Coffee-Vending Blues

[shanmonster]

Here is the kind of place where I work.

Yesterday (while I was home sick), one of my co-workers had a seizure and fell, banging her head on a counter. She was disoriented and confused, so she was told to go home and rest.

In what world would an employer not send someone with an obvious concussion to the hospital? Yikes. Aren't they concerned about the well-being of their workers? And barring that, aren't they afraid of lawsuits? Being a good little first-aider, I told them how they should have proceded.

And onto the next item....

The company claims to be extremely conscientious about cleanliness and hygiene, and indeed, we never physically touch any of the food. The food is sheltered from our money-dirted fingers by surgical gloves or bits of waxed paper. We cannot wear nail polish or false fingernails in case they should chip or fall into the food.

BUT, the plastic spoons and knives are stored bowl and blade ends up, so we grab 'em with our dirty hands. Same with the coffee stir sticks. Go figure. And they wanted me to keep my asthma inhaler in my tip jar, so the money gets all over the bit that goes in my mouth. Nice.

And then...

Company policy is very strict in that no piercings may be displayed to the sensitive eyes of our discerning clientele, aside from one simple stud per earlobe.

Go back a few days to when I decided to exchange my nose hoop for a tiny, gold ball nose screw. Taking the hoop out took about one hour and involved two big sets of pliers as well as copious amounts of pain and foul language. The hoop was also ruined by all the necessary prying. Putting the screw into my nose took another hour, and caused much more pain as well as violent vernacular outbursts. I covered the ring up with a tiny clear spot bandage, and reported to work.

My bandaged nose seemed to go over just fine.

But this morning, the manager told me that a bandage was unacceptable, and that I'd have to remove both the bandage and the nose screw.

What if someone with ten piercings were to show up to work with ten bandages all over their face? It would be an eyesore. It would be readily apparent that they had ten facial piercings if they wore ten bandages. Similarly, someone with a nose bandage would make regular customers deduce that s/he had a nose piercing.

I told her I was not willing to do this, as it was both excruciating and time-consuming. So she said that I could certainly finish out the day with my bandage, but either the nose ring went, or I did (but she said it nicer than that, because she's actually a real sweetheart).

I felt a small thrill of pleasure. Could this be my loophole? My escape from a fast food career?

I went through the rest of the morning coasting on an air biscuit of happy.

That afternoon, I was called back to the office. "I have good news!" said the manager. "I spoke with head office, and they only just introduced a new policy about facial piercings. A small bandage on the nose is acceptable. And as a supervisor, you should be aware of the policy. No other piercings can be covered by bandages--only one small bandage on the side of the nose. Nowhere else. So you can inform any new staff of this, too."

So an eyesore of a bandage plastered on my face is more aesthetically-pleasing, doughnut- and coffee-vendoring wise, than a tiny and tasteful gold dot.

Damn. There went my out. I'm stuck with the job.

Comments

[longpig.livejournal.com]

So weird. What do people care if the person who hands them a doughnut has a nose ring? O_o

[stuffguy.livejournal.com]

Heh.. That'll teach you. You need more piercings...

At your new job:

[sageincave.livejournal.com]

They like you. They really, really, like you!

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

At the restaurant where I worked in Toronto, the
two girls with whom I waited would use one utensil
from the entire table to scrape everyone's food
into to-go boxes. Or they just use their hands and
lick their fingers between plates.

Food service is a filthy, filthy thing.

I hope you find something new soon, though I know
it's very difficult to find another job while ex-
hausted from working in oppressive environments.
One tends to lose one's self-confidence.

[idiolekt.livejournal.com]

Mental note: never eat again.

[advancedentropy.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's different province-to-province, but I thought it was illegal to discriminate based on physical appearance - which included facial piercings - and that you could complain to the Labour Board. A guy at the Marriott put up a stink and it was found to be within his human rights, since he was otherise clean and neat, that piercings couldnt be disallowed or considered not work-appropriate.

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

Geing germ phobic is a great way to get really, really sick. Admitting that our reality is not the sanitary place it's portrayed to be lets us get on with eating dry-to-moist food that's fallen on the floor, suffer stories like the above without flinching, eat fruit and berries right off the possibly-urinated-on bush, and being able to shake hands with people (which I loath, but not for sanitary reasons). If the germs/contaminants haven't killed you thus far, chances are you're only going to give your immune system a little bit of a refresher, which turns out to be very, very good for you; it's those Lysol-mad, antibiotic-abusing germ-o-phobe types that get really sick (outside hospitals).

Note that I'm not advocating licking public toilet bowls/seats. But then again, if you really wanted to, I'd gladly watch and enjoy my mild nausea. But probably not as much as Shan would, 'cause she's like that. ;-D

/ramble

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

Can you honestly see any public-service corporation being nailed for discrimination if they're standing behind a "respectable self-image" policy that forbids, for instance, facial tattoos? Of course not! Our society still thinks facial tattoos are deviant, though facial piercings are normalizing rapidly (especially as evidenced by this turn of events at Tims, which isn't the most liberal of organizations).

Heh, for real coffee shops, a nose ring/stud is practically part of the uniform. Down at Second Cup, there's only one worker (out of 10 or so that I'm familiar with) who doesn't have one!

[valkryor.livejournal.com]

Note that I'm not advocating licking public toilet bowls/seats. But then again, if you really wanted to, I'd gladly watch and enjoy my mild nausea. But probably not as much as Shan would, 'cause she's like that. ;-D

*giggles*

I spent six weeks last year spending time in one of the dirtiest places imaginable: a children's hospital. I stick with my common sense (like washing my hands after handling raw chicken), but I don't get stupid about it.

Would you be willing...

[slybootz.livejournal.com]

...to purchase a retainer? They're usually made of clear acrylic, such as this one:

http://www.body-jewelry-shop.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=E-7-2&Category_Code=75&Product_Count=1

Re: Would you be willing...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I considered it, but they said that if the retainer is at all visible, then it is unacceptable. And for all the pain and suffering of putting jewellery in and out of my poor schnozz, it's just not worth it.

As it is, my nose is very unhappy with the gold screw, and is swollen all to hell on the inside.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Not a clue, especially when it seems to be pretty much standard attire for barristas at every other coffee shop in the universe.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I guess so!

Can you believe I was contemplating a septum piercing?

It's not going to happen, though. My poor nose is all sore again from the abuse I just put it through. Nose piercings appear to be highly problematic for me.

Re: At your new job:

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think they do. The managers seem to be super nice. They just have to abide by a very conservative policy.