensions. Other customers who are easily angered. Still others who are rude or insensitive. A service worker gets a full display of ways to be and not be. High-salaried workers are insulated from the struggles and insults of working for low wages. When they regard themselves as "better," they have crossed the line into snobbery. While working in menial jobs usually has more suffering than a person wants, it can teach the folly of snobbery and may help people to guard against such insensitivity in themselves.

Many workers in "mean jobs" have some of the best philosophies. Ehrenreich gives an example of a kitchen worker who had posted in his cramped bedroom: "If you seek happiness for yourself, you will never find it. Only when you seek happiness for others will it come for you." Sometimes we get our best life lessons when we’re forced into situations we would not choose willingly. Mean jobs are not at the top of anyone’s list, but they can grow fiber in a person’s character, all the while she or he is looking for an escape route.

Howard Figler, Ph.D., is the author of The Complete Job Search Handbook and The Career Counsleor's Handbook [1999, with Richard N. Bolles]. He can be reached at: hefigler@pacbell.net