#barista work

[peachybaps]

Customer who says "wait you baristas are like...smart" after asking me about why different techniques for brewing/pulling coffee/espresso creates different flavors and consistenciss

Glad I helped you realize that people in customer service are also smart and worth respect but I think I have to kill you now that I know you saw me as a bumbling idiot who just pours your coffee every day.

[hxnniibee]

im now working as a barista again! i’ll be utilizing @cafedulced more often to talk about work, make sure to give it a follow or i’ll haunt you

[aelder-flower]

Ugh people, when servers say we stop serving at five, that means we are shutting down and would like to go home, we don’t say that so you an have last minute refills and stay for another half hour, we were literally shutting the doors and on our way out and we still had people trying to come in

[thefeministreads]

I must have answered correctly, somehow—I’d stay behind the imitation-vintage espresso machine in that tiny blue storefront for the next four years, through my attendance at a mid-level liberal arts college and for two years after my graduation. I started at eight dollars an hour, plus tips, and received one raise in my time behind the counter; it almost goes without saying, but the only benefits I received were free sandwiches. At the most, I managed 28 hours a week at the shop—adjusting for the tip rate’s seasonal changes, I estimated I made a little under $18,000 a year.

Inside The Barista Class | The Awl 

There is so much debate back and forth on gentrification and the coffee shop, locating it as the wrongly placed symbolic arbiter of neighborhood change and growing inequality. But what about the labor of coffee shops? This is exactly what I liked about Molly Osberg’s narrative; it situated the trendy, hip, and disputed location of the coffee shop in the broader language of low paid, un-benefited labor that is our our generation’s calling card.