In Barbara Ehrenreich's social experiment, designed to take an in-depth look at how poor Americans survive. One of the many things that influenced Barbara's experience as a poor person was how her employers treated her and her colleagues in all of their professions. Overall, I think employers of lower class people treat these people with disdain and put a lot of pressure on employees. This is done to demoralize lower level employees and also to get the maximum possible productivity out of them. Barbara was treated slightly differently by each employer she worked for. This may have happened because the tasks of each job were different, but each individual employer was also different. Patterns still exist in how employers of lower-class employees treat their workers. Barbara shows that the relationship between employer and employee is important for how work gets done, but also for how the worker feels about himself. The first part of Barbara Ehrenreich's journey took her to Key West, Florida. The most significant low-wage job Barbara had in Florida was as a waitress at two restaurants, Hearthside and Jerry's. Barbara complains about the managers of her restaurant several times in this chapter. Talk about how managers in restaurants (and probably everywhere) are there to screen and probe employees for unsavory behavior like laziness, theft, drug abuse, etc. (Ehrenreich, 22) Managers are there to make sure workers are always there to move and not waste the company's time and money. Managers always want their employees to be on the move and doing something productive. One group member, Stephanie, told us that she could really relate to being a waitress in a restaurant. He will always work like this... middle of paper... usually makes his employees ashamed, embarrassed and humiliated. I think this type of behavior is a way to separate employers from employees. It helps keep employees in line and also adds the benefit of making employers feel good about themselves at the expense of their employees. Humiliating actions prevent employees from organizing or protesting for higher wages or better conditions. It keeps them “in their place” and does not allow them to hope or strive for something better. Despite employers' dehumanization of employees, there are silent rebellions committed by lower-class employees, such as joking, gossiping, doing other people's work, and generally helping each other. These are silent protests, which do not change the status quo in any way, it would be too risky for these employees. It's survival and care in a corporate world that doesn't care about them.