Blog #5

"Breaking Stereotypes"

In the article “Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers,” Tony Mirabelli discusses the common negative stereotypes associated with the food service 

workers. Sadly, a lot of people have many negative stereotypes on workers in this type of industry because they may think that it is so easy to work at such industry and because workers earn a minimum wage. One of the stereotypes is “that waitresses (and waiters) are ignorant and stupid and that waiting on tables contributes little to society...” (Mirabelli, p 144)

It also doesn’t help that this kind of work is defined as a “low skilled profession” by the 

government of corporate entities which strengthens the negative stereotypes. However, this 

is not entirely true, and that people should not generalize food service workers as such because this type of job is not as easy as it seems like. Mirabelli argues that “there is complexity and skill that may go unrecognized by the general public or institutions such as universities.”

One of the many skills that is required of this job is “literacy” such as language and work 

literacy which may be different from what is taught in universities. For example, food service workers need to be able to understand their wide range menu, how to take regular and special orders, how to deal with rude customers, and many more.

I can totally relate to these stereotypes because I have worked in three food service 

industries, including my first as well as current job. At my first job, I have learned to take 

customer orders, make food and drinks, take drive-thru orders, tender cash, and hand out orders at the window or the counter.

I was overwhelmed on my first day! And I assumed that most people who worked at a food 

service industry for their first job felt the same. There were a lot of food items I needed to memorize and locate in the POS computer, I also needed to be able to learn to do tasks pretty quick because it is a fast-paced environment and it was very surprising how easily customers get mad over waiting 2 minutes for their order.

It took me about a week to be able to take orders as well as do other tasks without someone shadowing me and eventually, I just relied on my muscle-memory. I am very thankful that I worked at that job as my first job because I have learned a lot about hard work, patience, leadership, and it opened up my mind to the crucial reality about stereotypes that many food-service workers experience every single day.

Food service industries are not just the works that are stereotyped, all other types of jobs 

have negative and positive stereotypes associated with them. I, for one, would not deny that 

I sometimes rely on stereotypes about a certain job that I don’t know anything about. 

However, as I continuously gained work experience from food service industry, I have learned not to rely on the stereotypes too much since most of the time they are just not true. 

As a Foods and Nutrition undergrad, I am hoping to become a registered dietitian in the future. There are many stereotypes associated with this job. I was one of the people who assumed that dietitians always eat “perfectly”, engage in physical activities all the time, and that all dietitians are thin and have perfect health. When I started studying nutrition, it became obvious to me that these are all just stereotypes and that dietitians are also normal people who may or may not have the “perfect” body, and health. Some other stereotypes include: assuming that seeing a dietitian means that you are going to end up on a diet, dietitians focus exclusively on nutrition, and that dietitians judge what people eat. In reality, Dietitians help people achieve their specific goals by providing sound recommendations without sacrificing the taste of the food, considers other factors such as exercise, stress and sleep, and most of all, Dietitians do not judge people by the food they eat.

To prevent relying on stereotypes, it is important to research a little bit more about a certain job and the skills that is required of the job before jumping into conclusions because we might be surprised how wrong we are about assumptions, whether negative or positive.