- McJobs and Workers -

The personal and the political

Posted by: Quincunx on November 22, 1998 at 12:35:33:

In Reply to: I did it for me, not the cause ! posted by Gill on November 18, 1998 at 19:27:31:

Sometimes its hard to separate the two. I remember thinking about challenging McDoanald's around 1983 when I worked for them and feeling that I wasn't alone in my feelings but nonetheless feeling powerless.
I'll admit for myself that there a cause involved that for me personally manifested itself in realizing the alienation from labor and also the alienation from fellow human beings and McDoanld's symbolized that. So I quit for reasons of low wages but also, more importantly mental health.

That can be said to be personal and indeed it was but in order to not be destabilized psychologically I had to quit so that I wouldn't affect others in my life outside of the job I had at McDonald's. I just didn't want to spread any acrimonious duels just because I was in a depressive mood due to the working conditions I had to endure. In other words, I didn't want to spread the psychological results of these conditions to the rest of society outside of McDonald's.

I remember distinctly having chats with my co-workers at McDonald's at the time over this issue and they felt the same way. I think they all have quit working at McDonald's since then. They didn't want to take their work home any longer either.


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