Producing Difference

Abstract

This chapter shows how management structures a socially divided workplace from the back office. Chefs and dining room supervisors at Match, Terroir, and The Neighborhood channel workers into distinct types of service jobs based on socially coded ideals, and subject each group of workers to divergent supervisory practices. I argue that management’s strategic decisions regarding hiring, service protocols, and workplace policies adhere to an overarching logic of upscale service packaged with powerful race, class, and gender assumptions, as well as strategically differentiated service brands that nuance how each workplace is organized. Wilson shows how service brands shape the kinds of social relations and labor prospects that workers encounter.