Post by unanimous on Mar 4, 2012 11:04:18 GMT 3
Dear Expensive Coffee Machine,
I have been using you for the past three years, I feel that we are close now and just more than pals. I feel that we have already gone beyond the user-producer stage in our relationship, and that I can talk more openly to you now. Together, we have made coffee for nice people, funny people, grumpy people, rude people, polite people, schizophrenic people, the deaf and the mute - and we have conquered them all!man and machine! They all went away and come back ordering the same thing, repeating what we say day in and day out, and we both pretended it is the first time we have said it, every day is a new day, as fresh as the coffee we both make! We both dealt with people who assumed their 16-worth of coffee comes with the barrista's soul and dignity. We have both patiently listened to people complain that McDonalds serves them faster (lunch hour, more people are ahead of them) - and yet here they always are! We both just nodded quietly and continued to make coffee even though inside we both screamed: WE ARE NOT A MCDONALDS! you my expensive coffee machine is fancy! We both create our coffee with care, love and tenderness. We both agreed that a majority of these patrons might not just be ready for your cousin, the drip coffee maker, no matter how pretentious they can sometimes be. Imagine the chaos!
But yesterday, my boss told me that I shall continue, for the next three years, making the same coffee, mopping the same floor, wiping the same table - but he will still pay me the same amount they have been paying me the past three years: 1150. I am glad to have a job, be with you my expensive coffee machine, and live here relatively peacefully. But there is something that I don't understand: They are bringing in new people to use and they will pay them 1500. But for why?
I have quietly and lovingly done my job, not complaining if my salary is late, I just took solace in that even though they are late and grumpy when I ask why my salary is late (which I only did once!)and why they have my passport even with the department of labor saying it is not legal - you ECM was never ever late, and definitely not grumpy. There were times you got sick, you still tried to produce coffee, but after 2 hours, we had to give you rest and get repaired. There were times when I was sick and my manager still made me work two shifts - and because I did not die he said: You see, you are not sick!! We stood by each other's side through all these shenanigans - me and you, my expensive coffee machine, and my 1150.
But now.....this 350 difference is making me question everything in my life! Have we not done well enough? Did i not put enough cream? sugar? Did I not yell good morning/afternoon/evening!have a nice day! to people who do not even care or look up to see we actually exist beside coffee - was I not loud enough? Cheerful enough? Does the new barrista have a louder voice? Is that really necessary to make coffee and serve coffee? I can shout louder if need be! Does he have something in his hands that will make the coffee, we both make, extra special? I do not hate the new barristas, he seems nice, and it is not his fault he has that salary - I am happy for him! I will be happy with that salary too! But everyday I see him/them new ones, I see an extra 350 that is not apparently in my worth as a barrista. They can give it to new people, why not to me who have already proven my worth and contribution? Why are our sofas so ugly? Why dont people understand what no smoking means? Why does this customer insist on watching me while I make her ordinary coffee - was she abused as a child? Did she read the book The Help and is paranoid now? Why do people think they are special when they make ridiculous specifications with their coffee when it does not make a difference in the taste? why? why? why?
But I have no choice right now. I have to sign the new contract. I wanted to write to the labor department and ask for help even just for the delay in the salary, for my passport, because I read in the newspaper that they have been doing all these wonderful things and are helping protect workers from abuse and prevent human trafficking. But I tried and the website is not simple enough for the likes of me, my expensive coffee machine. I have to register my full name, and be directed to this other page and so on and so on. Cant they just have a drop box or something where I can write my story anonymously and one of their employees look it up and check on the employment practices? They do understand that the abused are often abused and further abused because we are afraid it could get worse for us if the abusers find out that we complain, right? If I quit and hope to find a new employment somewhere, I cannot come back for sometime because even if I did my job well, they will not give me this specific sheet of paper.
In all these, my expensive coffee machine, I am taking a lesson from that first man, the real one, the russian, who landed in the moon. Apparently, when he landed in the moon, there was a loud clicking sound in the spaceship and he couldnt find the cause/source of it. it kept click! click! click! and he already went short of dismantling the entire spaceship just to find the cause. He knew it will drive him crazy soon enough! but it will be sometime before he can go back to earth. So what he did....he closed his eyes...and imagined the clicking sound a symphony...until all he can hear is music and the annoying cilck click click sound disappeared. So....should I imagine you ECM as my spaceship? should we recreate the entire scene and you let me dismantle you, I close my eyes while I serve steaming hot coffee to people and I hum a Beethoven? How do you think my boss will feel about that if I told him it was the russian astronaut and the 350 difference that made me do it? Will you stand by me then?
I have been using you for the past three years, I feel that we are close now and just more than pals. I feel that we have already gone beyond the user-producer stage in our relationship, and that I can talk more openly to you now. Together, we have made coffee for nice people, funny people, grumpy people, rude people, polite people, schizophrenic people, the deaf and the mute - and we have conquered them all!man and machine! They all went away and come back ordering the same thing, repeating what we say day in and day out, and we both pretended it is the first time we have said it, every day is a new day, as fresh as the coffee we both make! We both dealt with people who assumed their 16-worth of coffee comes with the barrista's soul and dignity. We have both patiently listened to people complain that McDonalds serves them faster (lunch hour, more people are ahead of them) - and yet here they always are! We both just nodded quietly and continued to make coffee even though inside we both screamed: WE ARE NOT A MCDONALDS! you my expensive coffee machine is fancy! We both create our coffee with care, love and tenderness. We both agreed that a majority of these patrons might not just be ready for your cousin, the drip coffee maker, no matter how pretentious they can sometimes be. Imagine the chaos!
But yesterday, my boss told me that I shall continue, for the next three years, making the same coffee, mopping the same floor, wiping the same table - but he will still pay me the same amount they have been paying me the past three years: 1150. I am glad to have a job, be with you my expensive coffee machine, and live here relatively peacefully. But there is something that I don't understand: They are bringing in new people to use and they will pay them 1500. But for why?
I have quietly and lovingly done my job, not complaining if my salary is late, I just took solace in that even though they are late and grumpy when I ask why my salary is late (which I only did once!)and why they have my passport even with the department of labor saying it is not legal - you ECM was never ever late, and definitely not grumpy. There were times you got sick, you still tried to produce coffee, but after 2 hours, we had to give you rest and get repaired. There were times when I was sick and my manager still made me work two shifts - and because I did not die he said: You see, you are not sick!! We stood by each other's side through all these shenanigans - me and you, my expensive coffee machine, and my 1150.But now.....this 350 difference is making me question everything in my life! Have we not done well enough? Did i not put enough cream? sugar? Did I not yell good morning/afternoon/evening!have a nice day! to people who do not even care or look up to see we actually exist beside coffee - was I not loud enough? Cheerful enough? Does the new barrista have a louder voice? Is that really necessary to make coffee and serve coffee? I can shout louder if need be! Does he have something in his hands that will make the coffee, we both make, extra special? I do not hate the new barristas, he seems nice, and it is not his fault he has that salary - I am happy for him! I will be happy with that salary too! But everyday I see him/them new ones, I see an extra 350 that is not apparently in my worth as a barrista. They can give it to new people, why not to me who have already proven my worth and contribution? Why are our sofas so ugly? Why dont people understand what no smoking means? Why does this customer insist on watching me while I make her ordinary coffee - was she abused as a child? Did she read the book The Help and is paranoid now? Why do people think they are special when they make ridiculous specifications with their coffee when it does not make a difference in the taste? why? why? why?
But I have no choice right now. I have to sign the new contract. I wanted to write to the labor department and ask for help even just for the delay in the salary, for my passport, because I read in the newspaper that they have been doing all these wonderful things and are helping protect workers from abuse and prevent human trafficking. But I tried and the website is not simple enough for the likes of me, my expensive coffee machine. I have to register my full name, and be directed to this other page and so on and so on. Cant they just have a drop box or something where I can write my story anonymously and one of their employees look it up and check on the employment practices? They do understand that the abused are often abused and further abused because we are afraid it could get worse for us if the abusers find out that we complain, right? If I quit and hope to find a new employment somewhere, I cannot come back for sometime because even if I did my job well, they will not give me this specific sheet of paper.
In all these, my expensive coffee machine, I am taking a lesson from that first man, the real one, the russian, who landed in the moon. Apparently, when he landed in the moon, there was a loud clicking sound in the spaceship and he couldnt find the cause/source of it. it kept click! click! click! and he already went short of dismantling the entire spaceship just to find the cause. He knew it will drive him crazy soon enough! but it will be sometime before he can go back to earth. So what he did....he closed his eyes...and imagined the clicking sound a symphony...until all he can hear is music and the annoying cilck click click sound disappeared. So....should I imagine you ECM as my spaceship? should we recreate the entire scene and you let me dismantle you, I close my eyes while I serve steaming hot coffee to people and I hum a Beethoven? How do you think my boss will feel about that if I told him it was the russian astronaut and the 350 difference that made me do it? Will you stand by me then?