Server Not Servant

Archive for May, 2011

Another Inconvenient Truth

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 05/10/2011

Today’s post comes courtesy of Jan Tessier, a loyal reader of ServerNotServant. Jan’s provocative email caught my attention in a big way, and we had quite a chat about her life in the service industry. Jan’s first job was de-tassling corn for $1.50/hour. Since then she has been a waitress, busser, cook, cabbie, data entry worker, office worker, security officer, bartender, home care provider and a university employee.

I am grateful to Jan for sharing her story with our readers.

Jan pointed out that thousands upon thousands of people work in convenience stores across America and around the world. Most of them take these ‘low-wage’, ‘dead-end’ jobs because they are:

• young and inexperienced.
• older and often unable to find work anywhere else.
• unskilled and undereducated.

Benefits, if there are any, are meager. Company-provided insurance often costs 1/4 to 1/3 of a convenience store employee’s annual gross. Most of these corporations don’t allow employees to eat or drink anything for free, or even at a discount. Raises are hard to come by. After working for a full year, Jan received a  stingy twenty cent increase and learned that the thirty cents increase, is reserved for  “outstanding” workers who garner the approval of the district manager!

For that little money, convenience store employees are some of the hardest working people in the country. In addition to manning the cash register, their duties include:

• Attending to coffee and vending machines.
• Stocking shelves and freezers.
• Cleaning floors, counters, parking lots, and bathrooms.
• Lugging heavy trash bags and recyclables to the dumpsters.
• Updating inventory, deliveries and sales.
• Maintaining a welcoming presence at the counter and on the floor.
• Up-selling special counter items to meet monthly quotas on junk food, gadgetry and store cards, a clever scam to track customers’ information and spending habits.

On any given day, Jan arrives at 2pm for the second shift. After clocking in, she records lottery numbers and counts the drawer as a line of customers quickly forms.  She contends with customers so busily talking on their cell phones that they can’t tell her if their order is complete, if they are paying with cash or a card, or what pump they will be using for their gas. 

While the whole idea of a convenience store is service for people in a hurry, CSR’s  watch helplessly as lines back up for customers who will empty their pockets, pocket books, backpacks or gym bags to dig up exact change; rather than just turn over a twenty and get change back in a flash. A recent customer instructed Jan (and the customers behind her) to wait while she dashed to her car and returned with eleven cents apparently scraped up off a dirty surface. When Jan voids out these transactions to keep the line moving, she risks a reprimand from management who frowns on voids and the ire of the dilatory customer who’s been relegated to the rear of the line.

And convenience store clerks also endure:

• Underage drinkers and smokers  in the parking lot harassing older customers to buy them cigarettes and six packs.
• Drug addicts and drunks who angrily expect credit advances because, “I’m in here all the time. You should know me.”
• Every imaginable profanity and digital gesture from unruly, boorish customers who don’t get their way.
• Cleaning up the vilest of human messes all over the store and into the bathrooms. Yes, even those messes…
• Picking up garbage, trash, paper wrappers, cans and bottle all over the parking lot courtesy of thoughtless, slovenly patrons.

Jan will be the first to tell you that for all of the misery, she’s thankful for an understanding manager and for the opportunity to serve plenty of nice, well meaning customers—a cross section of society really—who come into her store. But as all of us in service jobs know, somehow it’s the difficult customers and harsh working conditions that discourage us and shake our faith in humanity.

When it’s finally time to cash out and get ready to leave for the night, Jan will tell you that she’s one exhausted grandmother in need of two more Aleves to ease her aching back, feet, and legs. She drives home exhausted, stressed and often in tears. And, she does not think she’s alone. Several conversations with fellow workers have confirmed that Jan’s inconvenient truths are pervasive within her industry.

Of course, Jan Tessier is not alone in her concern for the rampant incivility directed at working class people. 

So readers, what do you think?

Any other convenience store workers care to share their experiences?

Convenience store customers;  What do you see in your fellow customers or in the employees who work there?

Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service | 15 Comments »

“I’m From New York.”

Book Chapter: Personal Pet Peeves

Posted: 05/3/2011

All hail.

I worked a raw bar at an event we catered in New Hampshire a few weeks ago and I could hear Mr. NYC before I could see him. He was the loud guy whose bellicose comments and bravado distinguished him amid the large crowd in front of me. When he made his way to the bar, he barked, Where are these things from?, while rocking side-to side and pointing to the oysters with his hand in the formation of a pistol.

Pleasant Bay in Chatham on Cape Cod. They were harvested yesterday, I replied.

Mr. NYC: I’m from New York City, and we get oysters from all over the world…

Congratulations, sir.

I wonder if anyone has ever told these people what they sound like.

The I’m from New York (or any urban locale) comment is often inserted into a conversation, followed by a pause, as if to say, There is nothing left for me to learn or experience ever again.

I was talking with the owner of a great pizza shop on Cape Cod a few weeks ago and we started discussing the premise of this blog post. After I told him the title he replied; Ah, yes. The Mecca, The Holy Land… (Several New Yorkers have actually conceded to loving his pizza.)

It can be argued that NYC is one of the greatest cities in the world. (Just ask the producers of the LATE SHOW with David Letterman.) I personally love visiting NYC. I’ll spare you the requisite, I have friends from NY line, but I will invite Merf Rosner, Johnny Croce and others to weigh in.

Is it the greatest city? Is any city? It depends on what you’re looking for.

Most stereotypes about groups of people are perpetuated by a handful of individuals who take things to an extreme. I’m sure lots of really cool New Yorkers cringe when they witness their brethren drop the ‘NY bomb’, or embellish their affiliation by designating themselves New Yorkers, despite having spent only a few years in or near the big city.

This post was suggested and inspired by Courtney, a New York native and veteran restaurant industry worker who currently works outside of The Empire State in a highly-acclaimed restaurant. Courtney has encountered numerous customers who have dropped the ‘NY bomb’ expecting shock, awe and adulation. Her response of, Me too, what neighborhood?, often leaves her guests a little disappointed that she isn’t from some rural outpost in the sticks.

My dear friend, Katt Tang, has a knack for making sure her customers enjoy a few laughs to go along with the food and drinks she serves. When a Mr. or Mrs. NYC-type drops, I’m from New York, on her, if she thinks they can handle it, she wryly inserts, I know. 

Touché, Katt.

Servers: Have you experienced the “I’m from New York” crowd?

True New Yorkers: Have you ever been embarrassed by your boasting brethren or NYC imposters?

Permalink | Posted in Personal Pet Peeves | 27 Comments »