Nickel and Dimed

In Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, she chooses to throw herself into a difficult life of poverty. she works at three different locations as an undercover journalist until she isn't able to support herself anymore. She starts off in Key West, Florida, where she works in a restaurant and as a hotel maid. As a waitress she experiences how hard it is to move quickly to serve everyone and make them happy. It especially gets difficult when she has to serve a group of very picky British tourists. Her next location is Portland, Maine, where she works for a maid service. Here, she notices the conditions of her coworkers and tries to help them out. such as doing extra work for a girl who hurt her ankle on the job. Once again she isnt able to support herself there and has to move to a different location, which is Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here the rents are high and she fears not getting a job due to her drug use that may show up in the tests she needs to take. She also experiences fear due to the condition of her room, not having a bolt on the door, or screens in her windows.

In her evaluation chapter, Ehrenreich talks about how this experience opened her eyes to how hard it was to be able to find a place to live that she can afford, and how difficult it was to get a job. She also talks about how even the jobs that seem the lowest aren't as easy as they seem to be.

Discussion Question # 13

Ehrenreich was in a working condition that made her despise the customers that came into the store. I think that if i were placed into a working environment that i didn't enjoy, naturally i would have a bad attitude about having to work there and tend to get frustrated easily. I however don't think it could change my personality completely.