I have continued to read
Nickel and Dimed and she has now moved from Key West to Maine. This time she has decided that she wants to work for a cleaning agency. Also on the weekends she works for a residential facilities where she serves food to Alzheimer's patients. These like the waiter gig in Key West are low paying jobs.
The cleaning agency gig is terrible in my opinion. She says that people seem to look at her as if she is less of a person when she has her cleaning lady clothes on. I think that this is unfair and that this is the point of this experiment. For you to really understand the feeling of the lower class, then you have to go through everyday life like that and experience the bad side. Reading this book has been a real eye opener for me. Also there are a lot of physical side effects that aren't seen in the cleaning lady business. Many people get back problems from using the backpack vacuum cleaner. She also got rashes all over her body from the cleaning agent that they use, but that didn't even stop her from working. A different coworker broke her leg, but finished out the day just to keep the paychecks coming. I can't imagine working a job like this and sincerely hope that I am never at a point in my life when this is a worry to me.
She also explains in detail that the maid service doesn't do a great job cleaning. She says that the whole philosophy is to make everything shiny and look good as soon as possible. Not to clean. They have gotten complaints that when a client wiped up a juice spill off of their newly cleaned floor, the towel came up grey. This is because by using water to wipe the floor down, instead of cleaning the floor, they are equally redistributing the dirt around various parts of the floor. It may look clean, but it's really dirty.
I have never had cleaning personnel clean my house and I never will. I feel truly bad for those who are stuck with this dismal job. Next up is the "North Star State"!
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