By, Mohammed X., Washington State, from Nablus, Palestine
I am a young Palestinian living in Washington State. I came here after going through difficult circumstances in the West Bank. My wife and I decided to move with our only child in search of a better and more stable life. About two weeks after arriving, I found a job as a server in a restaurant. From my very first day at work, I immediately felt how different the relationship between employers and employees is here compared to back home.
Warmth vs. Machines
In Palestine, you can sense mutual respect and warmth from the very first day on the job. Employees see their employer almost as a friend, and employers treat their staff with the same familiarity. Even when problems happen, insulting or humiliating an employee is something no employer would do. There’s always a cultural, family, or moral barrier that prevents that. Employees often stay with the same employer for years, and most workplaces are small private shops—not big corporations. The employer is physically present, working alongside you every day.
But in the United States, most workplaces are large companies or chain stores with thousands of branches. You rarely know who the actual owner is. Everything is structured, strict, and incredibly impersonal. Here, I often feel like employees are expected to operate like machines—without emotions or humanity. Every minute is counted, every break is monitored, and sometimes even asking a simple question feels like a burden. There’s a constant atmosphere of stress, surveillance, and pressure, as if the employee is an object rather than a person with feelings.
I never experienced this feeling in Palestine. A small or medium-sized shop with the owner and maybe one or two employees creates a human environment. People work together, talk together, share stories, and often develop a family-like bond. The employer might visit the employee’s home, meet their family, or talk to them outside of work. The relationship is personal, warm, and meaningful.
Respect vs. Contract
To be honest—and to put it simply—I have not felt any real sense of respect toward employees here, beyond the fact that they get paid for their work. The relationship feels like a business contract: the employee sells time and effort, and the employer pays money in return. But in Palestine, the employer pays the employee not just for labor, but for standing with him, building the business together, and growing as a team. It’s a partnership of spirit, not just economics.
What I miss the most is the humanity within the workplace. Back home, you feel seen. You feel valued as a person, not just as a worker. Here, I’m still trying to adapt—learning the system, understanding the culture, and finding ways to build human connections in an environment that doesn’t naturally encourage them. I know not every workplace in America is the same, and I hope one day to find a job that brings back even a small part of that warmth I grew up with. Until then, I carry the values of home with me, and I hope to share them wherever I go.
Support Mohammed’s fundraiser: https://chuffed.org/project/154402-support-a-palestinian-family
