here comes the grump

sorry about the lack of posts. blogger has been brattier than a barista these past few days.

i know it's annoying to go into a bux and have the barista ask "what do you want" without a smile, much less a "hi, how are you". i'm sure you want to smack them upside their smug little heads, hoping it will knock some politeness into them. what's equally annoying are the customers that are always growly faced, no matter how nice the barista might be.

we have one such customer named colette.
colette is the coldest fish i've ever encountered. it doesn't matter that we always greet her with a "hello colette! how are you today?". it doesn't matter that we know her drink and usually have it made by the time she's finished paying. and of course it doesn't matter that we thank her and bid her a good day.
in the last two years colette has done little else but grunt and toss her money at us.
and you know what? it sucks. really it does.
but we are baristas and part of our job description is to be welcoming to our customers ('guests' in starbonics). even though we are paid to be pleasant and say 'thank you', it still feels pretty rotten when someone can't return a smile day after day, week after week, year after year.

i'm tempted to mess up colette's drink on purpose, just to see if she's capable of any sort of emotion. but really, i don't think she is.

partner rant: why can't you multi-task? one do you make only one drink at a time? why do you stand and watch the blender until it finishes it's cycle, instead of preparing the next drink? and why, oh why do you only single bag the trash cans? i get it, you have a one track mind, but if you want to keep your job you better learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.