Casey French
As with custodians, there is an obvious stigma attached to being a bus driver. The documentary film The Philosophy Kings reminded me of other occupations that are often assumed to be low-income, manual labor jobs. I take the bus almost every morning. Most people greet the bus driver with a friendly "hello", but others simply flash their student ID and find a seat. They barely give eye contact, because to them, it does not matter to them who the person behind the wheel is. Public transportation is sort of like custodial work...behind-the-scenes, uninteresting, and not worth their time. On most nights when I am returning home, I always get the same bus driver. I always greet him with a "How's it going" and his response is always "Wonderful!" in a very cheery, enthusiastic voice. One day, I asked him "Do you really mean it? You can't be wonderful every night. This weather is terrible!". He just laughed and said "Better to have an optimistic outlook on life. I mean, what am I suppose to say? I am a bus driver who drives in circles for hours. Nobody cares about anything other than their destination."
As I got to know him, he is actually a really nice guy. This job is temporary for him because he told me that he is able to retire, but is waiting for his wife to retire so they can travel the world together. I felt terrible that people could ignore such an interesting person based on his stigmatized occupation. He is alienated by his peers and the passenger he picks up. If people considered his ambitions and motivations to keep the job, our preconceptions would change. Whether to retire and travel with a spouse or simply to support a family, the struggle of having an occupation stigmatized by society makes the life of a bus driver so much more difficult.
Apparently there are quite a few job-shadowing clips that show how under-appreciated custodians are within the school environment. I thought his introductory quote "service is driven by needs" really demonstrates that their work is no different than any other profession.
I think it pretty cool that you so quickly found a connection between the movie we watched and a person from your own personal life. I thought that the bus driver you were referring to had a very interesting perspective, and I liked the quote you used because it so perfectly fit with the concept of alienation that we discussed in class. It would have been interesting to have heard his response on whether or not people ever treat him negatively due to his occupation..
ReplyDeleteWow, you never know what you're bus driver is capable of. Just because they are a bus driver doesn't mean that they couldn't be you're next boss in a year. You never know what people are capable of until you get to know them. A question I have after reading this is where does the optimistic outlook in life come from when working in a custodial job for 40 + years?
ReplyDeleteI really loved hearing this story about the bus driver and that you were able to relate the custodian video to something from your own life (I did something similar). This story makes me want to meet this man and discuss travel with him. It also makes me wonder what other interesting staff we have on this campus.
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