fMarien has 9 post(s)

Part: A

In the Doing Gender by Giving “Good Service” essay Elaine Hall describes the differences between gender -in- organization perspective and the gendered organization approach and how they are both define in the work environment.

The author describes how gender in-organization is different for women and men and it implies that different gender has different approach to the same kind of work. The different genders also are view differently by costumers. (in p.454) This article describes how for example police women are trying to resolve the gender role between being women and a police officers. How the gender expectations and behavior when harassment is involved these behaviors are inappropriate.

In gendered organization approach (in p.454) it describes that the type of job a person chooses will imply the gender at work. This approach is different than gender in organization approach because it tells us that men and women bring different gender behaviors to work. But the gender organization approach implies that the type of job determines how men and women behave differently when it comes to the work environment.

When addressing the way, gender is constructed within and between restaurants. All this because restaurants makeup their own rules when it comes to hiring people to work for them. Some restaurants only hire young beautiful women in order to attract more customers into their establishment. This discriminates on other people trying for the same job. Some places discriminate depending on what type of restaurants they tend to hire older women, not young ladies because they tend be mothers and house wife and are able to take care of families. But if it’s a restaurant they tend to want young women with nice bodies in order to attract and flirt with male costumers. For example, I have a close friend that used to work in a fancy restaurant in Washington highs where I live, my friend felt so much pressure from her place of work and from other co-worker and waitress that she made the decision to go have plastic surgery in Dominican Republic. She felt other waitress were making more money because they had better bodies specifically bigger behinds than she did.

In this case, both the gender -in-organization and the gendered organization played a role in how my friend was able to get this job. Because in this job she walked in with gender neutral believes but quickly realized that wasn’t how she was supposed to act at work but Instead gendered organization determined how she was supposed to look and act around costumers at work, in order to make more money.

Part: B

In the article “The wage Penalty for motherhood” The authors Michelle Budig and Paula England write about how women in their childbearing years are being paid less than women that are not in their childbearing years. All this because when women have children they tend to spend more time at home and away from their jobs. They may get discriminated against because of having children and be seen as less reliable than women without children.

The first explanation (in p.205) is that when women are in childbearing years they spend more time away from work because they are taking care of children causing them to interrupt they carriers and therefore their job experience. For example, when my children where young I had to work and spend more time away from home than I wanted to. But that made me feel guilty about not being with them I was missing out on my children growth. At the same time, I had to work because of fear of losing my place at work, it was a lot of pressure from both sides.

The second explanation (in p.205) is that some mothers may want to change jobs to more mother friendly jobs even if those jobs offer less pay because to them it is more beneficial to be in a mother friendly job, like for example working in a school were later on mothers could bring their children to work with them which makes it essayer for them instead of having to pay for childcare and it saves time.

The third explanation (in p. 207) is that some mothers may earn less pay because having to take care of a young child and working is an exhausting job that can leave them feeling sleepy and can lead them to be unfocused on the job at hand. For some women, it takes about a year to get used to the routine of juggling a job will taking care of their children.

The fourth explanation (in p.208) is that some employers can discriminate against mothers because they feel mothers are less productive than women how don’t have children for the reasons I mention above. In this society, women that have career ambition are viewed as being less ambitious if they also have children. Because bosses tend to prefer women that are not attached to children in order to have their focus on the job at hand.

The last explanation is where the authors sort of retract what they said because they mention (in p.210) that maybe women of childbearing years are at a young age. They may have a lower academic status and that is way they tend to make less money than those women who don’t have any children.

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is the research she decides to do about the hardship people in American go through because of low wages. Her curiosity lead to do this research by incorporating herself in the lives and circumstances must people in America go through every day. Her family recommended she do the research without living throw it, the way people making low wages do. Her family at first weren’t too keen on her decision but she made her choice.

The day she started her research she made some rules for safety reasons she would have a car either her own or a rental and she would have some extra money for the beginning of her research. She went into this experiment with some privileges most people having a low-income job don’t have. She started job hunting but rapidly understood that in order to get a job it is necessary to have a place to live an address to write down on the applications. Similarly, she realized that she was looking for jobs in a predominantly black area where she stood out. This is when Ehrenreich chooses to do her research in Maine because is predominantly white and she would fit in.

This experience gave her the chance to see firsthand the struggles low income families go thought to survive in this country. Ehrenreich was able to see how difficult it is to find a livable space making minimal wage. She saw how some people had to struggle and basically live like animals because they can’t afford better living conditions. Correspondingly she experienced how many people get sick or injured but continue to work though it because either can’t afford to go to the hospital or can miss a day’s work because of fear of losing that precious job.  This gave her the opportunity to feel the frustration must of us go through with our employers, when they choose the job at hand instead of our health or sometimes safety.

Certainly, if Ehrenreich hadn’t made the decision to experience the life of low income families first hand and follow her family’s advice, this research would not have been the same. Even though she had the privilege of knowing the struggles she was going though were temporary and that if she was going hungry she would buy something to eat, she really tried to stick though the struggles like many of her coworkers. This made her research feel more authentic to her.

George Ritzer describes McDonalization as a wide range process of rationalization that is occurring in American society. McDonalization is the idea that we as human beings have to live a fast pace life using fast food, nonhuman technology using efficient appliances, efficiency and predictability. He uses this metaphor in order to help us visualized how fast food restaurants are the present-day examples of how rationalization develops. And how all these advantages are in place to distract us from seeing all the negative effects of living in this society and what is causing us. (Ritzer p.372) mentions that we are ultimately concerned with the irrational consequences that often flow from rational systems.

George Ritzer explained that McDonalization and rationalization go hand and hand because rationalization leads to McDonalization which is a fast pace society. The relationship between Ritzer and Weber is that in (p.6) the Spirit of Capitalism is best understood as part of the development of rationalism as a whole, and this is deduced from the fundamental position of rationalism on the basic problems of life. In Ritzer McDonalization its understood as part of bureaucracy and society although in contemporary America is no longer bureaucracy, rationalism developed into McDonalization. A society that focuses on doing things efficiently an on finding the best and fastest way of doing things. (Ritzer p.372) He mentions McDonalization brings efficiency in the work force but we need to be careful because it replaces humans with non-human technology (machines). Ritzer and Weber are speaking on changes to society. Ritzer talks about the changes and the effect living in a fast pace society is causing on people. How we are used to going too fast food restaurants and how technology is taking over our jobs. Another part of rationalization is the effort we make to guarantee predictability from all the places we go, and if predictability is not offer or we are uncertain about what is going to happen we prefer not to be involved.  For example: how we go to McDonalds and how they have different stations where we can place our order without needing a person to help us. This is a good and a bad thing because it makes the process of ordering food faster and more efficient, it is also a bad thing because it replaces people jobs with machines. Weber on (p.7) was speaking more on how rationalism is a historical concept which covers a whole world of different directions just like McDonalization does and how was helping change capitalism.

The relationship between work and education for this week’s High Culture and Hard Labor by Andrew Ross and Raising the Floor, Not Just the Ceiling by Tressie McMillan Cotton are connecting the idea that in this day an age having a High School diploma does not take you as far as it used to. Now in order for a person to get a good job you need to have a college degree. But a college degree does not guarantee a job ones a person is out of college. Acquiring a college degree is not as easy any more because colleges are rising costs. Now low income students aim for lower and more affordable colleges instead of the elite colleges because of rising prices. Most students decide to attend college because they need a job, they are more interested in the job at the end of the college education than in the education the college has to offer. Unfortunately the job at the end is not a guarantee, because many students finish college an it takes them too long to be able to find a job in the field the studied.
As this crises between education work many corporations are taking advantage of people how don’t have a college degree because this guarantees them cheaper labor. These is the case of the Kafala sponsorship programs of different regions of Abu Dhabi and Dubai many people are being exploited. They promise people from India,Pakistan,Nepal,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka good jobs. The recruitment company promised standard labor comps and a good pay. When workers arrived realized that those were only promises and many of those workers were owed a lot of money but worse of all those employers kept the workers passports and those workers could not return home.
If we ask those workers the price they had to pay for those cultural institutions being erected on Saadiyat’s Island they would say is not worth’s the risk of them not being able to see there families and not being able to live a decent life.
Unfortunately the exploitation of workers doesn’t only happen in those far regions. It also happens in the U.S. on a daily basis. If a person is uneducated it is easier for an employer to take advantage of them because it is less likely that person is aware of the labor laws and of there rights as an employee. The employer tends to look for people who did not go to college and have a lower level education because they are easy to exploit.

In this article “The Principles of Scientific Management,1911” Frederick w. Taylor describes the how “soldiering” directly affects workers lives, their wages and how they prosper. The causes and conditions, which he divided into three areas in (p.5) The first one he called the “fallacy” stage which consisted in trading man with machines and that would result in many men out jobs. The second stage The “defective” in which the manager would have to “soldier” it’s workers in order to protect their interest. And the third the “inefficient” stage and the most universal were the workers performs slow work and waste a lot of effort and time in.

In the fallacy stage Taylor mentions that no matter if we increased productive capacity or invent a new machine to increase production this would make the product less expensive because work that was formally done by hands was more costly to make. As a result of machines instead of people doing the labor, the product would be more accessible to the people and would become cheaper to make.

In (p.7) Taylor believed that the caused of soldering was because many workers have the natural instinct to not work as hard as they have to. This tendency increases when men of similar background start working in similar conditions and with the same pay day. All because men start believing that they shouldn’t work had if other workers doing the same work are not working hard and are getting the same pay as they are. In (p.8) Taylor explains a little more on how systematic soldering works he mentions is done by men with an intentional goal to keep their employers ignorant of how much faster the work can be done.

Taylor’s response was that implementing the rule of thumb instead of science as a rule was the way to do things more efficiently. In (p.10) Taylor describes how the worker and management should more have equal responsibilities and the management should also help in guiding the worker with the scientific laws. He believed that the method of rule of thumb eliminates the need of soldering and it increases the need for men in the work force instead of throwing men out of work and eliminating the fallacy stage. Taylor also believed that workers that are not under the watchful eye of management are more productive and happier at their jobs. Because they are under less stressful conditions.

Marien Burgos

Marx characterizes the relationship of labor activity to the commodity that is produced. He uses the example of the weaver to explain how capitalism is dependent on wage and labor for the working class. Also how businesses are motivated by the needs and wants of the bargainer and the owners of businesses and the production of labor belong to the capitalists. Marx mentions that sense the capitalist buys the supplies and the labor from the worker,the worker will receive his wages for the work he produced, and whether the capitalist sales his merchandise the worker would still get paid for his labor. Because the capitalist buys the yarn and loom the wages are not consider part of the shares of the worker in the exchanged in market. He considers the capitalist the higher class because this class uses their financial gain, the workers labor and extra product to their advantage.
The school were I work at is the perfect example, I started working their 2008. The school opened with only two classrooms because the owner didn’t have enough money for a bigger space but in that area there were no schools before we opened. The supplies and demand started growing. Now the owner of the school opened another school but the salaries of the teachers haven’t grown as much as the business has. As Marx mentions in (p.2) it is possible that the seller sells his merchandised for a very good profit but that doesn’t concern the worker. This is how the capitalist continues to be at the top of the pyramid.
In “The making of the U.S. working class” Braverman mentions in (P.32) that in this society the inverted pyramid is taking place because the productive labor is getting narrower and the workers are driven to produce a greater product. Because of the Capitalist system industries who don’t produce anything themselves are thriving. All this is in connection with what Marx explains,that the working class is always at the bottom of the pyramid and this class is always exploited but is the only way to survive.
As explained above the worker exchanges his commodity labor power in exchange of money. And long before the merchandised is fully produced the worker has received his wages. The capitalist owns the product and the labor. Also Marx considers the capitalist the higher class because they use the gains and the workers labor in their favor. In the end this is the reason why the rich continue to get richer and the working class continues to be working class.

Breverman explains ( P.15) that working class is divided by sex ,race,occupations and industries and many others reasons. It’s important to understand that society of the working class is a recent occurrence in the United States, only a century since hieing the working class became the majority. Example a shoe maker owns his shop is not working, the people he hires are “working class” but the owner of the shop isn’t because he is there to supervise the working class.

A worker can increase productivity by saving time that is usually lost in changing from job to job. He thought that you are more productive when you stay at the same job for many years. All because doing the same job many times increase peoples ability to perform simple operations. Also buying machines to help the workers in simple tasks. He felt the more jobs are separated into smaller tasks the more productivity is gather in the manufacturing process.

>Braverman said that the capitalist problem starts in the buying and selling of labor. When a worker selling of labor. When a worker sells something and the capitalist buys it, is not what makes a productive work time.(P.30)  That a capitalist society has its own way to guide labor into places that make more sense. Sense the 1920s in the United States there has been a tremendous movement of unproductive labor. He mentions that such industries like welfare offices, unemployment banking ,insurance and real estate industries are unproductive industries. All because the employment in these areas is raising and because of it employment in all others the unproductive employment it is cousin a rapid rise in unemployment.

This society is more focused on profits rather than on production of a product. He also mentions in (P.32) that in this society the inverted pyramid is taking place because the productive labor is getting narrower and the workers are driven to produce a greater product. Because of the Capitalist system industries who don’t produce anything themselves are thriving and move the surplus and capital.

In conclusion Braverman said, to increase productivity we need to stay at the same job for longer periods of time because we would help and it increases productivity. He mentions that the capitalist society is increasing unproductive workers. He also said that many industries like insurance and real estate are unproductive because these jobs are taking over the productive jobs. As a result unemployment is on the rise.

Marien Burgos

He that is Known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare” by this passage Weber means That the person who builds a good reputation towards money opens doors that may otherwise be close. If the lender can see you are trying and making an effort to pay him his money he will probably feel stimulate to give you a chance to pay his money back, but if he doesn’t see you making an effort to return the money, he will probably think again to lend you money one more time.

The connection between them is that Weber was influenced by Benjamin he understood how capitalism worked before it started being in implemented in America. Weber quoted Benjamin Franklin an consider his believes as rules to live by if you were interested in being successful in life and business. Also he thought that if you lived your life and were greed towards you would see an increasing capital in the end. Weber thought that it was a rule to live by and the person would be seen as a prosperous person.

This life style of earning money is seen as an point in itself, and is only the instrument for buying more things. Even though this attitude towards money is apparently illogical this is the principle of capitalism ,And this is closely related with some religious ideas.

Weber thought that capitalism was more than accumulation of money and wealth. He believed capitalism was thinking more rationally than just making and accumulating wealth using discipline when working hard. Weber consider that in order for people to become strong capitalist, it had to start as a way of life. He consider you had to invest your capital regularly. Weber did not think this develop as a reflection of other economic situations because other places in the country had the “spirit of capitalism” before it stated to take shape all over the country.

In conclusion Weber took Benjamin Franklin’s idea as the core of what capitalism is and how it had to be enforced in order for us to live in a capitalist society. The only difference was that Weber was more rational than Franklin. He thought we had to be rational about money and what we should invest and make money grow. A person who makes a good reputation towards money will be prosperous because this attitude will open doors for the person in the future. But Benjamin Franklin believed in the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science.

I stared working since I was 19 years old. My first job was at the Family school of Manhattan as a teacher assistant and staid at the school for thirteen years. After that I moved on the Montessori school of Manhattan. I been there for nine years,now as a co-teacher in a toddler classroom.

How did my grandparents and parents worked back in my native country Dominican Republic. My grandparents worked as farmers they had rise and plantain farms. They where able to make things better for my parents because they where able to send my parents to college and as a result my parents didn’t have to work as difficult as my grandparents did.

I think this history struck my sense of what work is, my relationship to work,and my goals and hopes for the future. It has stirred me a great deal because i didn’t have to work at the farm I only went to wash the horses, play with the pigs and cows and for camping for fun. It made me see how hard and arduous life was for my grandparents. I think growing up and observing this made me want to work hard to better myself ,go to school and have a career and help future generations of my family.

Because I worked at different schools for many years,I consider that a person needs to invest in their future by educating themselves. Working at a school I have to further my education in order to better my career and pay check. In this day a age educating our self is the only way I think we could modify our self for a better paying job.

What Weber means by “ethic” of work .On one hand Weber thinks that having a strong work ethic determines your economic growths and prosperity. Weber had the notion that when you work with intention it raises your morals and value. He also beveled that protestants value work more than people from other religions but there were never any supporting thesis that supported his believes.

My reflection: I was raised to think that if we don’t work for what we want we won’t get anywhere. My grandparents where hardworking, they where farmers and had to do hard labor in order for my parents to go to college and not have to farm like they did. Seeing how hard they all had to work made me feel I have to make something of myself . I need to have a career not just a job. Now that I have kids I want them to have the same work ethics me and my family have.