Lindsay McCormick's "Break Rooms"

Lindsay McCormick’s series was a really interesting look into the way that people work and (I think) how people feel about working. The series included images of different break rooms from different jobs, and you can immediately see the drastic difference in the quality of the rooms. Some of the rooms are bright, clean and welcoming. Others are dark, dirty, and covered in graffiti.

The series really makes an interesting statement. These rooms are provided to employees by the companies that they work for. They are supposed to be spaces where employees can relax and feel comfortable during their breaks. Looking at the different rooms, the break rooms seem to become symbolic of how much the company values its employees. The more the company values its people the nicer that the break room appears.

I think that this says a lot about the culture that we live in. The majority of the break rooms appeared very dank and depressing. It tells us that the companies do not value their people enough to spend money to make them comfortable. This is probably why there is such a high turnover for so many entry level jobs. People as workers aren’t highly valued in our society and it is basically accepted that low level workers will have relatively poor working conditions. It’s really sad because these images show a very self-centered mindset that occurs in our culture. We as a society value money over people and that is reflected in the working conditions that we allow to persist in our society.