What I Do Is Not What I Am.

The milk steaming wand of the coffee machine begins to sputter tiny droplets of milk upwards as it froths into cappuccino foam. I have two and a half minutes to make three very different coffees, scoop two large tubs of popcorn, put together a hot-dog (after checking that it has reached a high enough temperature to be considered properly cooked) and take payment for the order. At the same time a colleague, one who is very new to the job, calls me over to ask for urgent assistance as it is my job to train her on how to use the tills and prepare food. The customer is giving me a look that suggests his impatience. He is already quite late to his film, having chosen to turn up when the twenty minutes worth of adverts and trailers are almost entirely over, and the film is due to start any minute. I am back by the till with all the items from his order prepared.
"Anything else I can get for you today? Any ice cream? Extra drinks?"
I have to ask such questions. We're graded on it via a mystery shopper system.
"A mortgage broker," he says looking at me exasperatedly as he eyes up the figure of his order. A common joke, because people always want to laugh at how expensive the cinema is these days. I smile it off. It is not my place to get into a debate with customers about pricing; this is stated in the handbook.

I do wonder, however, if this customer would treat me with more respect if he knew about my main job. As it turns out, I actually work for a highly respected law firm that often deals with the legal aspects of mortgages. But he doesn't know that. None of the customers do, the ones who yell and talk down to me and complain that there's too much foam in their latte like that's the worst thing they've experienced all week. Maybe if they saw me at my other job, or on my graduation day or at my book launch they would treat me with more respect. I've seen this in practice from friends, bosses, customers and clients alike. People who work in minimum wage, entry level jobs are seen as useless or without skills. It's like when you see the argument for raising the wages of people working in places at McDonalds and there are always people harping on about how working in the food/hospitality industries aren't hard or stressful and therefore aren't deserving of any more money than currently afforded. Performing a customer service role allows some members of society to think we are here just to serve you and therefore that makes you better. Spoiler alert: it doesn't. We are not here to be your personal servant or verbal punching bag. We are people with skills or access to resources that you do not have. We provide services that you want or require. It seems pointless to come to us for our services only whilst looking down your nose. We are working to make an honest wage and deserve respect.

I'm a millennial. You know - one of those lazy, entitled kids the media likes to blow hot air about. Yet I have spent the last two years working two jobs, often seven days a week. I'm always early at my desk at the law firm by 8:30am to start prepping files before the phones start to ring at 9am. Then I work like a dog til 5:30pm, walk across the river to the cinema where I scoop popcorn and clean up people's mess until almost midnight. Then back in the office the next morning. I am one of many of these 'lazy millennials' putting work before themselves because at this point in time, it feels impossible for most British young adults to even consider buying a house.

I worked in a cinema over three years. I needed to find a job when there weren't many going and, although it is only a 4 hour contract, I was lucky enough to be granted five shifts per week on average. I picked up the job not long after graduating from university. I was finding it hard to find a graduate job in my area. Working at the cinema allowed me a level of flexibility. It gave me time to work on my first book which has since been published. My family found it strange that, despite a good education and a publishing deal, I had never even had a salaried job beyond the minimum wage. I've never really felt like I had to justify myself to anyone however the way people have treated me based on my jobs. I then started working for a law firm, I kept my cinema job for a little while. I like getting to see movies for free and have so much love for my colleagues there. We're all in the same boat and therefore truly sympathise with the nonsense we all put up with on shift. I work, on average, six days a week now. Sometimes I work from 9am until 10:30pm or even midnight and I did this for two years. I feel a stark contrast in the way people treat me. Working in a food-serving, customer service role I've often found that people talk down to me and will be rude. It then feels weird to go into the office the next day to be greeted with respect for the same amount of effort I put into my job. Even in my personal life, friends and family members have acted differently towards me based on my employment.

The differences between both jobs are utterly strange. For my minimum wage job I have to be on time. To register my presence I have to clock in so I therefore work for every penny. You get a half hour break, but you should be back a minute or two before that break is over - just to be sure that the changeover of breaks goes swiftly. We have to clean everything ourselves. If I am more than four minutes late to work, my pay could be docked. If things are busy, and our shift runs over, we are only paid if it goes over by fifteen minutes and our manager has to sign off to this so we can be paid for our time. No authorisation? No pay.

At the law firm, things are very different. If anyone is late in my new office no one bats an eyelid. The company employs cleaners to clean up after us. At the law firm, we are provided with free tea and coffee to which we can help ourselves and we can eat or make a beverage whilst on the clock. At my minimum wage job, nothing is free. You can only eat or drink on your break period, which is allotted at some time during the shift by a member of management. You can drink water on shift, but you have to keep the cup around the back of the retail area, out of reach, and must dispose of the cup immediately when you are done. You cannot have a drink by your till, even when working in the middle of summer Blockbuster season when you're at your till serving hundreds of people for half an hour without rest. At my minimum wage job, if I were to stop and chat to a colleague for a moment, I can almost guarantee that a member of management will come over to break us up and give us work to do. Heaven forbid we let a moment go by where we're not earning every penny. When a job pays you minimum wage, I feel like they're saying that they pay you that amount because legally that's the lowest they can pay you and if they could pay you less for the same work, you bet your ass they would.

 In the office, people chat and experience those slumps of energy in the afternoon where you take a mental break for a second just to unwind. At my minimum wage job I'm expected to be working every second for every penny, often whilst multi-tasking and delivering perfect customer service regardless of my mood. I know many who work minimum wage, entry level jobs who find themselves policed and treated less than respectfully by the customers who think that their office jobs make them somehow better. It doesn't. Why are we building up this idea that some workers are worth less respect than others?

The other day I bumped into an old friend. I'd just come from the law firm to grab some lunch in town and he asked what I was up to these days as he pointed out my nice suit. I explained I was working for a law firm now and explained the kind of work I was doing. He then said, 'Well, I am so pleased for you. I mean, let's be honest - it's so much better than working at a cinema. I mean that must have been very degrading what with your degree and everything. It's good you've found something better to do with your time.' So I interjected and explained I still do the odd shift at the cinema. He realised he had made a huge mistake and back-pedalled saying that, as a film enthusiast, it was such a great job. It was too late. His opinion was already out there and reinforced what I knew to be true: people judge your job against you as if it is an indication of your worth. He's not the only person to have made such comments. We see good, salaried jobs as inherently better work to be doing and form our thoughts on the person around that over time.

What I do is not what I am. One would assume that in a salaried job in a 'respectable' field of work would require the kind of treatment I've experienced working for minimum wage, but this isn't what I've found thus far. My years of working myself to the point of death across two very different kinds of job have been eye opening. People will make assumptions about you based on your job which aren't necessarily correct. They will treat you differently. Sometimes those who are paid minimum wage have to deal with more stress than those with a comfy, salaried office job. As long as people are working hard for a living, they deserve respect, understanding and compassion - especially if you've never stood in their shoes.