Let Them Eat Pancakes

Susannah Jacob meant to write a humorous account of her failures as an IHOP waitress. Instead, she offered yet more fodder for our “entitled generation” conversation, and revealed herself, intentionally or not, as being unable—or unwilling—to succeed at one of today’s most elusive goals: an actual, if unglamorous, job.

Jacobs lives in an affluent Dallas suburb. She’s heading to college in the fall. She doesn’t, by her own admission, “need the paycheck.” And it’s clear that she thinks it’s funny that someone like her can’t succeed at a job that her trainer, Suzanne, an immigrant ex-con, a former drug addict, and a multiple divorcee, is not only good at, but takes pride in. This young scion of the upper middle class just can’t do it. “Waiting on tables, it seemed, violated my very constitution.”

If you’re not wincing enough already, the rest of the essay—intended as a send-up of her failures (putting powdered sugar on hamburgers, breaking things, and splashing hot coffee)—stands out mostly for the throw-away descriptions of those she’s condescending to work with and wait on. A tattooed family “even manage[s] somehow to smell British,” a baby unlucky enough to have a family who eats at a major chain “slouch[es] on his mother’s lap.”

There’s no dramatic turn-around; no Shop Class as Soulcraft realization that Suzanne the self-professed “damn good waitress” has a valuable, un-outsource-able skill set, no admission that any job worth doing is worth doing well. Instead, drinks are spilled, pancakes are ruined, and the writer ... quits. And however relieved she thinks her mid-shift departure made her manager, it left this reader, a parent and a veteran of plenty of service jobs, fuming.

Photograph by Getty Images.

Tags: lives essays

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KJ Dell'Antonia Former Manhattan lawyer and prosecutor, Xxtra Small reviewer, parent of four. Lover of books and bacon.

Comments

Foobs, no doubt the article

By: rcwilliams83 | Wed, 07/15/2009 - 10:54

Foobs, no doubt the article comes off as condescending and trite. But I'm not sure it's a fair criticism of the essay to say that the author didn't invest herself heavily enough in the lifestyle she wrote about. We're not talking about an embedded investigative journalist here; if we were, the essay would be shoddy work for precisely the reasons you set forth. But instead we're talking about a girl who did something, didn't like it, and afterwards decided to write about the experience.

Playing at other peoples' lives...

By: Foobs | Wed, 07/15/2009 - 10:35

I read the original article. I'm not sure that the author is a good enough writer that her mindset can be gleaned from her words. Having said that...

The problem with a story like this is that the author is playing at someone else's life. That can be done effectively if (1) written well (which it isn't) and (2) done by truly immersing yourself in that life, even if only temporarily (which the feel of the essay argues against).

Without those things, a story like this one can very easily come across as condescending and trite, which I thought it did...

mistakes and misspellings

By: mr | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 22:33

I'm pretty sure your critique badly mischaracterizes the intentions and attitude of the NYTimes essay author. And I am absolutely certain your critique, as posted at the time of my comment, misspells her name in your second reference. It's a sloppy enough mistake on your part to make me wonder if you really are, and have always been, the diligent and flawless workhorse that you spend so much time and copy (rather than creating your own column ideas) scolding this relatively young writer for acknowledging she is not.

A Kid, not a Gen-Y in the "real world"

By: LK | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 18:45

I have to admit that I'm in the category of commenters who don't quite understand the "fury" or "scorn" reaction to this girl's piece. And, yes, I think it's worth stressing that she is a "girl" and not a woman-- she's not even the same generation Y that we're talking about when we've been discussing going back to school for grad-school or entering "the workforce." She's a kid and who (she's right!) DOESN'T need a job right now.

If this were a situation where a grown/older Gen-Y woman was out of school and this was the only job she could find to pay her bills and everything else played out the same... then yes, I could understand a sense of frustration with her essay (and let's be clear that this IS a "cute" student personal essay and not some declared prodigy's commentary on a generation). But instead this is a little snippit story about a very young woman who found out that she could fail at something. She admitted self-consciously that this wasn't a life-or-death situation for her--there were no bills to be paid or kids to feed, just a bit of pocket money for that new purse at the mall--so why are we acting as if she is in a different situation?

In this case, sorry KJ, I don't think the situation fits the outrage.

"Exemplar." "Uncharitable."

By: xavieryeats | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 14:37

"Exemplar." "Uncharitable." It looks like someone found thesaurus.com...

I don't see the scorn

By: jerseygirl | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 14:11

After reading the XX post and some of the follow up comments, I read the NYT article expecting a little essay filled with self-importance and scorn for others. But I didn't see that! Jacobs was appropriately self-deprecating about her lack of skill. She wasn't saying the work was beneath her -- she was saying she didn't seem able to do it very well, and that nonetheless people were pretty nice to her. Her exchanges with her mentor don't seem offensive. And as for her observations about the customers -- when I worked in a restaurant the staff regularly made snide (but quiet) comments about our odder-looking customers -- and the staff crossed all ethnic and class lines. Whether you're on break from college, or a struggling immigrant, you can still find humor in a customer's obvious toupee.

Adding to the mystery of the "Lives" essays

By: lineallowsfor | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 13:37

I'm confused about the purpose of the NYT "Lives" series of essays. After scanning through the selections, it seems a better classification would be "A moment in time."

Additionally, it seems this piece could be grouped with the 6 year old restaurant critic: a person taking him/herself a bit too seriously and writing without the depth of real knowledge and experience.

Huh?

By: capitulatenow | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 13:35

I read the article after seeing this review, and I'm amazed that anybody could find the author's attitude "infuriating." "It’s clear that she thinks it’s funny" -- are you serious? I'm pretty sure your interpretation of Jacob's tone says more about you than it does about her.

@xavieryeats

By: rcwilliams83 | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 13:14

The mismatch you're suggesting only arises if you insist on reading the second sentence as being an exemplar of the first. That would be a silly and uncharitable reading. It makes perfect sense, though, to say, "The work was foreign to my temperament AND I lacked the accuracy, speed, and balance necessary to perform it." In fact, it's effectively what Jacobs DID say.

Nice dictionary.com slag. Still, I don't think I'll be taking any usage advice from somebody who is still working on mastering spelling and punctuation.

@rcwilliams83

By: xavieryeats | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 13:01

Temperment is not: "Accuracy, speed, or balance." If she meant constitution she would have said patience instead of accuracy speed balance.

The only place more provincial than Texas is dictionary.com.