In Coupland’s own words, from the novel, a McJob is "a low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector" and they are rife, if not legion. Some 30 years and counting since their inception.
A McJob is frequently considered a satisfying career choice by someone who has never had one.
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A commentary from Howard D re: a posted thank you from Sally C on Howard’s letter to Starbuck’s.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
From Howard D:
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2019 10:59 AM
To: Dom Capossela
Subject: Reply to Sally Chetwynd
Sally, you’re welcome. Though I must admit I’m not sure for what you’re thanking me.
I spoke my mind is what it was, and I prefer to do so, when given the opportunity to do so to the face—so to speak—of the offending party. Let me put it this way, I never had a boss I hesitated for a moment to confront with the truth. I also want to hasten to add that I have never been fired in my life. Make yourself invaluable to the enterprise, and having to listen to outbursts of objectivity is one unpleasantness they always put up with.
To answer your other question, sort of, though I wouldn’t put anything past present-day employers (especially those of the less enlightened variety), my own experience in the world of commerce and industry has taught me that disdain is not something you can teach. It’s either a natural disposition, in which case there’s nothing you can do about it, and the blame lies in nature and nurture, shall we say?
Or that disdain is what is the result of a process of compensation. I mean the psychoanalytic sort, not the pecuniary. The compensation of the typical McJob holder is low and degrading enough that one natural reaction is to build up some hostility for one’s perceived betters—it won’t do to show that to your boss(es), so the putative cause for getting such a lop-sided emolument for what amounts to relentlessly degrading treatment (especially in their own eyes) must be the customer. Who, after all, is the one making the demands in the transaction.
I wouldn’t strictly speaking blame Starbucks. The phenomenon is endemic to our society, except in exceptional cases, instances of which have been rare enough that Dom has pointed them out from time to time. Giving shout outs to favorite waitrons or baristas who, at least in my reading, were only doing their jobs as one should expect to fulfill any compensated responsibility.
We should look at least as far back as 1991, when the late Baby Boomer author, Douglas Coupland, wrote his prescient best-selling novel Generation-X, about that eponymous subject in its many facets. It was in that novel that we saw the introduction of the term “McJob.” It not only entered the vernacular, it entered the confines of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Though it took McDonald’s corporation 16 years to object to that indignity. They lost their suit to have it removed from the dictionary.
In Coupland’s own words, from the novel, a McJob is "a low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector" and they are rife, if not legion. Some 30 years and counting since their inception.
We’ve reached the point in our society and economy, and I’ll say no more than this, that we are now forcing young people to assume the burden and the burdensome cost of the increasingly minimal requirement of a college education of some kind in order to land a starting job sometimes no higher in stature and compensation than a McJob. Dress such a job up in the service of over-priced, nutritionaly compromised products tarted up with faux-Italian nomenclature, and A-list marketing and design enhancements to further delude and confuse a complaisant public, and the result is a McJob holder with an attitude facing you across the counter.
Three years after Generation-X, Coupland published his next sensational cultural critique, a take-down of what he saw as the feudal nature of the structure of an enterprise like Microsoft (in fact it was Microsoft). The book was called Microserfs and you can pretty much infer from the name what that had to say. I’m not saying any more about that, knowing the locus of employment of some of the readers of this blog.
Incidentally, it’s nice to invoke the fairy tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes, but the truth about Starbucks has been out there for some time. And, also, I wanted to say, for what it’s worth, I didn’t need prolonged exposure to Starbucks to come to the conclusions I shared with them in 2007. I thought the first sip of coffee of theirs I ever drank was swill. And, my career being in marketing and advertising (among other things) I know an empty claim for a product with no value when I see it.
best,
Howard
The hours are ticking away and if we don’t make the most of our time another day will soon click past.
Unnoticed.
Unappreciated.
Tick Tock.
In clock language:
Enjoy today.
Enjoy the week.
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Tracking Postings – Tracking Time
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Our 449th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 449 posts we’re at the 8.98 percentile of our commitment, that commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
We are racing to the 10% mark.
Now there’s a mark, 10%.
And then?
And then will remain only 9 more such marks to fulfill our commitment to the blog.
Time of posting is 12.01am on Saturday.
weather
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Dinner
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Thursday night: dinner at Bricco’s.
This was our menu:
Mozzarella Caprese
Zucchini Flowers
Polenta w Mushrooms
Frittura Mista
Eggplant Parmesan
Caesar Salad
Pappardelle with Rabbit
Amatriciana Garganelli
Gnochetti
Pork Tenderloin
The service was impeccable.
The food was delicious
The staff was friendly and accommodating.
Hat’s off to management.
Sixteen of us attended.
Sixteen of us loved the event.
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We love getting mail.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Saturday, June 29, 2019
This from Kali L after her poetic Thursday post:
Dom,
You can write poetry! Just do it :)
love you,
Kali
Web Meister Responds: Easy for you to say!
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Weather
Saturday, June 29, 2019
On this day Boston will enjoy warm temperatures, with a high of 81* and a feels-like of 93* with a chance of strong thunderstorms.
After Sunday, the next five days look absolutely splendid.
Seventies and eighties with a lot of sun.
Anyone complaining?
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Chuckle of the Day:
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Two cows talking in the field.
One cow says, "Have you heard about the Mad Cow disease that's going around?"
"Yeah, makes you glad you're a penguin, doesn"t it?"
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Today’s Thumbnail
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta Appraised by Dante and Virgil is a composition painted in at least five very similar versions by Dutch–French Romantic painter Ary Scheffer; all are in oils on canvas.
The paintings depict a scene from Dante's Inferno. A pair of lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, are shown in Hell, while Dante and Virgil are on the right viewing them.
A stab wound is visible on Malatesta's chest, signifying the pair's murder by his brother, Giovanni, who was da Rimini's husband.
This picture is the version of painting painted in 1855, which hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The original, dating to 1835, is now in the Wallace Collection in London.
Others exist in collections in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, and Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art.
All of my interviews are for jobs that pay at least $15.00 and hour and provide some form of training or education to enhance my desirability.
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Good Morning on this Saturday, the twenty-ninth day of June, 2019
Our lead picture echoes a comment of Howard D on McJobs, that among many other thoughts he shares with us in his commentary
We posted the Boston weather report, the ticking calendar, and the growing number of posts as a time marker.
Dinner at Bricco’s, we posted our meal and experience.
And a most welcomed positive email from Kali.
We posted a chuckle re: two cows.
And a thumbnail of a famous painting.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.