Summary: A Life Interrupted By Fillipina Workers

The relationship between the employer and the worker is often a strained one. It is common for employers to treat their workers as lesser beings and take certain advantages of them. This is especially common in situations like housekeeping and nannying positions, like the ones we are reading about. The Fillipina Workers article mentioned several firsthand accounts of women who had worked in such fields. One of them that particularly stood out was Cathy. Cathy was expected to work 16 hours a day and was promised a certain sum of money in her employment contract but never received the full amount (Ehrenreich & Hochschild, p.116). Her boss also took her bank book and and any legal documents she had so she would not be able to get money from
These positions are frequently regarded as arduous, harsh work that is rarely respectable and gives little pay. A quote from the article, A Life Interrupted, Cumulative Disadvantages Disrupt Plans describes this work as such; “..Many explained that their employers had little regard for the work they did and expressed disdain for them personally, a level of disdain which the interrupted workers perceived was reserved for people like them-people that worked in jobs that were not considered worthwhile”(Damaske, 2011, p.123). In such jobs, workers rely on their bosses as if their bosses were their parents and they were young children, asking permission to do any little thing most people would take for granted like bathroom privileges. If they displease their bosses in any way, their boss can enact certain punishments without any repercussions on their part. In certain areas, employers have the power to deport filipino workers back to the Philippines promptly at any upset. Agencies tell employers “even a difficult employer can be won over by a hard working and pleasant maid”(Ehrenreich & Hochschild, p.119). They are encouraged at all times to be easy going, diligent and agreeable and cheerful employer, despite any