Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Category
Social Sciences/Humanities
Abstract/Artist Statement
Montana truck stops act as a meeting place for long-haul truckers, vacationers, local commuters, and the workers simply trying to earn a living. Today, the employees at such truck stops operate at the intersection of customer service, the trucking industry, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Although each of these has been studied individually, the research I conducted during the summer and fall of 2020 offers a unique view of how customer service employees fared during political unrest, global health concerns, and financial struggle. Additionally, this study highlights the power dynamics that exist in the service industry by examining how such dynamics manifest in the interactions surrounding face masks, sexual harassment, and unhappy customers.
I conducted this study using ethnography and interviews. During the summer of 2020, I worked full-time at a truck stop near Missoula and documented the interactions I observed. I then interviewed four truck stop employees from across Montana to develop a broader understanding of what it is like to work at a truck stop. The data I collected with these methods suggests that truck stop employees are concerned with how customers approach mask mandates, either because the employees are concerned for their health or because they do not want to enforce mandates on customers who resist. My findings also suggest that interacting with customers can be the source of both connection and frustration, depending on the customers’ moods and behaviors.
The qualitative nature of this study allows me to tell the stories of those who are often overlooked in academia and beyond. Although truck stops occupy little space in most people’s day-to-day experiences, they are dynamic, interesting, sometimes contradictory spaces where people of all political stances, religious ideologies, genders, sexual orientations, and worldviews come together. The resulting interactions can be predictably challenging, or surprisingly warm and pleasant. My research offers a glimpse not only into the microcosm of truck stops, but also provides valuable insight about society as a whole.
Mentor Name
Daisy Rooks
Personal Statement
My research is valuable both to my own professional development, the sociological community, and to society broadly. Completing my own original research, from formulating a research question and methodology to collecting data to writing up my findings has given me invaluable experience. Since my career goal is to be a professor, it is important that I start my research career with a strong, interesting, rigorous project of my own. Completing this project also has given me some ideas of what I want to study while I complete my PhD. For example, I may complete a similar qualitative project about people in other low-wage service jobs, like front-desk workers at budget motels. Another option would be to expand my current project to compare urban and rural truck stops. Although the sociological community has studied many types of service jobs, they often overlook truck stop employees. The little research that does exist truck stops tends to be from other fields, such as geography, nursing, and psychology. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, as research on service industry jobs has exploded, truck stop employees remain overshadowed by research on grocery workers, delivery drivers, and truckers themselves. However, by overlooking the truck stop as a workplace, sociology has also overlooked a unique location where many sociological phenomena take place. By bringing forward this new research project, I hope to illuminate the everyday dynamics of coworker solidarity, COVID-denialism, sexual harassment, and emotional labor within truck stops. In addition to filling a gap in sociological knowledge, my research project does important work to humanize workers who are marginalized in society. Employees in truck stops do not just sell diesel fuel and snacks--they offer conversation to truckers who spend long hours on the road, look the other way for the occasional fast-food worker sleeping in her car in the parking lot, and manage customers’ tensions surrounding mask mandates and local political protests. The stories in my research offer a window into the experiences of everyday folks who do absolutely vital work during the most difficult of times.
Video Presentation
"Its Own Little City": Service Work in Truck Stops
Montana truck stops act as a meeting place for long-haul truckers, vacationers, local commuters, and the workers simply trying to earn a living. Today, the employees at such truck stops operate at the intersection of customer service, the trucking industry, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Although each of these has been studied individually, the research I conducted during the summer and fall of 2020 offers a unique view of how customer service employees fared during political unrest, global health concerns, and financial struggle. Additionally, this study highlights the power dynamics that exist in the service industry by examining how such dynamics manifest in the interactions surrounding face masks, sexual harassment, and unhappy customers.
I conducted this study using ethnography and interviews. During the summer of 2020, I worked full-time at a truck stop near Missoula and documented the interactions I observed. I then interviewed four truck stop employees from across Montana to develop a broader understanding of what it is like to work at a truck stop. The data I collected with these methods suggests that truck stop employees are concerned with how customers approach mask mandates, either because the employees are concerned for their health or because they do not want to enforce mandates on customers who resist. My findings also suggest that interacting with customers can be the source of both connection and frustration, depending on the customers’ moods and behaviors.
The qualitative nature of this study allows me to tell the stories of those who are often overlooked in academia and beyond. Although truck stops occupy little space in most people’s day-to-day experiences, they are dynamic, interesting, sometimes contradictory spaces where people of all political stances, religious ideologies, genders, sexual orientations, and worldviews come together. The resulting interactions can be predictably challenging, or surprisingly warm and pleasant. My research offers a glimpse not only into the microcosm of truck stops, but also provides valuable insight about society as a whole.