So, at work we have a social event coming up commemorating a former coworker’s retirement and I’m doing my little bit by helping out with certain decorations and ordering the coffee from a local vendor… So far I haven’t had a chance to start designing any on the decorations yet. I did, however, manage to get down to Timothy’s coffee shop to place the order for the coffee…
Now, I used to go to this place every day — EVERY DAY — but stopped going recently because the daily coffee/tea plus treat I was getting ended up costing upwards of $45 a month… some months more than that I’m sure. I know that $45 is not much but when trying to cut down on spending to manage other monthly bills it actually works out to be a whole heck of a lot… try over $500 a year!
Either way, that was a bit of a pseudo-digression… the point of which was to say that it has been a while since I’ve been down for my “usual”. So when I went down today (with a co-worker), I was a bit surprised to see that I didn’t recognize any of the staff… I knew that school had started back up and I knew that some changes were happening so I didn’t think that much of it at first. I proceeded to order the coffee (four urns: 2 regular, two decaf) from a gentleman who was apparently the new owner. I off-handedly mentioned that I didn’t recognize any of the staff — kinda wondering about the back-to-school theory — and he indicated that none of the old staff was left.
As I finished up the order and started walking back to work, I thought to myself that this really sucks because I’d gotten to know a few of the workers really well…
Please keep in mind that I am quite sleep deprived so it takes a while for certain this to sink in…
The co-worker I had gone down with mentioned that the new owner was going to force all of the old employees to re-interview for their positions and impose a pay cut to those who continued to work there. Needles to say, the employees were… well… how can we say this… pretty fuckin’ livid. So on the first day the new owner was supposed to take over none of them showed up. Not a single one. This of course left Mr. New Guy in a pickle… he had to shut down the shop and hire a whole new staff.
Wait a second…
Things start to sink in…
I just ordered coffee from this guy after he treated these people — some of whom I had grown quite attached to — like crap!? Now I’m not to happy with myself… I get back to wortk and explain what happened to a couple of other co-workers, Mr. Miko and Julé. Mr. Miko said that I should cancel the order…
I wish I had thought of that…
So, I hop on board and decide that this is exactly what I’m going to do… march right back down to Timothy’s and cancel the order and inform Mr. Latte that we have placed an order with someone else. Mr Miko was quick to point out that while was all-fine-and-dandy (my words not his), this will not let Mr. half-caf know that we don’t approve of his business practices — which is of course the real reason for cancelling the coffee order — and that today, he (Mr. Miko) was a bit of a self-proclaimed “crank” and perfectly in the mood to let Mr. no-foam-with-a-dash-of-cinnamon know why we were cancelling the order.
[sigh] I’m not built to be confrontational…
And so he did… Mr. Miko marched down to Timithy’s and cancelled the order that I should have cancelled… said his piece, which should have been mine to say… and earned my appreciation and admiration, which should have been a quiet proud moment I shared with myself…
[double-sigh]
I could promise myself that next time I’ll do it but I never make a promise that I can’t keep… so I didn’t. I turn thirty on Saturday… that should be grown up enough… to bad I always feel like a terrified kid in situations like this…
I wonder if I ask for a backbone for my Birthday if it would arrive by Saturday…
How would you wrap that?
—
steelie
this made me laugh … sounds so familiar though, i wouldn't have been able to go back down and cancel the order, either. dang us with our flimsy backbones!
I was right there with you and didn't volunteer to go down by your side. We are what we are Steelie. It would be nice to find a balance of "I'm not going to take this sitting down" cranky person and "thoughtful, speak before you say anything" guy.All I can say to everyone is that I was there and he was going to do it, he was going to tell that guy what he thought of his ill treatment of staff! We both were upset and hating the jerk and then said "ya go do it Mr.Miko" and proceeded to sit down and wish for the backbones we always wanted. I'm with ya, Go Passive Activist!
Hehehe, I'm more of a passive activist myself….
I'm totally unconfrontational in situations like this. As much as it pisses me off, I'm more the time to stop buying coffee there myself, but never actually say anything because I wouldn't want the drama. That's why it's good to have people like Fluffy who are all about causing shit. 😉 He does the dirty work for us all.
Wow… four out of four commenters admit to being passive activists… :O)We’re quite bunch aren’t we.Jared… I love your colour choices. From now on you’re wrapping any and all skeletal orders I place [insert creepy forboding music here…]–steelie
Speaking from the other side of the counter: years ago I worked at the Second cup downtown. My boss — the dragon, as she is now known in my little world — was a complete bitch to the staff (myself included). She used to yell at harp at us, even threaten to fire us, for doing simple and senisble (and sanitary) things like throwing away paper cups that had accidentally fallen on the floor! She was a total penny pincher. To make matters worse, her lovely behaviour was by no means kept from the customers — her rants most often happened on the floor at the busiest time of day. Anyway, this one morning after a particularly nasty session with the dragon, a lovely and kind customer came up to the counter with his coffee in hand. He said: "I will not support a place where the staff are treated so poorly. Thank you." He then put his full mug of steaming-hot coffee down on the counter in front of us, turn and walked out. We were all dumbfounded! Too bad the dragon wasn't there to witness it (she was in her office). Nevertheless, it was soooo satisfying. That was the most memorable day of my (thankfully) short-lived career as a certified coffee agent, that and the day I unwittingly waited on Paula Abdul…