I recently saw a post borne of the minimum wage debate that deeply offended me. I'm not sure I'm qualified, either intellectually or as it pertains to common sense, to take a stance on the issue of raising the minimum wage, as my math skills are abysmal. But I know about common decency (even if I often fail to practice it), and that's why the post I saw infuriated me.
The post read, "If you've chosen flipping burgers as a career, you have failed."
Snobbish, elitist statements like this have offended me since I was a child. The reason the bitterness stems from my childhood is because my mother, Ann Gowdey, fed and provided for four obnoxious, homely sons - and me - with a career in fast food that lasted from 1969 to 2005, give or take a hiatus or two.
Though I don't know that my mom stepped into a Dairy Queen in high school and said, "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life," I do know that she often looked back at her life and said she wouldn't have wanted any other job, despite the physical toll it took on her over thirty-plus years (in those days, burgers were not yet synthesized holograms as they are now). She eventually became the longtime manager of both Dairy Queens in Seminole, Texas. When she went into a temporary retirement when my father died in 1996, the local DQs so declined in quality that one was shut down.
I'm immensely proud of my mother and her "mcjob" she loved so much, the same mcjob that paid for by mcbrother's contact mclenses, our mcschool supplies, the mcjob that paid for my mcpsychiatric care as a teenager, and the mcjob that taught me a person doesn't have to wear a suit or have college training to make a difference. (I probably shouldn't use the "mcjob" term, since she worked at Dairy Queen and not McDonald's, and that could be a huge conflict of interests.)
I'm a preacher, so I know nothing about work. I don't even work the two hours a week since I'm not allowed to preach out of an actual church building. But I do have enough good instilled in me by Christ that tells me if you go to your place of work every day and do your job with commitment, without indifference or bitterness, and with care for your customers, you have done something nothing short of amazing.
The Holy Spirit tells us through the apostle Paul: "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ" (Colossians 3:23-24).
And, even if you despise your job, and drag your hungover carcass in there every day anyway, to feed your kids or just to get your transmission fixed, you've still done something awesome.
Fast food employees of America and elsewhere, don't let anyone belittle you or look down on you. You don't deserve such snobbish treatment - you're in food service, not congress. You are not an embarrassment, should not be embarrassed, you are not the shame of the work force, and should never be ashamed of your hard work.
Let's be honest. If every fast food worker in America accepted and believed the shame and scorn that's thrown their way, and walked out of their job today, this country would spiral into chaos and anarchy. Endless lines of cars would line up at McDonald's, Burger Kings, Taco Bells all across the land, full of angry Hyundai-jockeys who demand you fix them up a quick lunch, so they can get back to the job that requires two college degrees so they can sit in their cubicle and deride you on the internet some more for working in fast food. Soccer moms who smile with self-assured glee that they don't have to work in grease would be dismayed that no one is at Wendy's to take their order for their children's dinner. Entire high school football teams across the country, students given scholarships to college because they can execute an Earl Campbell-like tackle, would sit in their buses outside Sonic, perplexed at how they'll celebrate their 21-10 victory over the Permian Panthers without a chili cheese coney...until someone has the bright idea to celebrate with booze, and now look - we've got underage drinking.
You fast food employees are the glue that holds America together. Never be ashamed of your work.
"...the worker is worthy of his wages." -our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Luke 10:7
The post read, "If you've chosen flipping burgers as a career, you have failed."
Snobbish, elitist statements like this have offended me since I was a child. The reason the bitterness stems from my childhood is because my mother, Ann Gowdey, fed and provided for four obnoxious, homely sons - and me - with a career in fast food that lasted from 1969 to 2005, give or take a hiatus or two.
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| Glory days. |
I'm immensely proud of my mother and her "mcjob" she loved so much, the same mcjob that paid for by mcbrother's contact mclenses, our mcschool supplies, the mcjob that paid for my mcpsychiatric care as a teenager, and the mcjob that taught me a person doesn't have to wear a suit or have college training to make a difference. (I probably shouldn't use the "mcjob" term, since she worked at Dairy Queen and not McDonald's, and that could be a huge conflict of interests.)
I'm a preacher, so I know nothing about work. I don't even work the two hours a week since I'm not allowed to preach out of an actual church building. But I do have enough good instilled in me by Christ that tells me if you go to your place of work every day and do your job with commitment, without indifference or bitterness, and with care for your customers, you have done something nothing short of amazing.
The Holy Spirit tells us through the apostle Paul: "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ" (Colossians 3:23-24).
And, even if you despise your job, and drag your hungover carcass in there every day anyway, to feed your kids or just to get your transmission fixed, you've still done something awesome.
Fast food employees of America and elsewhere, don't let anyone belittle you or look down on you. You don't deserve such snobbish treatment - you're in food service, not congress. You are not an embarrassment, should not be embarrassed, you are not the shame of the work force, and should never be ashamed of your hard work.
Let's be honest. If every fast food worker in America accepted and believed the shame and scorn that's thrown their way, and walked out of their job today, this country would spiral into chaos and anarchy. Endless lines of cars would line up at McDonald's, Burger Kings, Taco Bells all across the land, full of angry Hyundai-jockeys who demand you fix them up a quick lunch, so they can get back to the job that requires two college degrees so they can sit in their cubicle and deride you on the internet some more for working in fast food. Soccer moms who smile with self-assured glee that they don't have to work in grease would be dismayed that no one is at Wendy's to take their order for their children's dinner. Entire high school football teams across the country, students given scholarships to college because they can execute an Earl Campbell-like tackle, would sit in their buses outside Sonic, perplexed at how they'll celebrate their 21-10 victory over the Permian Panthers without a chili cheese coney...until someone has the bright idea to celebrate with booze, and now look - we've got underage drinking.
You fast food employees are the glue that holds America together. Never be ashamed of your work.
"...the worker is worthy of his wages." -our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Luke 10:7
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