I quit my job at Caribou. Yes Caribou. Since I don’t work there anymore, I’m not concerned about problems with identifying which coffee conglomerate I was employed by. I didn’t really like it that much, I’ve written before about how the level of multi-tasking is beyond this old guy. And that I had difficulty remembering where the buttons on the cash register were, that there didn’t seem to be any system to the way they are laid out All that standing was also getting hard on my knees and the rest of my body. The whole experience was stressing me out. I think the next person that tells me how much fun it must be to work in a coffee shop is going to get punched in the nose.
But the decisive moment came Wednesday night. The supervisor on the shift was, like all the shift supervisors, a twenty something woman. I’d worked with her before and come to the conclusion that she was kind of a slave driver, but I had no idea how nasty she could really be.
At 4:45 a woman showed up to pick up the two 50 cup containers of coffee she’d ordered for a banquet that was starting a 5. We had nothing ready. Apparently there it had been posted on the calendar, and it was the supervisor’s responsibility be prepared. But no one had told her. Still ultimately her responsibility. The customer, a regular, was very upset. We started brewing coffee as fast as we could and pouring it into those big containers you see caterers use, but we didn’t get it done until almost 5:30. The supervisor, let’s call her Dianna, because that’s her name, handled the situation very well, comped the coffee to the customer and kept her cool while we were scrambling to get the order filled.
But after the customer left she was pissed off and started taking it out on me. I’ve worked a lot of jobs in my life, I’ve worked as blue collar as it gets. I’ve worked in packing plants, on the river boats, construction, bar tending, fighting forest fires, starting forest fires, all kinds of jobs that are rough in nature and have rough people doing them. My first mate on the river was an ex-con, a felon who was rumored to have climbed up to the pilot house and beat up the pilot when they had a disagreement. My boss in the Forest Service, bless his heart, was famous for telling me after I’d just climbed a steep cliff, through open flame with a five gallon can of gasoline strapped to my back, “As long as you’re resting go back down and get a hose pack.” That is to say I’ve been in a lot of crazy situations with lots of drama going on, and I have never been treated like I was by this 20-something woman.
I was yelled at, sworn at, threatened and verbally abused, but those bosses all had something in common. They knew what they needed you to do and they let you know what it was, and you weren’t doing it right or you were doing it too slow, they let you know and told they let you know the right way to do it. There was no passive aggression.
I suffered through 4 hours of eye rolling, snarky toned, bitchy body language passive aggressive abuse. She was pissed that I wasn’t doing anything and wouldn’t tell me what to do. She was doing stuff that obviously was meant for the low guy on the totem pole, the unskilled stuff, while I was standing around. I asked if I should do this and that acted pissed that I was so stupid to ask, but wouldn’t tell me WHAT to do. I survived two teenage daughters, and that’s the kind of behavior you sometimes get, but you love them and you know they’re just teenagers and they get through it. This woman wasn’t a teenager and I frankly didn’t give a shit about her. She’s lucky I’m taking my meds, the old me might have gone ballistic and left her there to close the store herself. I’ve done it before. I seriously have never been treated that badly by a supervisor.
That was the most remarkable act of restraint of my life. I suppose I could have spoken up, been the voice of mature reason, but I decided to keep my head down and my mouth shut. I’ve got to tell you though, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night two nights in a row now, and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was so angry at the little bitch.
So there.
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