Everyday Stories of Terror, Genocide and Human Rights: The Barista

   Please, do not misunderstand me when I relate the story of an employee of a nationally owned coffee shop in our Baltimore neighborhood as a way to approach the object of our studies – there ARE graver and imminently more violent, more terrifying events and issues to cover. But there are also more everyday approaches to consider, more mundane objects to identify and different perspectives to explore.

   I was just standing in line, waiting to place my order, watching the three clerks or “partners” on the morning shift go about their business, taking customers’ orders, filling them, thanking us for our business, when I asked for water. I ordered a hot drink first, probably a coffee, maybe an espresso or tea, too. But then it struck me that the barista who was serving me pushed a button on his register to make note of the order for a tall water [I assume they do not also make note of the size of the cup of water]. Without looking up, the barista began to explain this computation to one of the other two baristas standing nearby that the water did not cost the customer anything extra (my reaction: whew!), but it was still important to register this transaction for water. So I asked why, after we had completed my transaction, and it turns out that registering water, as my barista explained, is a measure of the baristas’ work, which is used to determine how many baristas the company needs to employ – not (!), I might add, to augment employees’ wages. In response to my follow up questions, other such transactions that require more effort from the worker as well as incur more cost for the owner, but do not result in a higher cost to the customer include using the oven to heat pastries and sandwiches. Other baristas do not always make note of these transactions because they do not cost the customer anything more, but my barista said that his coworkers should note these transactions more often.

   Why (I thought out loud)? Registering more work does not directly benefit the employee – the one who does the extra work - even this minuscule task, taking time and effort to complete it. It means more work and requires workers to police each other in more detail in their work. If there are benefits for the worker, they must be more indirect. Knowing the right number of employees needed for the work, one could argue, may even translate into more workers for more work and therefore, a more humane and socially just corporation – just not more wages. Such measures are clearly intended to increase the efficiencies of the business. in favor for the owner, and perhaps, over time, the benefit of its "partners."  All pennies, but pennies add up. To me, it is just coffee and a free water.