Blog #8

I have never been a "service worker". I’ve never been a waitress, I’ve never had to work in a place that needed good customer service, and I definitely have never worked in a fast food chain. And that’s okay, because its not something I’ve ever really wanted to do. I've only ever had one job, and its completely different because I was put in an office surrounded by people who would teach me the knowledge needed to become a physical therapist. Peter Drucker's assertion that "interactive service workers lack the necessary education to be 'knowledge workers’ sounds a lot like something my mom would say, just in more technical terms. I’m a college student so I obviously make impulsive decisions and buy things (mostly food) I think I need, when in reality I really don’t. So I thought maybe I should go and get a job somewhere. The extra money definitely would help, and I could maybe even start helping with some bills back at home. I barely even started the conversation when my mom replied with “NO I DON’T WANT YOU WORKING AT MCDONALDS”.

Honestly I was feeling so attacked at that moment, I was just trying to make a little extra money you know? You’d think she would let me get a job that way she would have a reason to not have to give me money every week, but her loss I guess. But yeah, this way of thinking is pretty prominent in my family. If you didn’t get an official “knowledge” service job, then you weren’t successful and you weren’t going to be successful. I have always thought though that the best way to get experience and references is to get a job, even if it requires working at places like McDonalds. Besides, isn’t it jobs like these that also teach people discipline and give people motivation to strive to get better jobs and maybe improve their education. But of course, my mom thinks that if I get a “service worker” job, then I’ll end up staying there forever.

 I don’t really agree with people who consider service work to be "'mindless,' involving routine and repetitive tasks that require little education".  Yeah, these jobs may not seem as hard as being the CEO of some large company, but it doesn’t mean that they’re easy. People argue that these jobs don't require identification of problems, ability to solve those problems, or other complex abilities, but I think that’s wrong. Service workers deal with problems all the time whether it be with customers or with things like inventory. I’m pretty sure if a rich privileged person who has only worked at an office type of setting will have difficulty adapting if they were made to work at a diner. Different types of jobs require different types of skills. I don’t think that just because a person works at a service job it defines that person’s ability, even if they have worked that job a majority of their life. Just because someone works at a fast food chain or at a retail store does not mean they aren’t capable of performing well as “knowledge workers”. It all depends on a persons’ opportunities and resources. If people aren’t given the opportunity to have and education, then of course they’ll work a service job because no one will hire them otherwise. Or if a person cannot afford an education, they’ll probably work a service job. Having either a “service” or “knowledge” job does not determine how capable a person is.

But like Professor Flewelling describes, I’m pretty terrified about graduating and still working at fast food chains or retail stores. I’ve met a lot of people who have graduated and still haven’t really gotten a job that involved things that they have studied. It sucks too, because a lot of people these days say that it isn’t enough to have a bachelor’s degree anymore. A lot of my family members have scared me and told me that I should at least strive to have a masters degree because that’s something important if you want to guarantee a job offer these days. I know I said that it doesn’t matter if you’ve worked at places like those, but there’s a reason why I’m willing to go to school for so long. I want to make sure I work in a place where I actually enjoy what I’m doing and where I can use what I learned in school. It also doesn’t hurt that I would be making more money.

But yeah, that’s what I think. Thanks for reading!