You
Want Fries With That?
New Book Takes Funny and Refreshing Look at
Low Paying Jobs
Why
would a college-educated, former Marine officer turned advertising
executive spend a year flipping burgers, working construction
and other jobs usually reserved for high school students and
illegal immigrants? It was not because he had fallen victim
to some big business crash or lost his home, Prioleau Alexander
did it by choice. In his new book, You Want Fries with That?
A White-Collar Burnout Experiences Life at Minimum Wage takes
a hilarious yet informative look at the jobs few people want
and even fewer keep.
Looking
at the low paying jobs from both an economic and sociological
angle, Alexander explains the dynamics of minimum wage jobs.
As
a Pizza Delivery Guy, “He gets in a vehicle – which
he maintains and insures at his own expense – and drives
across town to deliver your meal to your front door. He finds
your address in the dark, parks, and all but puts dinner on
your kitchen table. And you tip him, what? Two or three bucks?”
On
working construction, “The industry is for people who
have a problem with authority. After all, there’s virtually
no adult supervision, and half the time your pay comes in cash.
It is an industry for people who have a high threshold for pain
and a low threshold for mental stimulation.”
In
You Want Fries with That? Alexander takes on other, equally
glamorous jobs like scooping ice cream near a college campus,
cleaning up at a hospital emergency room, taking a group of
tourists on a week long wagon trail ride and, of course, a brief
career in fast food.
“Prioleau
Alexander’s comic tales of quitting the rat race to find
meaning have a deep lesson for all of us,” said Stephen
Colbert, Host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, “Get
back in that race and run like hell!”
You
Want Fries with That? is on sale in book stores and online retailers.
Prioleau Alexander will be traveling the nation promoting his
latest book and signings and other events.
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