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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author have to do once she is done with the testing process at Wal-Mart?

2. How long does the shift at Menards turn out to be when they call again the next day before she goes to work?

3. Barbara doesn't even apply for ___________ since she knows she doesn't have the clothing for this type of work.

4. Ruthie decides to pour _____________ on Barbara's breakfast and jokes again and again that Barbara should be called Barbara Bush.

5. _____________ is a woman who simply picked up and moved to Florida because she heard the rents were better than New Jersey.

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the long employment test at a Wal-Mart job fair seem to be trying to do?

2. What does Barbara do as the focus of her job at Wal-Mart, as it becomes clearer on the first shift?

3. What does the unattractive young cook at the elder care facility reveal to Barbara as they are out on a smoke break?

4. Why so the Maids think that the job they are offering is easy for someone to learn and to do?

5. What does the prissy women at the first Maids job Barbara is on do for her baby?

6. What is the story of Caroline, the women Barbara uses as a guide to her own difficult situation in Minneapolis?

7. What does Menards offers to Barbara eventually when they call up to hire her?

8. Why does the author decide to go to Maine for her next working assignment?

9. What are the titles that Wal-Mart wants its employees to think of themselves as?

10. When Barbara goes back to Wal-Mart in order to fill out a new test, what happens when she gets a few wrong?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In many of the jobs the author took, she was working for larger companies with nationwide stores and franchises.

Part 1: How do the larger companies differ from the smaller companies Barbara works for in the book?

Part 2: How might smaller companies treat their employees versus larger companies?

Part 3: Why do you think larger companies handle their employees as though they were really important, but then treat them like they are not?

Essay Topic 2

While it might be no surprise that Wal-Mart doesn't want to have labor unions in their store, it's more surprising that workers aren't more motivated to get involved

Part 1: Why do you think Wal-Mart doesn't want to have labor unions and organizations in their stores?

Part 2: Why do you think employees at Wal-Mart are scared to begin talks for labor union support in their stores?

Part 3: Is the risk of losing one's job worth it in order to get a labor organization in a store? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

The author herself is white and someone who is certainly in the middle class, even if she's not working as though she was.

Part 1: In what ways might her 'white-ness' have affected the way her experience turned out?

Part 2: In what ways might her experience have been different had she been a man?

Part 3: In what ways might her experience have been different had she been of a different class or race?

(see the answer keys)

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