Stigma Within the Fast Food Industry Essay -- Restaurants Employment Es

When working at a fast food restaurant, more often than not it is accompanied with a stigma. People tend to believe that those who work in fast food restaurants are not capable of anything better. They assume people working at fast food restaurants are slow and uneducated, or they simply look down upon them because these jobs have become known as "dead-end jobs." This so-called "dead-end job" is what people might describe as low-wage labor that employees have a susceptibility to become trapped in. Fast food employee’s face many challenges, morally and socially. High school students take jobs at fast-food restaurants because they are convenient and can work around their schedules. High school students who work in fast food use the money they make toward an education, and most have goals that do not at all include the fast-food world. Why then, does the stigma remain? Perhaps it is because it has been coined as a social prejudice, and people are afraid to disagree. Parents tend to dissuade their working age children from working at fast-food restaurants as the stigma of these jobs creates conflict in their social lives. My background in the fast food industry starts with my first real job. I began working at Wendy’s when I was sixteen years old. I kept to myself for nearly a year. I was working for one thing, and that was to satisfy the customers. After exactly three years, the choice to move on and change was a hard decision to make, my hours were steady, and the managers were pushing me to move up in the chain of power and become a shift manager. I had accumulated three employee of the month awards (employees were only allowed to get it once a year), the title of ACE employee (knowledge of all positions and the skil... ...erve while working in the fast food industry that people not in the industry would not know or understand? 7. Has your perspective been provoked by the stigma related with fast food workers, if so, how? [ii] Questions for non fast food workers. 1. When did you first begin working and where? 2. Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant? 3. How do you feel this job might differ from that of one in a fast food restaurant? 4. Do you feel that fast food restaurants carry a stigma among employees? 5. Have you ever heard or been witness to a situation regarding the moral corruption of fast workers? Works Cited Bennet, Jay. Personal interview. 30 Oct. 2004. Koenecke, Wade. Personal interview. 25 Oct. 2004 Long, Whitney. Personal interview. 25 Oct. 2004 Wright, Sean. Personal interview. 28 Oct. 2004 Stigma Within the Fast Food Industry Essay -- Restaurants Employment Es When working at a fast food restaurant, more often than not it is accompanied with a stigma. People tend to believe that those who work in fast food restaurants are not capable of anything better. They assume people working at fast food restaurants are slow and uneducated, or they simply look down upon them because these jobs have become known as "dead-end jobs." This so-called "dead-end job" is what people might describe as low-wage labor that employees have a susceptibility to become trapped in. Fast food employee’s face many challenges, morally and socially. High school students take jobs at fast-food restaurants because they are convenient and can work around their schedules. High school students who work in fast food use the money they make toward an education, and most have goals that do not at all include the fast-food world. Why then, does the stigma remain? Perhaps it is because it has been coined as a social prejudice, and people are afraid to disagree. Parents tend to dissuade their working age children from working at fast-food restaurants as the stigma of these jobs creates conflict in their social lives. My background in the fast food industry starts with my first real job. I began working at Wendy’s when I was sixteen years old. I kept to myself for nearly a year. I was working for one thing, and that was to satisfy the customers. After exactly three years, the choice to move on and change was a hard decision to make, my hours were steady, and the managers were pushing me to move up in the chain of power and become a shift manager. I had accumulated three employee of the month awards (employees were only allowed to get it once a year), the title of ACE employee (knowledge of all positions and the skil... ...erve while working in the fast food industry that people not in the industry would not know or understand? 7. Has your perspective been provoked by the stigma related with fast food workers, if so, how? [ii] Questions for non fast food workers. 1. When did you first begin working and where? 2. Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant? 3. How do you feel this job might differ from that of one in a fast food restaurant? 4. Do you feel that fast food restaurants carry a stigma among employees? 5. Have you ever heard or been witness to a situation regarding the moral corruption of fast workers? Works Cited Bennet, Jay. Personal interview. 30 Oct. 2004. Koenecke, Wade. Personal interview. 25 Oct. 2004 Long, Whitney. Personal interview. 25 Oct. 2004 Wright, Sean. Personal interview. 28 Oct. 2004