That Saturday morning, the bakery was packed to the brim. As a hostess, I stood between the crowds that spilled out the front door and the services they desired. People squeezed up to me as they waited to enter the restaurant, and I was tasked with trying to organize and calm the customers without overburdening my fellow employees. A table set for four people opened up, and I directed a party of four to their seats. As I turned, a tall man began cursing at me, adamant that the table in question was supposed to be for his party of two. I was an idiot, he said — incompetent, rude and disrespectful to the customers.
This story is neither absurd nor incredibly abnormal. I also work as a waitress and barista, and I could regale you with another dozen similar experiences. Though I have never witnessed anything at Dartmouth that compares to the dehumanization I felt at my job, the careless disregard that students bring to FoCo and King Arthur Flour shows a similar failure to recognize Dartmouth’s service staff as people.
Students in FoCo regularly leave food on the table or fail to put silverware in the bin when bussing their plates. The floor of the Courtyard Café often has napkins and other trash pushed underneath chairs. Sauces stain the tabletops. I rarely hear students ask how their cashier is doing or thank their barista for making that vanilla chai. If a pizza delivery is 10 minutes late, students suddenly lose the desire to leave a tip. These behaviors disrespect workers because they reveal a failure to recognize that these employees exist outside of their place of work.
I doubt that anyone on campus truly thinks less of service workers. Unintentional disrespect, however, is still disrespect. Being distracted or frustrated does not excuse treating service workers badly. When someone steps behind a counter, he or she should not be stripped of his or her humanity.
As students, our lives are never calm. Combine the demands of our academic classes with the intensity we bring to extracurricular activities, and the daily interactions we have with Dartmouth’s service staff can seem trivial or unworthy of our additional energy. But as someone with experience in these types of positions, I disagree.
During rush periods at my service jobs, I experience just as much stress (if not more) than I do as a student. It is not as easy and painless a job as it may appear — you try making seven specialized lattes along with three brewed coffees and five different kinds of teas while over a dozen people stare at you impatiently, if they look at you at all. With most customers, there is barely even a simple hello.
So the next time your KAF barista gives you whole milk instead of soy, take a step back. Remember their other pressures — bosses, customers and just trying (and, more often than not, succeeding) to keep a smile on their face. Remember that these workers are typically on their feet rushing around for hours on end while juggling 100 different tasks.
Even when everything goes smoothly, ask your cashier or barista how the day is going. Chat with the workers at the Courtyard Café and Collis. It is as simple as realizing that others have their own lives and problems, regardless of the side of the counter on which they stand.
