That’s (Coffee) Grounds For Grumpiness
I’ve told a few cafeteria stories here. This morning, I went in for my oatmeal. They had it. It’s about all they had, so I felt lucky. But the coffee was empty! That’s at least a third of the motivation for using a meal swipe.
Me: “Excuse me, miss, is some one available to start some coffee?”
The employee turned to consult with a student worker.
Student: “What? Seriously? I just made some!”
He made me show him that it was fully empty. He took the thing out that holds the grounds.
Student: “I’ll have some more going, don’t worry.”
I felt lucky that I would be getting coffee. It has been drinkable in the mornings lately.
I came back over a few minutes later.
Student: “It should be good to go now.”
I made two mugs because the area was closing for the morning.
It was not worth drinking. Technically, it was drinkable if my life depended on it. They’ve served worse. But it was just water and grounds, as if he had just used the old grounds.
I had to sneak past the guy to the dish area with my two full mugs of brown water because I didn’t want him to feel bad.
At lunch, one of the career workers was talking to me, and I mentioned it.
Worker: “Yeah, that’s probably exactly what happened, honestly. They don’t train anyone anymore. And we are really short-staffed, so the students often just have to guess how they are meant to do things.”
Me: “That’s really unfair to them. I’ve been in that situation, and I hated it.”
Worker: “I agree. It’s awful. I do have to wonder about some of these guys, though. I guess I can’t assume it is common sense that one would have to put in new coffee grounds to make a new pot of coffee. He should have been trained. But…”
Me: “That would be critical thinking. But that can be hard if someone is tired. At my first coffee shop job, I wasn’t trained, and when closing one night, I was told to do the dishes. I didn’t know about the dishwasher, so I just did them by hand. It can be hard to know which decisions are dumb.”
Worker: *Laughs* “Fair enough!”
I can’t get the memory of the brown water out of my mouth, so I hope he gets trained. At least the oatmeal was good. That’s all that matters.