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November 1, 2022 Longrider General News, misanthropy 16

This story has gone viral and not for the reasons the poster would have liked it to.

Evan, a trans barista, sat down in the back room to explain why Starbucks needs a union. He sets the scene by explaining that he is a full-time student who works 25 hours a week, and often gets scheduled for 8 and a half-hour shifts on the weekends (open to close). Great start! Getting an education, working to support himself, his manager is sensitive to the fact that his weekdays are probably consumed by classes.

But this is not good enough for our weeping protagonist. “There’s so many customers,” he tearfully explains, which was an insurmountable obstacle because they had four people in that day (five were scheduled, but one called out) and 13 employees total at the store.

‘He’ of course is a she – despite the ‘full’ beard and moustache. Sorry, love, but that’s bum fluff, not a full set. If you were in the Royal Navy, they would expect you to shave it off, having failed dismally to produce the required whiskers.

Anyway, misgendering aside, this is an example of what not to do when you have a meltdown. I’ve had them. I expect we all have at one time or another. Over worked, underpaid and feeling under appreciated. Probably my worst experiences were my final year at Network Rail, when I had to commute to London, spending around six hours a day just travelling to and from work. I was relieved when they made me redundant. But worse, much worse, was my stint at Sainsburys. It was overnight shelf stacking, so I didn’t have to deal with customers, but in my fifties, I really wasn’t cut out for work that is more suited for twenty-somethings. I was exhausted and the one off, one on, switchback threw my body clock into a mess.

While I did mention it here, I did so without breaking down over it. I regaled my audience with some of the absurdities of working for a corporation that hadn’t a clue about managing people.

Thing is, while we all feel as Evan does at some point in our lives, there is a lesson here. Don’t video your meltdown and plaster it over the Internet. This is not a good thing. Indeed, the raucous mocking she has received will, hopefully, be a life lesson. If she cares to take note and assess her behaviour. And, no, I’ve not misgendered her.

So, okay, they’re short-staffed. I would imagine 98% of people who have worked in a retail/service role in the past 2-3 years can relate and know that, in these situations, you have to roll up your sleeves and get the work done. I worked at a liquor store the past few months that was egregiously understaffed, but we stayed flexible, backed each other up, and ran a tight ship. You know, like grown ups.

This, generally, has been the response, because most of us have been in a similar situation and just got on with it. We might have complained when we got home, we might have vented to our colleagues in a quiet moment, but we didn’t break down and spread it all over the Internet for people to see who have been there, done that and got on with it. Consequently, sympathy is in short supply here.

16 Comments

  1. And many future employers will have seen the video and decided not to touch this one with a barge pole!

    Cue further whingeing. (young people are so stupid nowadays……)

    • You say that, but I’m not so sure. A bloke employed by Holland and Barrett got into a spat with his boss over a lunch break, assaulted him, got a knife from the stockroom and chased him with it in front of understandably perturbed customers.

      Judge gave him a suspended sentence in part because – sit down for this bit – his new employer (!) wrote a commendation letter!

  2. Ah… but the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd was too enticing to resist. Or was it the smell of the crowd and the and the roar of the greasepaint?

    In any event I recommend never being interviewed or posting a comment or video clip when in the grip of a strong emotion.

  3. I worked in a department that was understaffed for years. Years of listening to empty promises from the management to hire an apprentice, that would have made sense as we had a fairly aging workforce. Being permanently pissed off made me move my retirement forward.

  4. It’s the crying that’s hardened my heart. He’s just a toddler. How has this guy the wit to study for a degree when he doesn’t even have the wherewithal to deal with customers who are shouting at him. Please God he’s not reading politics and ends up as POTUS. Lol
    PS I’m a pensioner who works each week at least 10 hours over and above my contracted hours with no offer of overtime pay because “them’s the breaks” when you work for a corporation to whom you’re just a widget.

    • Jay,

      I admire your commitment, old school.

      I’m afraid my attitude has changed significantly over the years. Large employers cannot be trusted with job security, pay, conditions, etc, and as I get older my finite amount of life gets shorter and therefore more valuable to me.

      Buggered if I’m working for free.

  5. I work in the care system, we are always short staffed and under paid. One colleague asked the question at a team meeting, to which we are still waiting a reply. If 4 staff should be on a shift, only 3 show up why can’t the 4th person’s wages be split amongst the other 3??? We don’t get sick pay and obviously the money to Pay staff comes from some government dept. I’m sure the owners of the company don’t say to the department, here is a staff members wages back for the day as they weren’t in. It appears to go in the ‘profit to the owners pot’, whereas the 3 staff who came in have had to do extra to cover.

    • Spot on.

      I have found that job conditions for someone my age are universally unacceptable to me, so I work for myself.

      Boss is a muppet, but the pay is ok 🙂

  6. For me, this is a perfect example of how trans people never really change.
    No 25 yr old man is going to film a breakdown like this and expect sympathy.* Sure, we all have our weak moments. in private or with very close friends and family.
    Any man who has grown up has had it smashed into him the hard way – the world doesn’t give a fuck about you. Whining and moaning make it worse.
    This only works as an approach for women.

    Cf. Tranny men who are presenting as women. There’s a group discussion with Ben Shapiro where one of these threatens to send Ben home in an ambulance because of their disagreement. Which is typically male behaviour.

    *At least, none I know. But I grew up in the North of England, went to uni in Scotland and live in North East Wales (scousers everywhere).
    Things may be different in more, erm, metropolitan areas…

    • Cherneyy Drakon said: “For me, this is a perfect example of how trans people never really change.”

      I had a similar incident in my life about a year ago. A local trans type MTF who I was acquainted with noticed at an event that my kid was picking sparkly non gender confirming clothes out of a dressing up box. They tried to claim that my kid was ‘trans’, to which I replied no he just likes dressing up to play various characters and he don’t care whether the character is a boy or a girl one. An argument ensued between me and the trans which got quite heated and with me saying ‘there is no third sex in humanity just check the fossil record’. To which the trans type replied ‘I’ll smash your face in you bigot’. This is an example of extremely male behaviour and not the behaviour of a natal woman. No matter how well this trans passed they still could not keep the male pattern aggression down.

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