Server Not Servant

The Lot of Humanity

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 1/17/2011

The most enjoyable aspect of writing this blog and working on my book is the people I have met who have shared their ideas, stories and comments.

One of those people is fellow blogger, Ruth Tobias a former Bostonian who now lives in Denver, Colorado covering the dining scene in Denver and beyond in her popular blogs, Denveater and Globeater.

Over the summer I received a facebook message from Ruth recommending that I contact Meghan Eckman, the producer of The Parking Lot Movie. Ruth viewed a screening of the film and had a strong hunch that it would resonate with me. She was right – I loved it.

The Parking Lot Movie is a brilliant 74-minute documentary set in The Corner Parking Lot (CPL) in Charlottesville, Virginia. It chronicles the experiences of an eccentric group of introspective parking lot attendants whose traits range from ingenious to maniacal. Their home base is a tiny booth likened to ‘an outpost you might see on the Albanian border’ near the University of Virginia.

From The Parking Lot Movie website: …the assortment of overeducated attendants who work at The Corner Parking Lot have to deal with throngs of drunken frat boys, vandals, and SUV-driving jerks who either take off without paying or fight them over sums as low as $0.40. Fortunately in this establishment the normally agreed upon rules of customer service don’t exist. Disrespect the staff and face the consequences. To these parking attendants, it’s about more than just getting the money. It’s about respect, honor, and decency toward your fellow man.

As a documentary, The Parking Lot Movie works as a discourse on North American life through the lens of a parking lot. It serves as a metaphor for America, containing both our noblest of intentions and our basest of instincts. In what becomes an irresistible parody of existentialism and sociology, these highly educated parking lot attendants consider their work at the parking lot to be an opportunity to contemplate impermanence, detachment and the concept of fundamental self. Meanwhile, they judge cars and drivers—both of which have come to represent the pervasive culture of entitlement they abhor. It examines humanity and the existential implications of a job – any job.

Meghan and her team worked on the film for 3 years, editing 150 hours of footage including in-depth interviews with lot owner, Chris Farina and several of his employees. Recognizing that the customer is not always right, Farina respects his employees and values them more than his customers.

Attendant Rick Slade on Chris Farina: Chris’s genius was in identifying and relating to people and getting them to relate to him as a person, not a boss, not the owner, not an authority figure, but as a friend and someone that you wanted to be loyal to because you had such a strong stake in the operations. You cared about the place.

My strong visceral connection with this film stems from experiences in my own life and the stories from the lives of servers that will be included in my forthcoming book.

Here are a few important themes in the film, along with quotes from the attendants and producer, Meghan Eckman:

1. We are not always defined by what we do for compensation.

One of the customary questions we ask people we meet for the first time is, “What do you do?” The answer often has little or nothing to do with who we are.

While working at several jobs throughout my life, I’ve endured several degrading comments about my work not being a ‘real job’.

John Bylander: Just because you see me at my job doesn’t mean you know what my life is about.

Rick Slade: You develop a strong sense of self and you get to know who you are fundamentally in the absence of any other external trappings or anything that socially people recognize that typically frames our identities and makes us who we are…I really became comfortable with myself beyond whatever society might have thought I was or what I was supposed to be doing.

Chris Farina (Parking lot owner): Whenever someone asks me, “What do you do?”, my first inclination is to laugh. I still do.

2. Condescension, Elitism & Entitlement

Unfortunately the stinging comments made by the 20% of customers who are impolite, disrespectful or downright rude, linger with us long after the customers leave. I still remember the condescending, gratuitous comments made by customers when I was working as a bartender, restaurant manager and painting contractor such as, “Good thing you went to college”, implying that I wasted my time pursuing a degree at Wesleyan.

Matt Datesman: Recalling one of his most demeaning customers: [On] graduation day, dad driving the car, and the whole family’s in the car, and him saying, I kid you not, saying “You know if you got a college degree you wouldn’t have to do a job like this.”

Harper Hellems: Once that gate goes up and a car comes in, people apparently enter this no-man’s land of a place where civic order and rules cease to apply. … There is something to be learned by being debased… [by] people who are jerks. …Everyone should have a set of keys thrown at them by a fat, rich guy with a popped up pink collar.

John Lindaman: … the thing that made me angry was generally that it was rich, entitled people coming and wanting to exploit you because you were of a lower socio-economic class. This sort of smug entitlement really started to make my blood boil.

Scott Meiggs: Maybe you shouldn’t have bought your kid that Range Rover…Maybe you should have thought about it because we see why you’re kid’s a bastard.

Meghan Eckman in an interview with Shaun Hatton from Electric Playground: I’d like people to come away thinking about the notions of entitlement – treating people in the service sector with a certain amount of respect and dignity.

3. Social Contracts

There are social contracts that govern all cultures, and civil human beings are expected to adhere to them. From poor tippers to people who try to park in a pay lot for free, some people try to scam the system and rationalize their boorish behavior wherever they go.  Disagreeing with social contracts is no excuse for ignoring them.

Meghan Eckman (EP Interview): When you park there you agree to pay and some people don’t acknowledge that.

Immediately after Meghan’s comments, they cut to a clip of a female customer arguing with a parking lot attendant about how much she owes. Ironically, the bumper sticker on the back of the woman’s SUV reads, “Proud of my Eagle Scout.”

4. Solitude and Detachment on the Job

John Lindaman: People were definitely seriously considering the existential implications of the job which were, What does it actually mean? Where does it fit in?

Tyler Magill: The job is long periods of tedium punctuated by brief moments of “Fuck you, buddy.” [When people drive off without paying, etc.]

5. The Silent Interaction

Gray Morris: Constantly people just won’t say one single word to me throughout the entire interaction…

I was talking with a worker in a sub shop last week when a customer walked up to the counter while reading the menu above the worker’s head. The employee said, “Good afternoon, sir. What can I get for you?” The customer said nothing, creating a 30-second awkward tension for the rest of us in the shop. Is it really that hard to say, “Hi, I just need a moment please.”?

I’m going to dedicate a future blog  post to this topic called, “The Silent Treatment.” I see it happen frequently between customers and employees. ‘Hello’ and ‘Thank you’ are easy.

6. Customer Stupidity

Gray Morris: People say, “Hey, where it says, ‘No Parking’, Can I park there?”

You can’t make this shit up. Every workplace has these crazy customers, and it’s therapeutic to talk about them.

(Gray’s tirade about the customers he hates is hilarious and one of my favorite scenes in the film.)

7. Anonymity

In the wake of the horrific shootings in Arizona, ‘public discourse’ is all the rage. However, I’m more interested in ‘private discourse’, the way people interact when they don’t think anyone is looking.

Out of curiosity (and for research), I spy on people all the time when they are interacting with workers. A lot of people use anonymity as a cover for their bad manners and poor behavior.

James McNew: When you’re walking down the street, it’s not like if you bump into somebody you start screaming at them and giving them the finger to their face. But when you’re in a car, you seem to have this super power.

People who hide behind their cars, telephones and keyboards to spew anonymous rage and vitriol are the same people who litter when no one is looking and treat service industry workers as subservients.

8. Bitterness and Burnout

The ranting, stereotyping and judging by the attendants in the film results from their accrued anger and bitterness from years of interacting with the public. I get it, but some of it is over the top. It would have been nice to hear a few stories about some of the great customers who visited The Corner Parking Lot. I’m sure there were more than a few parkers who were Customer Hall of Fame eligible.

Chris Farina (Owner CPL): There are plenty of people [attendants] that have taken it too far and that usually means it might be time for them to go, (laughs) or they need to work a little less or they need a vacation so they can get a proper balance and realize it is just a parking lot…

John Lindaman: When you know it’s time for you to move on, then you have to follow that…It’s not up to you to make sure that person gets their just desserts. You start to have a slightly more nuanced sense of cause and effect. It’s best to go ahead and let that person go on down the road because you’re not the one responsible for meting out the effect. That’s a mechanism of the universe.

I’ll have a lot more to say on this topic in a chapter called, “Confronting Without Confrontation.”

 The Parking Lot Movie and a mandatory 1-month stint in a service industry job should be required for high school graduation. The material in this film could generate healthy discussions and in turn, result in valuable lessons for life.

In addition to providing some very insightful content, this documentary, replete with its irreverent band of misfits, is entertaining and funny.

Harper Hellems: No one’s parents looked down at the crib of their newborn child and said, “God I wish my son or daughter grows up to be a parking lot attendant.”

If you’re interested in human dynamics and astute, wistful observations about society and life, watch this film.

The Parking Lot Movie

It’s not just a parking lot. It’s a battle with humanity.

John Lindaman (Attendant for 11 years): It kind of taught me how to be a human being.

I’d love to hear from Chris Farina, current and former CPL attendants and workers from around the world.

As of Monday afternoon, 1/17,  The Parking Lot Movie was #1 on the Netflix list of Most Popular in the Last 24 Hours list.

Please share your comments and stories. Thank you.

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“Without Illegal Aliens, There is No Restaurant Business”

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 12/28/2010

That’s a pretty bold statement made by Phanton Gourmet on facebook.

A firestorm was ignited when a recent front page Boston Globe story reported that Upper Crust Pizza, a rapidly-growing local chain, hired and exploited illegal immigrant workers from Brazil.

According to the Globe:

The promise of a job at an Upper Crust shop, passed by word of mouth from one villager to the next, offered the possibility of wages unheard of in Marilac [Brazil], a community of 4,140 people in the mountains of southeastern Brazil.

Over the past decade, dozens of men from Marilac have made the 7,500-mile trek, risking arrest, deportation, and in rare cases, death. And Upper Crust, founded by Sharon [MA] native Jordan Tobins in 2001, welcomed them.

Tobins needed lots of kitchen help; the Brazilians worked hard and didn’t complain about workweeks that routinely stretched to 80 hours. Marilac prospered as Upper Crust’s immigrant employees sent thousands of dollars home, and the company swiftly expanded from its original store in Beacon Hill to one upscale suburb after another.

Over time, however, this amicable but unlawful relationship would unravel. Documents from a recent class action lawsuit show that as Tobins expanded his pizza empire, he began to exploit his immigrant workers. The employees took their complaints to the US Department of Labor, which ordered the chain to dole out hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay. The department is now investigating wage violations at Upper Crust for a second time.

As always, comments in response to the Globe report, as well as on a related Boston Yelp Talk thread exploded with hundreds of missives ranging from the typical anonymous hate and vitriol to some very thoughtful and insightful observations.

In the midst of Sunday night’s blizzard, the debate continued on facebook after The Phantom Gourmet posted the following:

Let’s name restaurants that deliver. I’ll start: Upper Crust Pizza.

What really got my attention was a comment made by Phantom Gourmet during the exchange of comments within the thread following the post:

Phantom Gourmet: I’m sorry to tell everyone, but without illegal aliens, there is no restaurant business. Hurting this company, or any other company, is not what our state needs right now.

In case Phantom Gourmet takes the post and related comments down, I have provided the comments in the order that they appeared:

Jimmy Machin: Didn’t Upper Crust just get busted for exploiting their workers?

Debbie Delia Fowle: Why is Phantom Gourmet assisting in advertising Upper Crust when they are under investigation for employment issues? I would think you would want to keep your distance until the end results come out

Bob Ullman: Exploitation of employees? Give me a break! If people are willing to work for X dollars an hour with no benefits then it’s their fault, not the employer. They are in a business, not a charity! I will second the vote for Upper Crust Pizza.

Phantom Gourmet: Bob, good for you, they have hundreds of employees and do a lot for charity and generate millions in tax revenue, I would think we would all be rooting for businesses to expand and hire. Plus, the pizza is really tasty.

Patrick Maguire: Yes, Bob, exploitation of their employees. Stop drinking the Kool Aid and read the full story. I don’t know anyone who supports or patronizes Upper Crust any more, even if they like their over-priced pizza.

Vincent Errichetti: Upper Crust broke no laws. The Boston Globe is just mad they didn’t buy advertising in their bankrupt news paper. BTW how does a bankrupt newspaper afford to send a reporter to South America???????

Lynn Boston: Anybody who hires illegals is part of the problem!!! I’ll never call the Upper Crust. Too many good pizza places out there who don’t break the law.

Phantom Gourmet: I’m sorry to tell everyone, but without illegal aliens, there is no restaurant business. Hurting this company, or any company, is not really what our state needs right now.

Patrick Maguire: “Upper Crust broke no laws.” Then why did they pay a 350K in back pay as ordered by the US Dept. of Labor? They are also defending a complaint from a former operations manager (7-yr. employee), the District Attorney’s Office and several other agencies. Take your head out of the sand.

Matthew Conley: Phantom is waaaaay off on supporting these scumbags. Please do not support these guys in any way. The excuse that “everyone does it” is no justification. Love PG but they are in the wrong keeping company with these clowns.

Patrick Maguire: “I’m sorry to tell everyone, but without illegal aliens, there is no restaurant business.” My hunch is that there are a lot of restaurant operators who would take exception to that statement.

Phantom Gourmet: Patrick, feel free to ask around, and get back to me. Of course, not every restaurant, but every restaurant will KNOW a restaurant.

Patrick Maguire: Phantom Gourmet- I’m working on a blog post about this that will include input from restaurant workers and operators. Please send me a message to let me know who I should be contacting to get official statements from the Phantom Gourmet responding to your comments in this thread. Thank you.

MC Slim JB: It is true that many restaurant hire undocumented workers. The issue with The Upper Crust is not in hiring them, but exploiting them. Caught doing it once, and now accused of continuing that pattern. We know they’re your sponsors, Phantom, but let’s not pretend folks don’t know that story.

Adam Castiglioni:  Dear Phantom Gourmet- When will you drop the Upper Crust as a sponsor of yours? I fear that your company may become part of the whole controversy surrounding them soon. There are so many other great pizza places that you could bring on as advertisers that may not exploit their workers.

Obviously there are a lot of loaded issues here. Everyone who is, or has previously been in the restaurant business, knows that ‘illegal’ immigrant workers have been part of the fabric of restaurants for a long, long time. The vast majority are great workers, great people and an integral part of many restaurant families.

Restaurateurs turned a blind eye to the issue, especially in urban areas and border states, for several decades because it’s a win-win for the restaurant and their employees.

However, with immigration a hot button topic today, many restaurateurs are starting to address the issue proactively. Some are taking steps to retain immigrant workers by offering English classes and sponsoring workers in pursuit of their permanent resident alien status (green cards). Additionally, owners and managers are more carefully vetting their employees, when previously they would accept documents that they knew were suspect at best.

These complex issues raise several questions for candid, thoughtful discussion for customers, restaurateurs, workers and even other American business owners:

1. How prevalent is the use of illegal or undocumented workers in the restaurant business in the United States today? How about other businesses?

2. Are there some restaurants or businesses that would fail without illegal or undocumented workers?

3. Are these workers taking jobs away from legal residents who want them? If not, should we remain quiet as long no one is being taken advantage of?

4. How prevalent is the exploitation of immigrant workers? Do you personally know of any workers who are being taken advantage of?

5. How thorough is your restaurant or business when it comes to verifying the legal status of prospective employees before hiring them? How well do companies follow up with required documentation after an employee is hired?

6. What are highly-ethical restaurants doing to address the issue of illegal workers? Are some restaurants screening, coaching, training and counseling employees to ensure compliance with immigration laws and citizenship requirements? Are any restaurants/businesses going above and beyond to retain valuable immigrant workers?

7. How true is the old adage that illegal immigrant workers are critical to the success of American restaurants or businesses because legal workers are not willing to do the same work for minimum wage, or the wages paid to the illegal workers?

8. At what point do you as a consumer, vendor or business partner sever your relationship with a restaurant or business because of ethical issues such as exploitation of workers? Do you have any specific examples?

I will not patronize Upper Crust Pizzeria because of the Department of Labor findings and the on-going investigations.

I invite everyone to join the conversation. Please keep your comments respectful and civil. As always, comments will be monitored before being approved. Thank you.

Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service, Introduction | 36 Comments »

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Merry Christmas from Boston

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service

Posted: 12/25/2010

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Cliché Moratorium?

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Personal Pet Peeves

Posted: 12/23/2010

Just for the fun of it.

As I’ve previously noted, in addition to facilitating a discussion, writing this blog is therapeutic. After breakfast this morning, perhaps my therapy should include a brief respite to the proverbial deserted island away from all humans…

I should have seen it coming. The holidays always have a way of bringing out the painful, washed and worn clichés. While waiting for my breakfast, I was enjoying my tea and newspaper at the counter of Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe, a Boston institution. A well-dressed gentleman in his sixties stood up and prepared to leave with his wife and 3 children in tow.

In a voice loud enough to let everyone in the joint know that he was a least a semi-regular, the guy said goodbye to the staff, then bellowed the requisite, “I’ll see you next year.”, that the uninitiated still use at the end of December, knowing they’ll see you in a week. His tone indicated that he actually thought his comment was original, clever and funny. It was none of those.

The staff didn’t have much of a choice but to respond with the perfunctory laughs and good wishes that servers are often expected to emit. (Imagine how many times they hear the same comments over and over?)

I could see the looks and feel the silent, collective, groan permeating the air from the other patrons. I caught eyes with a few kindred spirits who shook their heads as if to ask, Did he REALLY just say that? The guy added insult to injury with, “I hope Santa Clause is good to you.” on his way out the door.

Why don’t people who say those things ever get the clues (or social cues) that they’re not funny? I wonder what his wife and kids think.

I get it that silence without small talk, filler or inane banter might be awkward, but wouldn’t it be great if we could ban or escape all of the tacky, cutesy, repetitive chatter that we all endure during the holidays???

What drives you nuts this time of year?

PS- I’m not as grouchy as I sound.

PSS- Thanks to all of you who voted, the blog won the A-List contest for best local blog in Boston. Thank you very much.

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The Perfect Restaurant Storm

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Customer Hall of Shame

Posted: 12/20/2010

I’ve often described working in a restaurant as Improv Theatre. Every shift presents unique circumstances and challenges, and even the most experienced professionals can be taken aback by the audacity of the human condition.

A seasoned general manager of a popular Boston restaurant sent me a text last week requesting to meet. Based on his extensive hospitality industry experience, I knew his story would not be an every-day tale of woe. When we met for breakfast the next day, he did not disappoint.

The Wednesday lunch started out like every other day for the GM and his front of the house staff of one hostess, two servers, a bartender and a busser. About 11:15, a handful of guests walked to the podium and said, “We’re going to be at least 30 for lunch.” After welcoming the guests and confirming that the group did not have a reservation, the hostess told them she would seat them momentarily after the staff moved a few tables together.

Within seconds the GM, staff and kitchen were alerted, and the restaurant went into ‘all hands on deck’ mode, with everyone pitching in wherever needed. The GM became waiter/busser/food runner/kitchen expediter; the executive chef stepped in as line cook; the hostess hustled to help the servers while the bartender pitched in everywhere.

And here’s what happened:

The party of 30 grew into a party of 47 students from a local college celebrating the completion of finals and the beginning of semester break.

Forty-five minutes elapsed between the arrival of the first guests and the 47^th member of their party. Food and drink requests were a little frantic, with some guests shouting out their first drink order as others were already eating their entrées.

The group appeared to have a great time; the staff heard no complaints about the food or service. The total of the tab was a little less than $800 before tax and tip.

In the meantime, 4 small parties were seated along with another walk-in party of 23 high school students and their 2 teachers. The high schoolers enjoyed everything, paid with one credit card and thanked the staff for their efforts and teamwork.

Back to the party of 47 when the fun began with the dreaded request:

Could we have 47 separate checks? Followed by, Most of us have Groupons we want to use with each check.

The Groupon deal with the restaurant states that the purchaser receives $35 worth of food and drink for $15, one coupon redeemable per table, and one coupon per visit.

Since they were all seated at one long table on one tab, the GM told them they could use one Groupon towards their bill and then invited them to open separate checks at the bar to redeem their individual Groupons. Many were planning to extend their celebration in the bar after lunch, and they did.

The students countered with:

We thought separate checks would qualify as separate tables. If we knew we couldn’t use all of the Groupons we would have sat at separate tables.

Oh, brother…

The GM offered the group 3 options:

1. He would take the total, add the 18% automatic gratuity and tax, subtract out $35 for one Groupon, divide by 47 and present them with 47 equal checks. He advised them he would need time to process the separate checks.

2. He would furnish pens and paper for the whole group and they could determine what each one of them owed, and the GM would split up all of the charges and tabs accordingly.

3. He informed them that there was an ATM just outside and suggested that they determine what they ordered and owed, and to pay in cash if possible.

After a lengthy debate, the group agreed to combine options 2 and 3 by sorting out the bill on their own and writing their names and amount owed on pieces of paper. After the staff processed 31 credit cards and collected all of the cash, they were still $60 short. At that critical point, you always hope that one or two poor slobs will quietly step forward and kick in the rest of the money.

Sure enough, one guy came forward, apologized profusely, and paid the remaining $60. (The appreciative GM reciprocated by picking up his bar tab after lunch.)

I knew I would eventually need to address the issue of separate checks, but I never dreamed that it would involve a request for 47!!

Can you imagine walking into a restaurant with 46 of your closest friends with no phone call or reservation, enjoying a great lunch, then asking after the meal for separate checks? I can’t either!

What are your thoughts?

What is the largest walk-in party you have ever served or been part of?

Is 32 the largest number of separate checks ever processed for one party? If not, what is? I should have included this on my list of 64 Suggestions for Restaurant Customers. If you will be paying separately, inform your server before you order.

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