COTTON-PICKING TIME BY MAYA ANGELOU

Cotton-Picking Time by Maya Angelou



Cotton-Picking Time by Maya Angelou

Maintaining ones sanity and sense of self is difficult, if a person does not agree with the culture, atmosphere, and moral of the company he or she is working for. At a fictional company, ABC Communications, an employee is forced to maintain a work personality completely different from how he or she truly feels. Employees are forced to work with cheery and upbeat attitudes for a company that has not been fair in dealing with their employees.

An example of this is revealed in the hiring process of a new employee. At this company, an employee was hired into the department despite being less educated than his peer. Moreover, this new hire lacked understanding and knowledge of the telecommunications industry. The existing employees of ABC Communications were not given the opportunity to be considered for the new position. The lack of equal opportunity has caused bruised feelings and negative thoughts from the existing employees of ABC Communications. This act has created and uncomfortable environment toward management and the newly hired employee.

The scenario presented is a common practice of businesses today. It takes a strong and focused worker to withstand all the various circumstances the workplace brings. Working in an unfavorable situation can be extremely difficult. Many people in the workplace struggle with how business, changes those involved in it, balancing their personal life versus the professional life, and tension between ethics and self-interest. These matters play a significant roll for the employee who performs his or her work duties in a behavioral manner of, “Do as you must, not as you feel. The same idea was illustrated in the story Just Lather, That's All (pg. 89-93) by Hernando Tellez. This story is about the struggle of a Barber who is challenged with denying his personal beliefs with the need to remain professional, earn a living, and perform his job to the best of his ability regardless of how he feels about his customers.

One of the Barber's customers and enemy in the reading selection is, Captain Torres, a military man who tracks town rebels, such as the Barber, for their contradictory beliefs. As the Captain brags about killing some rebels he has encountered, the Barber sympathizes with the rebels and becomes antagonistic towards Captain Torres. The irony is the Barber and the Captain share mutual feels toward one another. In the story the Barber wants to kill the Captain and the Captain kills like minds of the Barber. The Barber ultimately chooses not to kill the Captain because he does not want to be a murderer nor does the Barber want to compromise his reputation of being the best barber in town.

In Cotton-Picking Time (pg. 115-117) by Maya Angelou the essay begins with the author describing how she can tell by the season when the cotton picker's will begin the work of picking cotton and her grandmother's rise to serve them since her place of business is where ...