Hacker News Reader

Comment by taylodl | Hacker News Reader

I've never worked a service job in my life but I know several people who have - including my own children. OMFG!!! It's inhumane how these people are treated. I've seen office equipment treated better than these flesh-and-blood human beings. The only good thing is it gave my kids a good swift kick in the rear end to go to college, not screw around, and get serious with what they were doing. Despite that upside, I wouldn't wish that on anybody!

View on HN

Crazy levels of projection here any time a non-white-collar job is mentioned as being passible.

My brother hated college more than life itself. He always looked forward to summers where he’d work service more consistently. Fast-forward, he’s dropped out and now works in food services full time, never been happier.

How's the dental care of your brother's children? When's he thinking he can retire and what will that look like? When was the last time he took a week off?

It's not the work itself that is bad but the conditions of it. I loved cooking, I much prefer it to computer work. But allowances for health and family have to be carved out case-by-case depending on your relationship to your bosses.

This isn't necessary and we could change it. But we haven't, and so these jobs suck for reasons that have nothing to do with the work being done.

Great! He’s part of a union and they provide for his benefits. And he’s a good reliable worker (which in massive demand in the industry rn), so if he gives his boss enough notice he’ll allow pretty much anything wrt time off.

> He’s part of a union and they provide for his benefits

Yeah, what we're talking about is not that. Union work is an entirely different beast. I'm talking about people not knowing from one day to the next what their schedule is going to be, informing their supervisor well in advance when they're available to work and still having work scheduled when they're not able to work and then being threatened to be fired if they don't show up. Complete shit show.

Sure, but bad jobs exist in any industry. My claim is that good ones exist in service, which is contrary to what the narrative taught in public schools would have you believe.

Because it's the exception and not the rule?

We’ve taught people to feel like scum if they’re working in food service and to treat people in food service like scum, then justify the indoctrination by saying it’s “usually true”.

Any cursory examination of other cultures would show it doesn’t have to be this way.

We all certainly agree on that! The fact is though that you will be treated like scum working in food service in a way you usually aren't working in, say, software development. I can confidently say this because I've done both jobs. It's not any more honest or realistic to deny this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com