My Advice? Suck it up.

A video went viral on Twitter the other day. I don’t have twitter, but I heard it on the radio, and it wasn’t long before this or that site got hold of it, and the youtubers started commenting. I had no desire to see it. But I was eating lunch whilst scanning my subscriptions for something interesting when I found ABL commented on it. I like the the guy. He has a funny style, and it was especially funny hearing a black man comment on it.

Let’s unpack this.

We have a tranny here melting because of what appears to be a bad day at Starbucks. For what it’s worth, my daughter worked for them while in college. From my observation, the employees aren’t treated all that badly. There are certainly worse places to work while in school. They appear to pay well, and have benefits for part timers. My kid made some decent coin working there, and got some experience so that she could work at a local coffee shop up at school, while working for Starbucks on while on vacation. So I know a bit about working there, over an above being a customer back in the day (and even now, from time to time).

I have two observations here. Advice, if you will.

First is, welcome to planet realworld.

You get hired somewhere, it’s expected you’ll work hard through your shift. And, yeah, I get it, it’s retail and customers can be demanding and shitty. It’s the way the field is striped when you’re in the boutique coffee drink business. And as I said before, you could have a far shittier gig while in school, as this person apparently is. I myself worked in a nursing home 8 hours a day, on weekends. End of day, my wing – some 20-30 rooms – had to be cleaned, dusted, floors mopped, bathrooms clean, and hallways mopped.

I also unloaded trucks and worked in warehouses. So yeah, someone didn’t respect your pronouns and insulted you while you were fetching coffee. Try unloading a 45′ trailer, filled front to back, top bottom with bales of peat moss – by yourself, or if lucky, one other person. You don’t leave until it’s empty so the trucker can leave.

You may as well get used to the idea that you’re going to have to work for a living now. Because I can assure you, school is easier. Life can be pretty cruel, even if you don’t have baggage.

Speaking of which, my second thought:

Transitioning to be a man?

Welcome. It’s not gonna be like you thought, sunshine.

First off, men don’t go in the backroom and bubble because they’re having a bad day and their ‘manager’ doesn’t support them. So the manager took themselves off the weekend shift. So what? It’s a shitty move, but one they can make. Doesn’t foster any kind of loyalty from the team, but, there you go. They’ll get theirs. You do the job you were paid to do. Do your job well, maybe you get to be an asshat manager someday. It’s a process.

My reaction would’ve been to notice that the manager did a douche move and took themselves off the schedule without putting another resource on and tell the team that looks like captain douchebag isn’t posting today. I have a talent for bestowing nicknames that stick and that manager would surely get one.

Still, apparently there were four workers there. Don’t know what policy is, but that seems about what I’d see at a Starbucks on a busy morning. One barista, one drive thru, two counter staff. Or one counter, one floater. One of them that my kid worked was drive-thru/walkup only. I think the two or three times I poked my head in there were only three workers. And my kid was hustling.

I was pretty proud of her, to be honest. Working hard and efficient like that.

Lookit, you want to be a man, get used to the occaisional shit sammich. You gut through it. If it sucks too bad, leave. Hell, I spent months working in a TV studio, 8PM to 8AM. I’ve had crappy jobs right and left where I’d wake up, sit on the bed and dread getting up for the beating that surely was coming my way.

You know what I did?

I got a different job. That’s what. Without bubbling whatsoever. Or up and quit, taking a break, finding a job a few weeks later. Big deal.

Another word of advice; you want to be a man, don’t ever whine, complain, or bubble to other men and FFS not on a video for all to see. See the Godfather above. He was being nice. He gave advice. If you’re lucky, dudes will just stare at you in derision and pity, you do that. Some more advice? Want to be a guy? Learn to be an asshole. You don’t need it all the time, but it helps sometimes. Go watch Grand Torino. Clint shows the Vietnamese kid how to do it.

One of the things this person says mid blubber is that this is why they need a union there.

Heh…yeah…that’ll help.

Let me tell you where that goes; They’ll give you a plate and napkin for the shit sammich you’re eating that day and take a bite out of your paycheck for the privilege.

I used to work installing commercial sound systems, in a union shop. I made that arguement once upon a time. That maybe I should file a grievance for the crap I was dealing with that day. Forget what it was, but I’m sure it was as dumb as this spectacle. I was told, point blank, that it would be utterly stupid to do so since we were paid above union scale and the only reason we were a union shop was to be able to work on union jobs in Maryland and DC. My pal there said, do that, and they will go by the book for my dumb ass, and I’d get union scale and hours. But, what the hell, Hans there is the steward. If you want to go be stupid, go for it.

I have a funny story about running into a person in such a state at a Fed-Ex one night when I stopped there with my boss after dinner. He was shocked at my reaction, which started off pissed, curt, but still somewhat polite. It wasn’t until the woman asked for a round two that the unpleasantness happened. I’m certain I blogged about it at the time.

I’ll find it and repost.