Working for (or at) the man

I overheard a couple of conversations during breaks yesterday that got me thinking about a little linguistic anomaly. In the first, I heard someone talking about how she worked for Marriott, the hotel that shares a courtyard with the building I work in. In the second, I heard someone say they worked at the Marriott.

One person was a uniformed hotel employee, the other was not. Can you guess which one said they work for Marriott?

I started thinking about whether I work for or at my company. My answer was that I tend to work for people...my current employer and the last few that came to mind. I wondered if working for or at a company had something to do with white collar vs. blue collar jobs. I asked a couple of people I work with to answer the question, "where do you work?," and they each said "for [my employer's name]."

The more I thought about it, the more I settled on the idea that you work at places which are typically thought of as locations - restaurants, stores, hotels, etc. I think you work for a company when the company isn't so associated with a particular location.

Anyhow, these are the types of thoughts that go through my head when I'm outside on a break. Yeah, I need to get a life. :)