The Madness is Spreading!

Consider this to be a ghost written Rant: today I’m writing about an Episode that my sister recently had at a Dunkin’ Donuts and it sounds like I’ve thoroughly warperd her mind after years of subtle influence. Actually, it’s something I would have done, given the recent decline in the quality of attitude in Dunkin’ workers – a growing number of them are barely considered “alive” these days. It’s not all of them but there are enough to make my sister’s recent Rant justified.

For the rare person that hasn’t ordered a breakfast from Dunkin’ Donuts, it works like this: you order a sandwich and then a coffee. For the most part anyway: I usually end up with just coffee and other people might go with a coffee roll instead of a bagel, but whatever. More often than not, when you get to the counter you’re asked “May I help you?” and you place your order; shortly there after, you leave with food and drink in hand.

Hah. That’s what used to happen. Now it’s become a lengthy transaction that causes you to repeat your order at least three times. Why? That’s what made my sister snap:

Dunkin’ Worker: “Can I help you?”

My Sister: ‘Yeah, can I please get a sourdough bagel, un-toasted with plain cream cheese.’

Worker: “Anything else?”

Sis: ‘Yeah, may I also have a medium coffee, light, three sugar please.’

Worker: “Ok. You wanted a bagel? What kind?”

Sis: *sigh* ‘Sourdough.’

Worker: “Ok. Butter or cream cheese?”

Sis: *ire rising* ‘Cream cheese.’

Worker: “Toasted?”

Sis: ‘NO.’

[Up to now this is normal, sadly. Countless times before I’ve lived this myself. Workers ask for your order and ignore it the first time around – I’ve even placed the order twice at a drive thru and got all the way up to the window, only to have to repeat it another two times there as well]

Worker: “Did you want anything else?”

Sis: ‘YES. A MEDIUM COFFEE, LIGHT, WITH THREE SUGARS.’

Worker: “Ok. What size?’

[My sister’s sanity snaps, almost audibly]

Sis: ‘Why did you ask me?’

Worker: “Excuse me?”

Sis: ‘I said, why did you ask me? You asked me what I wanted when you first waited on me. Then you made repeat the entire order a second time. Why did you ask me when you obviously weren’t listening? Then you ask me about the coffee again – I tell you how I want it a second time and you ignored me again!’

Worker: “Err.”

Sis: ‘So why did you ask me if you obviously weren’t listening to me? Do you know how annoying it is to have to repeat your order three times?’

Worker: “Here’s your coffee; pick up your food over there

This could have easily been me, frankly. My problem in most fast food places is that I’ve been there. I’ve worked in fast food for years – and might be back there again before the year is out! – and have had any number of unreasonable, obnoxious, and rude customers, but one thing was always constant: I rarely fucked up an order. When someone came to my drive thru, if I couldn’t hear them, I asked them to come to the window. I wouldn’t make them repeat the order to the speaker three times and then replay the whole charade again at the window – or worse, just give them the wrong order because I was just guessing. When someone gave me an order at the front counter and I had zoned or couldn’t keep up, I would stop them straight away. The simple fact was that this rarely happened: I just paid attention and did my job with enough pride to want to get it right.

The question that comes to me about this trend of incompetence is a pointed one. Is this happening just in the northeast US – where people are generally miserable in their jobs, if not over all – or is it nationwide? I mean it’s quite obvious that most people that are working around here in retail these days are quite miserable and are willing to share their misery with the mass public. I also wonder if it might just be a general decline in the pride people have in their work… I rarely saw it in my co-workers when I worked retail, but the nation could have changed in ten years, after all.

Either way, the moral of the story is don’t screw with my – or my sister’s – coffee.


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