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Nadia Sharpe

Mrs. Griffin

UWRIT1101

April 5th, 2017

Ethnography

The purpose of this research is to advance the understanding, view of restaurant work and

workers. This project started with the idea of simply just looking to find out why people remain

around diners, people such as employees, managers, customers etc. The goal of this project was

to also find out the literacies of people in the diner. I could not merely ask people what is the

culture of restaurants and expect to receive a comprehensive response. Instead, I formulated

several themed questions to address this issue. I conducted a multitude of interviews for various

people which differed for each person I interview. Over time, the study developed into an

examination of the relationships among jobs, relationship with people within the jobs, identities,

and behaviors that reflect and reproduce restaurant culture. I explored the reasons people enter

restaurant work for the first time, why they remain, and how the experience of the employment

influences their identities, life choices, goals, feelings, decisions, and conventional as well as

unconventional behaviors. I examine how and why the organizational, structural, and

interpersonal features of restaurant work shape the lives of the employees. I also examine the

authority figures, managers, owners, and customers. I also address which identities and behaviors

the workers consider appropriate to maintain positive self-concepts and the self-reported

ramifications of those they designate inappropriate. This project will answer my questions I have
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and open the path to new questions I want to explore, in which I will try my best to answer them

with interviews, quotes from theories, and other sources.

I decided to study the literacies that take place at Jakes Diner, located in Greensboro,

North Caroline. Jakes Diner is a small family owned business with two locations, one located on

West Wendover Avenue, and one on South Holden road. Jakes Diners menu has a multiplicity of

food ranging from short stack combos which consist of two pancakes, and two eggs, and a choice

of bacon or sausage, to an order of wings with a variety of flavors to choose from. I will more so

be focusing on the Wendover location because this is where I work majority of the time. Both of

the locations are family friendly which consist of around ten booths and ten tables. The

Wendover location has a small kitchen with three grills that you can see when sitting at any of

the twelve seats at the counter. The main floor of the diner is always busy with food coming in

and out, surrounded by four walls which have old school trinkets on the wall which makes the

diner more southern and home like. This small southern food spot was my first job, and Ive

been working there since the age of fifteen. I thought this would be a great place to study

because of my experience. Considering Jakes Diner isnt a franchise, or corporate owned

company its difficult to study although it makes my job or digging deeper and studying the

business easier because of my close relationship with business and people who work there. I still

have a job with this company although Im away at The University of North Carolina at

Charlotte. Over the last three years Ive acquired a lot of skills specific to the restaurant business.

Some skills Ive acquired include but arent limited to stacking three to four plates on one arm,

carrying four drink, carrying two drinks in one hand, using a drink tray balancing five or more

cups, taking orders, memorizing orders, multitasking, and customer service. This job has taught

me all of these things but I had help from my coworkers. The most influential coworkers of mine
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Lashawn Moore, and Elizabeth Gladding have watch me grow since 2014 and overtime have

helped me develop techniques that work for me. In the last year I was promoted to working the

day shift and I was able to meet an abundance of new coworkers who taught me how to deal with

the new chaotic atmosphere of first shift. These people included April Minter, Michelle

Robinson, Amanda Gain, and I became closer with my manager Natalie Martin. These ladies

gave me a new set of literacies to learn and overcome in a fast manner. These waitresses with so

much potential sparked several questions such as Why work at Jakes Diner?, Why settle for

this average job, when you can go somewhere else and make more money?, Whats your

motivation for staying here, and do you actually enjoy your job?

While researching restaurants I found that Although research on restaurants has spiked in

the last 30 years, most do not seek to learn more about the employees. In other words, they focus

on the customers, the atmosphere, the organizational space, the types of foods and cuisines,

management practices and policy changes, globalization, or commodification. Among restaurant

studies that have focused on the workers in particular, the concentration is on waitresses, waiters,

or chefs. I reviewed ethnographies on restaurant workers to highlight them and let them tell their

stories. In one ethnography The Hungry Cowboy: Service and Community in a Neighborhood

Restaurant, Erickson (2009) discussed the interactions between servers, managers, and customers

in one restaurant that she called The Hungry Cowboy. She addressed how the restaurant is a

commodified space that creates feelings of community and sociability. She found that the servers

invest emotionally in their work, maintain freedom and autonomy at the restaurant, but face

challenges of power dynamics in relation to race, class, and gender. This ethnography on

restaurant workers depicts an enduring stigma associated with restaurant employment. While
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scholarship is beginning to note the favorable qualities of restaurant work, employee autonomy,

resistance, and agency continues to hold a disapproving connotation. Furthermore, the restaurant

industry and employees remain an understudied and under-acknowledged topic. The lack of

primary fieldwork on restaurants and restaurant employees exposes the requirement for more

research, which I attend to in this exposition.

From various media sources, it is made very clear that the any job in the food industry if

you are not the owner and or manager is looked down upon. Its commonly said that jobs in the

food industry are considered temporary, nonstandard, part-time, unskilled, poor quality,

contingent, and precarious labor. Correspondingly, restaurants are faced with some harsh realities

that come along with this unskilled career. Servers also have to deal with low wages, minimal

to no benefits, class, gender, health risk, and racist interaction with customers or their coworkers.

Another problem in the food industry is the fact that people do not treat restaurant work as real

work, which further stigmatizes restaurant jobs and those who possess them. To degrade the

restaurant business and say only adolescents should hold a position at a job is discouraging to the

adults who can only have a job thats food related for their own reasons. Its important to

understand not everyone has a similar background and some adults can only survive and provide

for their children with these said jobs that no one else will commit to.

In the dictionary, the distinction between job and career is rather subjective and

difficult to distinguish. For instance, a job is a post of employment and a career is an

occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as ones lifework,

according to dictionary.com. To the participants, the key difference is a temporal one; by and

large, they considered a job temporary, whereas career referred to the long-term. Any food
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industry related occupation can be viewed as either a career or a job depending on personal

opinion, although as a waitress majority percent of the time a person will view waiting tables as

a job because there is no special skill needed to serve people. On the other hand a waitress may

make the argument that this is her trade and she has done everything in her power, and taking the

extra step to train to make her mentally and physically more equipped than the next competitor

for a job.

Despite the qualities, stigma, and beliefs regarding appropriate ages of employees

associated with restaurant work, restaurant industry employment remains steady, continues to

grow, and attracts a group of somewhat educated twenty to forty year-olds who stay for extended

amounts of time. So this begs the question: why stay? Looking at this pattern of employment can

reveal the factors that may keep workers in the restaurant industry and how the long-term

employment durations shape their feelings, choices, and behaviors. Consequently, these issues

can contribute to the study of work and the life course. According to George, occupations are a

strategic context for studying life transitions because job shifts and durations are highly

connected to life course transitions (1993:367). Even though nickel and dimed workers

(Ehrenreich 2001) may not have other career opportunities and stay because they must, and some

simply seek temporary financial gain, it is worth exploring the additional conditions that

influence other restaurant workers to remain employed. Although much is known about

experiences of work and how they shape the life course, little is known about the single most

commonly held job during the life course: restaurant work. There is no qualitative study on

restaurant workers that critiques and complicates life course transitions and the related

developmental stages throughout life.

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To get a better understanding of this first hand, I asked Lashawn Moore similar questions

pertaining to why she stayed around and worked at Jakes Diner for the past eight years. I

started working here after my first child I wanted to work and make an honest living, so id set a

good example for her, at the time I only had my associated degree and I wanted to go further

with my education but I knew I would need money to support Kennedy and myself. I eventually

just got comfortable and made the conscience decision to put my ultimate goal of furthering my

career on hold. Within these eight years working at Jakes I built a family and made awesome

connections. (Moore, Lashawn interview). Lashawn brought a new perspective of the restaurant

business, she explained that she came into the job with the intention of just making minimum

wage to support herself and her child but received the perk of making connections and building

new relationships with people. In my follow up question with Ms. Moore, I asked her where her

life is now and if she could would she alter it in anyway? She responded by saying shes now

graduated college with her bachelors degree with the help of her boss, Mary Blythe, manager,

Natalie Martin, and close friend, Elizabeth Gladding. She proceeded to say, Of course I

wouldnt trade my time here for anything Ive learned so much about myself in such a small

amount of time, Ive grown mentally, and spiritually. I can honestly say if it wasnt for me

working here, for this long period of time, I wouldnt be the mother I am today, I wouldnt be

pursuing my dream of graduating college and I wouldnt be a good role model for Ken. (Moore,

Lashawn interview). Lashawn shines a positive light on the food industry with her story because

her story tells how her mediocre job helped develop her character and significantly impacted

her life.

At Jakes Diner we have customers who the waitresses see every day or just a few times

out of the week, we refer to them as regulars. The regulars are a huge part of why Jakes Diner
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is considered such a feel good environment. Over the past three years of me working there Ive

noticed that the regular customers can come in the Diner feeling down and always leave with a

smile on their face, which left me with a few questions. Why did you start coming here, and why

do you continuously come here? Why this specific diner of all the places in Greensboro? Whats

your favorite part about going to Jakes Diner? To answer these questions, I asked a former

teacher at my old high school named Clara A. Wallis, but at Jakes is known by the nickname

Teacher. In my interview with Clara, she answered my first question by saying, I started coming

to Jakes about ten years ago when I first moved in my house right up the street, the food was

amazing, so I kept coming back. Yall have always had friendly waitresses, and I learned the

trick of sitting at the counter so I can speak to all the girls and it just sort of became my regular

spot to get a cup of coffee, a cup of soup, or some chicken salad, and of course to gossip here

and there. Ms. Wallis confirmed my theory that out regular customers keep returning because

the atmosphere is good and they like the company their waitress gives. Teachers reason for

coming to Jakes is because its convenient for her considering Jakes is only three minutes up

the road from her house. Clara proceeded to tell me her favorite part about coming to Jakes is

there is always someone to talk to and getting to become a part of a family because hers doesnt

live in NC. Claras responses to the queries gave a customers perspective of the family oriented

restaurant and helped me better understand why the restaurant is always flooded with Regular

customers.

The final interview was an in depth discussion with the owner and boss of Jakes

Diner, Mary Blythe, who took over the company from her husband twenty years ago. I

interviewed Mary to compare the atmosphere of the restaurant in previous years, with the current
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atmosphere, and get answers to questions that she can answer well. Primarily, I asked Mary what

make Jakes special and kept the business thriving all of these years. She responded by saying,

Natalie, is whats kept this business running and in the best shape, Ive known her since she was

fourteen and shes always had great ideas for marketing and how to keep Jakes running smooth,

shes developed new connections with customers and was able to take their opinions and

incorporate them into the business. My follow up question was Whats the most challenging

part of owning the diner?, she said, The hardest part about owning a dinner is you can never

know everything. Its not easy to know how many eggs youll need for the week, and if business

will be slow or not. Its always challenging because at Jakes we have a wide variety of food and

want to make sure we have enough of everything so that our customers are happy.

In conclusion Jakes Diner is family oriented place that welcomes everybody. Jakes

Diner offers new and old faces to talk to and great servers. Everyone who steps foot in the

restaurant has their reason for returning, weather its to return for food, catch up with friends,

make money to support a family etc. This place brings people together and Im just thankful I

was able to have this as my first job. Ive learned so many things here, and Im sure Ive touched

others and taught them new thing along the way. I hope Jakes thrives and keep attracting more

people so their lives can be changed as well.

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Work cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2001. NickeledandDimed. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company,

LLC.

George, Linda K. 1993 Sociological Perspectives on Life Transitions. AnnualReviewof

Sociology19:353-73.

Interview Moore, Lashawn

Interview A. Wallis, Clara

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Interview Blythe, Mary