Would you like fries with that...
How many times have you heard that? I don't mean the real question. I mean the way we use it as a scare tactic for our youth to realize that education is vital to their prosperity.
I have found something very interesting here in Thailand. I guess it would best be described as a time warp to an earlier time in America. A time when people were proud of their job. When they were happy to be serving you a burger or an ice cream cone. It was almost as if they actually appreciated having that job and were willing to do it well. I was not personally alive when it was like that but some of you remember it personally. I've seen it in movies.
That is what it is like here in Thailand. A uniform does not automatically translate to a job that should be humiliating. I can only guess at why. There is a strange phenomenon here where if you don't work, you don't eat. Poor is right outside the door, and it is all to clear what it means to be poor. So they serve your burger and french fries with a clean uniform and a smile on their face. They are happy to be one day further away from broke, and it seems to feel good. They hand over the ice cream cone and wipe the counter clean when it drips. The counter shines and so do they. Most of them even speak a second language so they can understand what it is I am trying to say I want. This is Bangkok, of course, so it may be a transvestite behind the counter, but he/she is good at the job and happy to have it.
My point is that the world is a better place when the person across the counter doesn't hate their job. Perhaps we could influence our youth this way. Their education is important, but the job they take in the early season of their work life should be treated as what it is. An opportunity to earn wages that is worth being thankful for.
I apologize for the soap box, but I thought I would share. Maybe you can positively influence someone who is working in a thankless job and help them to appreciate it.
I have found something very interesting here in Thailand. I guess it would best be described as a time warp to an earlier time in America. A time when people were proud of their job. When they were happy to be serving you a burger or an ice cream cone. It was almost as if they actually appreciated having that job and were willing to do it well. I was not personally alive when it was like that but some of you remember it personally. I've seen it in movies.
That is what it is like here in Thailand. A uniform does not automatically translate to a job that should be humiliating. I can only guess at why. There is a strange phenomenon here where if you don't work, you don't eat. Poor is right outside the door, and it is all to clear what it means to be poor. So they serve your burger and french fries with a clean uniform and a smile on their face. They are happy to be one day further away from broke, and it seems to feel good. They hand over the ice cream cone and wipe the counter clean when it drips. The counter shines and so do they. Most of them even speak a second language so they can understand what it is I am trying to say I want. This is Bangkok, of course, so it may be a transvestite behind the counter, but he/she is good at the job and happy to have it.
My point is that the world is a better place when the person across the counter doesn't hate their job. Perhaps we could influence our youth this way. Their education is important, but the job they take in the early season of their work life should be treated as what it is. An opportunity to earn wages that is worth being thankful for.
I apologize for the soap box, but I thought I would share. Maybe you can positively influence someone who is working in a thankless job and help them to appreciate it.
posted by Troy and Grace Elliott at Friday, March 07, 2008
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