Summarizer. Section 4. Pages 87-114. Brittney Nehring

Barbara continues working for Ted at The Maid’s.  Her entire body breaks down with a rash, in which she applies anti-itch cream.  She explains that Ted doesn’t have much sympathy for illnesses, and he always tells his workers to “work through it,” so that’s what she does.  Barbara describes the three different types of toilet stains and disgusting pubic hairs she constantly finds.  Barbara then describes how the people who hire maids are rich and some of the house owners do little checks to make sure they are cleaning well.  Some will leave mounds of dirt in a hard to get spot and check if they are there after the cleaning is done.  She is told that she needs to work as if she is under surveillance at all times, and sometimes money is even left out (for which she believes is a “test” of honesty).  Barbara is cleaning one woman’s house and she drops a pot which comes crashing down on the lady’s fishbowl which breaks and everything gets soaked with water, even her cookbooks.  Barbara is having a difficult time with money, because they hold her first check and she was unpleasantly surprised to find out that rent for that first week was $200 instead of $120.  Her next day at the nursing home she struggles a lot because they are short staff and the upstairs dishwasher is broken so she is required to do extra work.  When she works at The Maid’s again, Holly (coworker) trips in a hole in the ground and hurts her ankle really bad.  She is in a lot of pain but won’t go to the doctor and when they call Ted he doesn’t seem to care so Barbara blows.  She is extremely mad and is unsure if Ted will fire her when they get back to the office that afternoon.

Throughout this section the author seems to be continually disappointed; she has to work by herself as a dietary aide, has to pay more for rent, is upset when she can’t get any financial help, gets a rash over her entire body, and she gets upset with Ted when he doesn’t care about Holly hurting herself.  The tone seems to be very negative because of all these undesirable events.  She also presents herself as if everyone is as smart as her when she says there are tons of jobs and that anyone can pass that “Accutrac test.”  She feels bad then because she realizes taking that test might have been difficult for the other girls.