Happy Tuesday to you one.
It is currently 12 o'clock pm and I can let you worriers know that I have had an efficient last two hours. I got to work, set up, forgot to put the money in the drawer (again...damn it), printed out the online orders, and listened to the messages. That took about 15 minutes. I have currently been on facebook for the other two hours. It was not a waste, I fed my workers and cleaned up my restaurant in Restaurant City, and I raced my pet society pet. She won twice. I would go on petville, but my flash player on this computer isn't upgraded. Roscoe will have to wait.
This is my life America. If you understood any of the games I just mentioned, this is your life too.
So...how about that healthcare? too soon?
Wow. This blog just got even more awkward than before.
Read any good books lately? I know I have. I finally got Steve Martin's book and it was good. He's a poet that one. Plus he got to work at Disneyland when he was 10! 10 years old! That's like every kid's dream! Stupid Child labor laws.
I also read "How Starbucks Saved my Life." I saw it in the discount bin at Barnes & Noble, and I had to laugh at the title, because as a former barista at a coffee shop similar to Starbucks (Coffee Bean), I'm pretty sure the store was trying to kill me. But whatever works for someone. It's about this guy who had a high paying job at some ad firm in New York that fired him after 25 years of loyalty. He had no money, and got a job at Starbucks when he was 64. God bless him is all I can say. I'm glad he got a job, and got along with his co-workers, and was a customer favorite, but the entire time I was reading that book, all I could see were the older people that worked with me at Coffee Bean. Older baristas were always the bane of my existence, especially if they were new. Once they got the hang of things or had been there for 7 years, they knew their strengths, and stuck to those things. But some of them just couldn't get it.
My first run-in was Sandy. Sandy started working at Coffee Bean when I was about a month in. She had previous experience as a manager in Dunkin' Donuts, which she clearly stated was nothing like the Bean. I was less jaded then, and relatively new myself, so I was nicer to her and I helped her when she had a problem, which was every five minutes. Normally, when someone gets hired, they start with coffees, then move onto learning the cold bar, then hot bar, then register. I can't remember ever seeing Sandy making a drink. We just put her on register, which is a lot easier, and hoped there wouldn't be a problem. Wrong. She was slow, and always pushed the wrong buttons. She never remembered how to get anywhere on the screen, and I would always have to come by and press return to get her away from the merchandise page (why was she there?). She was very grateful for my help, because everyone else had run out of patience with that woman. I'd be in their shoes in a few months. Even customers were beginning to tire of her mistakes, especially when she charged a guy for two espresso mint chip ice blendeds when all he asked for was an iced coffee. She quit after two weeks there. It was for the best. She actually got a job at Starbucks. I wonder how she did there.
My next person was Brenda. She was a 45 year old mom who had made a lot of mistakes in her past that ultimately led her to taking a job at Coffee Bean. Thankfully, I only had to work with her for two weeks, because I was on winter break from school and had agreed to work in Santa Barbara rather than stay at my Irvine Coffee Bean. She did not want to be on register. She wanted to work the bar with me. I had to remake several drinks every day. I was glad to leave after my break was up. My sister worked with her for much longer, and always had a Brenda story to tell me thant normally ended with "I swear I was going to kill her."
But the one person who keeps popping up into my head is Joaquin. Oh Joaquin. He used to come into our Irvine store and routinely ask for an application, only for us to tell him he had to apply online. Finally, he followed our directions and eventually got the job. I had to work with him a lot because we both had morning availability. Sad to say, I did lose my patience with him many times, especially when I had to repeat instructions to him over and over because he either had bad hearing or just liked to ignore me. He took a long time to get certfied. I'm not sure he ever was correctly cettified either. I think Randy just gave up and passed him. It was definitely 3 or 4 months after he started. I got certified in less than a week.
At the time, I felt justified for my ire for his incompetence, but now I feel bad. Just because making drinks and ringing up the register came easily to me didn't mean that it was that way for everyone. In the book, the guy gave us a timeline of his months at the store, and I noticed he didn't even start on the register until he was a month in. He just cleaned the entire time. And he didn't even make drink until 4 months later. So I could see a lot of him in Joaquin. But this guy came from a major job. Joaquin did not. and I think something wasn't right with him, which of course makes me feel even worse for my behavior. (If you hate me a lot right now, let me give you a scenario with Joaquin. We got a new ice blended flavor called Pina Colada, and he added the syrup to his hot drink, even though we told him it wasn't supposed to be mixed with coffee. He dumped it out and looked at us with amazement, like he didn't think it would taste gross. Plus, he used to get really worried about our lightbulbs, and would start to change them during the rush.) Customrer were a little scared of him. He was small, and would pop up behind the pastry case when they were looking at it and ask if they needed any help.
I don't know if he's still working there. He was when I left there a year and a half ago.
Btu not every older employee was like these people. Lourdes, at my last store had been there forever. She was excellent on the register, she would even help me out when I accidentally pressed the wrong amount button and couldn't think of how much actual change I was supposed to give them. And she could make drinks. She didn't do it very often, but she could handle herself on the bar. Plus she'd make all the guys I worked with feel uncomfortable whenever she said something dirty, and I can always appreciate that.
So I guess that's my story. I really can't judge people that need any kind of job to survive, because that's what I was doing once I graduated from college. Still doing that now, but of course, I do want to be an actor, and a lot of my success is usually left up to fate. well, we'll talk about my future later.
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