Stroking

In Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser discusses the concept of “stroking,” which is a psychological technique used by fast food managers to encourage positive emotions in employees. This is a necessary part of company strategy because these workers are otherwise alienated from their work, as it’s “deskilled,” repetetive, and low-paying.

Stroking can also be a useful way to understand an anecdote from a subsequent chapter about selling “success” to middle-management employees of the fast food chains. In this later example, Schlosser explains how celebrity speakers at a “Success Authority” convention tell platitudes to the attendees about achieving their dreams through hard-work and self-confidence.

Both of these instances of stroking seem to imply that forging temporary emotional connections in workers is a necessary part of supplementing work that’s unattractive or not emotionally fulfilling on its own, no matter what position in the corporate heirarchy that variuos workers belong to. While the profit motive makes sense for companies as a whole, it’s often not enough to fulfill individual workers within the company.