> He suffered great indignities just to survive and to make money...
Not sure this is a popular opinion, but I feel like a lot of white-collar workers should go work blue-collar jobs once in a while, even if for a day. Indignities are trying to bribe companies to keep a visa valid, not so much working low paying jobs, and perseverance doesn't help others that have no better out like everyone wants you to believe. Which is a huge shame.
I co-own a fast food restaurant, and I try to spend a half day every week there in person making sure things are going okay. People do a double take and then some when they discover that my day job is really as a software developer because they don't expect me to stand around at the counter or flip a burger like the $10/hour employees because I have a six figure income so I could fuck off very easily. People also treat me with way more respect afterwards - totally different from "you're the boss" is "you're the boss but you have a super swank other job". Everyone from random steady customers to like, those (insert major tech company) employees that came in the other day while I was madly typing away on my laptop during a slow hour and the 15 year old punks that just got out of school calling me a "bitch" (..."I want a burger") to "what are you doing, you type really fast" to "yes ma'am, I'm sorry, also that's really cool!!" in a matter of minutes.
Me working hard at the same job is assumed to have a good payoff in the end (maybe my also-programmer husband and I can eventually afford a nice house in SF...lol) while my employees working harder than me is assumed to be terrible - "why are you still a burger flipper" with what time and money to become better even if I try to pay them decently and work with their schedules? I even put out a job posting for more summer hires recently and got a whole slew of people with degrees - including ones with MBAs and a CS degree that I emailed instead with "wanna talk to a tech recruiter?" Sigh...
Not sure this is a popular opinion, but I feel like a lot of white-collar workers should go work blue-collar jobs once in a while, even if for a day. Indignities are trying to bribe companies to keep a visa valid, not so much working low paying jobs, and perseverance doesn't help others that have no better out like everyone wants you to believe. Which is a huge shame.
I co-own a fast food restaurant, and I try to spend a half day every week there in person making sure things are going okay. People do a double take and then some when they discover that my day job is really as a software developer because they don't expect me to stand around at the counter or flip a burger like the $10/hour employees because I have a six figure income so I could fuck off very easily. People also treat me with way more respect afterwards - totally different from "you're the boss" is "you're the boss but you have a super swank other job". Everyone from random steady customers to like, those (insert major tech company) employees that came in the other day while I was madly typing away on my laptop during a slow hour and the 15 year old punks that just got out of school calling me a "bitch" (..."I want a burger") to "what are you doing, you type really fast" to "yes ma'am, I'm sorry, also that's really cool!!" in a matter of minutes.
Me working hard at the same job is assumed to have a good payoff in the end (maybe my also-programmer husband and I can eventually afford a nice house in SF...lol) while my employees working harder than me is assumed to be terrible - "why are you still a burger flipper" with what time and money to become better even if I try to pay them decently and work with their schedules? I even put out a job posting for more summer hires recently and got a whole slew of people with degrees - including ones with MBAs and a CS degree that I emailed instead with "wanna talk to a tech recruiter?" Sigh...