Pathos, Logos And Stereotypes In Working At Wendy's

Food Inc. is an American documentary film directed and produced by Robert Kenner and released on September 7, 2008, to bring awareness to Americans about the food that they consume daily. The film accomplishes this goal by using facts and interviews who appeal to ethos logos and pathos

In the essay written by Joey Franklin, the author exposes his own internal conflict, as well as the existing prejudice against fast food restaurant workers. The work is well developed, with the use of witty diction and tone, in addition to the appeals to rhetorical devices.

“You can’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Every day our parents tell us as children that we cannot judge things based on the first glances that we see. However, people in our society today have filled their heads with stereotypes in order to judge people and their abilities. And when hiring employees, stereotypes and first glances is all an employer sees and therefore care about. In her book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich proves that a person’s race and gender have a massive influence on the type of low-wage work a person can find, due to the stereotypes that are associated with gender and race in our society today.

High turnover is something that goes hand in hand with low wage jobs, so companies are always looking for a workers replacement. Finally Ehrenreich is able to secure employment at a place she give the pseudonym, Hearthside. To help protect identies of companies and people she actually worked for and with, Ehrenreich decides to use fake names to achieve anonymity. Ehrenreich starts out at 2.43 an hour plus tips. One of the first things Ehrenreich notices is that the people around her are only working hard enough to get by. Because the managers will yell at anybody who is done with their work, and not doing something new, the workers seem to be happy with just working at a slow pace, doing just one job. Because the only reward for finishing early is being yelled at by a manager, that apparently spends his day doing nothing, there is no real bonus to go the extra mile. Due to this negative reinforcement, Ehrenreich notes that the restaurant is almost moving in counterproductive mode. With less being worked on, less is being accomplished, attributing to the overall sad appearance and low morale of the restaurant and its employees. The next problem Ehrenreich encounters is the constant berating handed out by her supervisor "Stu". Ehrenreich observes that due to this constant barrage of insults and degradations, workers are forced to feel like they are subhuman. Weekly the managers announce

“I’m working a part-time job at Wendy’s.” What is the first thought that comes to your head when you hear this sentence? Greasy fries, polyester uniforms, cheap food? What about the people who work there? Do you picture a first-time worker, a high school dropout, other pimple-faced workers taking your order? For some reason, in our society, we’ve associated low-quality workers with low-quality food? In his article “Working at Wendy’s” Joey Franklin paves the road towards a new perspective about those who come to work at Wendy’s. Instead of explicit points and unshakable statistics, and powerful calls to action, Franklin alternatively leads gently us through a process of revelation. Drawing from his own experiences working at his local Wendy’s Franklin gives an eye-opening view into the world behind the counter.

There are many different types of jobs in the world; some of which people feel are better than others. Factors like the amount of money and amount of education affect the stereotypical perception about certain jobs. There are two different types of work, blue-collar and white-collar. Blue-collar jobs are seen as the “working class”. The “Working class” refers to low-wage workers that are void of a college education, who struggle to get by economically. It is also perceived that the “Working class” is lazy, unproductive failures who have limited upward mobility, or relics of earlier era of industrialization. It’s important that people realize the amount of skill level it takes to do different types of jobs, and although pay may not reflect the effort or the soft and technical skills needed, or physicality that is respective for those jobs; these jobs should be viewed respectfully. Jobs like cashiers and waitressing have a bad reputation, but they take a certain skill level that people have to develop just like any other white-collar job. People skills, public speaking, ability to sell items on the menu, multi-tasking, and so much more are necessary to be a success in this type of career choice or job. Matthew Crawford talks about this in his book, along with Mike Rose, on how there is a lack of appreciation and respect for the skill set it takes to do blue collar jobs, and how the stereotypically stigma couldn’t be further than the

Franklin uses pathos as his main support for his argument. Many different stereotypes have been created for fast food workers, including employees being uneducated or criminals. In the essay, a customer came up to Franklin while he was working and asks,

Someone working at a fast-food restaurant is bound to face torment either by their peers, and have the social stain of being viewed as poor or dirty. In a personal interview with another fast food worker, Whitney said, “…a lot of them [fast food workers] do tend to have that lower class background. Also, whenever you find adults working in the fast food industry, it generally means they lack an education.” A lot of younger adolescents will take jobs at fast food restaurants because very few places will hire kids when they first get their legal working papers, but fast food restaurants tend to flood their restaurant with these juvenile employees.

The All-American meal takes more out of Americans to make then at first glance. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation delves deep into the intricate workings of the fast food industry to expose mistreatment and cruelty towards workers in the business, just as Upton Sinclair had done in the early 1900’s regarding the meat packing industry. Schlosser is able to bring light to the darkness behind the All-American meal through extensive research and personal confrontations of which he has high regards for.

Zinczenko use of pathos pulls at our heartstrings and allows us to sympathetic towards him. As a child, he fell victim to the fast food industry himself. “By age 15, I had packed 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow on my once lanky 5-foot-10 frame” (463). He became obese at such a young age because he was a son of a single, hard-working mother whose only way of providing for him was through the fast food industries because of convenience. He would consume two to three meal a day from one of these popular food companies. “Lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut” (462). When one reads statements such as these they are forced to think about their own unhealthy choices that they have made in their lives. One contemplates if they too have fallen prey to the fast food industries. Zinczenko uses this appeal to allow us to assess our own moral and put ourselves in a perspective of someone who has been a victim of the fast food

Also, he attempts to warn consumers about how unhealthy fast foods really are. He makes a strong point; there is a need for nutritional information about fast food. Having access to the information about the contents and nutritional values of fast food may help one make an informed decision about his food options. However, people need to take accountability for the choices that they make. Choosing fast food is not a forced decision. With the nutritional information and will power at hand, can turn their lives around. When someone walks into a fast food restaurant, he or she is not trapped in there forever; all it takes is for him or her put down the burger and walk

Ehrenreich chooses Minnesota at whim. After some internet-based research, she is convinced that there will be a comfortable correspondence between rent and wages. She decides she wants to work for retail, and applies to Wal-Mart. After the process of applying which includes a survey and a drug test, she is later hired for $7 per hour. Working at Wal-Mart makes Ehrenreich realizes there isn’t much human interaction in retail. “I could be a deaf-mute as far as most of this goes” (Ehrenreich157). There are also the people in the store who tend to make work a living hell and can turn regular chipper people into angry, cranky pushovers. “Once I stand and watch helplessly while some rug rat pulls everything he can reach off the racks, and the thought that abortion is wasted on the unborn must show on my face, because his mother finally tells him to stop” (165). In many cases the “smiley” greeters who welcome people into the store, are very unhappy and think unkind thoughts about everyone who comes to visit the store, “I even start hating the customers for extraneous reasons…” (165). This sudden change in character can be strenuous on a worker, regardless of their personality. Resenting the people who workers work for isn’t a healthy trait. “ ‘Aggressive hospitality’ gives way to aggressive hostility” (165).

For this paper I choose a well know fast food restaurant, which is “Chick-fil-A”. Chick-fil-A is a restaurant that they focus on all ages, and any kind of people. On March 25, I personally went to the “Chick- Fil- A” that located beside the Pasadena City College and observe. Chick- Fil- A is a company that tries to focus on every age as possible as they can, even though the price that they had marked is high than the McDonald, Jack in the box, etc... but they are giving costumer the better quality of foods. However when I site down and observe I found out there are few families with kids, old people, students, and businessman, etc…. Moreover, Chick- Fil- A had chosen a great location to locate their restaurant, beside the restaurant, which

With all of these points being made from the factual information to the personal experience to the decoding of a healthy fast food meal we can see that this essay is indeed an effective argument that make the reader think and wonder about what they’re

McDonaldization is becoming the new wave of job types where workers are being deskilled, dehumanized and exploited. Machines are taking over tasks which the employees used to do such as bank machines (interact). The McDonaldized jobs now instead of making the employee do all the work they have the customer working too, for example when the customer cleans up after eating. These jobs are becoming less interactive and personal because workers are becoming dehumanized and only allowed to follow a script, there is also the fact that fast food Company’s use drive through, where limited interaction occurs and are many restrictions. These types of jobs which the author George Ritzer labeled