I react very badly when mediocrity throws a tantrum of entitlement. – Novelist Lee Siegel
When we last left off last Thursday, we were discussing the underlying lynchpins of the progressive race to mediocrity. The consequences of that absurd contest are a new kind of mediocre entitlement mentality that defies explanation because those vast overestimations of one’s value ultimately lead to self-immolation.
Let’s start with baristas.
But before we do, please let me clearly stipulate that every human being is worthy of dignity and respect until they prove otherwise. The issues herein are essentially reasonable versus unreasonable expectations and just how insidious entitlement mindsets can be in that regard.
And when it comes to “professional” entitlement mentalities, barista sits alone atop the meritless ego power rankings. I can’t begin to comprehend how someone who walks to a coffee pot, pours, and hands you a cup with a lid on it somehow believes they’re worth $17 an hour (average at Starbucks). Then their point-of-sale systems have the cojones to “suggest” a 30 percent to five-dollar tip for an overrated five-dollar cup of coffee.
You know it’s bad when baristas’ TV depiction tends to be a late 20-something male who’s even more insufferable than a maître d at a French bistro who firmly believes he’s god’s gift to humanity, and particularly women. Either that or a snippy young woman who can barely be bothered with customers.
Then they’re shocked when their attempts to unionize result in wholesale firings because any reasonable 10-year-old could do the job. Slinging coffee is intended to be an entry level position on the way to something better. It was never meant to be a career choice.
With the exception of family run places like Luau Coffee in Campton Hills, I refuse to set foot in any of the chains, particularly when I can make a better cup of coffee at home for 90 percent less, and I don’t have to tip me for walking to the pot and back.
Which brings us to servers, who come in a close third place in the “professional” entitlement category contest.
When I see those teenage servers hustling their butts off at the local CPK, I’m always impressed and inspired by their willingness to provide a reasonable dining experience. Better yet, having to endure the American public at that young an age is the kind of life lesson that will serve them very well as their careers move forward.
But it’s also important to note that, with the exception of fine dining establishments, any reasonable teenager – or a robot – can do the job. So, when Chicago servers are pushing for, and getting, minimum wage on top of tips, they’re simply hastening the day when those mechanized waiters take over the industry.
On average, a server costs a restaurant 25 to 30 grand a year, but the Servi robot unerringly toils for just $1,000 a month, and they can do everything a waiter can do except have a bad attitude or call in sick. So, what do you think is going to happen when the Second City fully phases out the subminimum wage in 2028?
Let’s move on to fast food workers.
They may not put their entitlement mentalities on graphic display like baristas and waiters, but their increasingly unrealistic wage demands are swiftly becoming the stuff of legend.
California is set to raise chain fast food workers’ minimum wage to $20 an hour in 2024, which is patently ridiculous when you consider the average American teacher makes just $21 an hour – if you don’t include the vast amount of personal time they put into it. So, someone who’s professional high point is handing you a bag of burgers should make as much as a degreed educator?
Governor Gavin Newsom dismissed the reality that fast-food jobs are entry-level propositions by claiming, “That’s a romanticized version of a world that doesn’t exist.” Yeah, and the reason it no longer exists is states like Illinois and California are forcing companies to pay non-commensurate wages which only serve to keep minorities and women frozen in these dead-end jobs for the rest of their lives.
Ironically, Newsom WON’T sign a similar bill hiking the health care worker minimum wage to $25 an hour because “It would cost the State Medicaid program billions.” Fuckin’ hypocrite.
If you ask me – and nobody ever does – I’d much rather see those fast-food unions and the State put all that time and money into worker retraining or paid junior college tuition so those employees can aspire to something far greater than asking if “you want fries with that.”
Leave it to California to enable workers who made the kind of poor life choices that limit their career possibilities to McDonalds.
Facing an absurd labor cost, California fast food chains will certainly supplant those human beings with automated order kiosks and robot cooks. Don’t laugh, it’s already happening, and consumers will get just as accustomed to that possibility as they have to grocery store self-checkout lanes.
Ah! Then we have the flight attendants.
If it weren’t for baristas, those sky waitresses would singularly sit atop of the “professional” entitlement pyramid. As far as persistent bitching goes, flight attendants reign supreme. Again, we’re talking about the equivalent of servers in the sky. It’s a job a talented chimpanzee could do.
After the airlines stuff you into a seat intended for a hobbit as you sit on the tarmac for hours – if the flight isn’t cancelled outright – and when you finally do take off, they’re more than happy to overserve anyone willing to pay for booze while the passengers are trapped in an aluminum tube hurtling through the upper reaches of the atmosphere at nearly the speed of sound. Then they can’t believe passengers have the nerve to act out or complain?
Again, I’ll never disrespect any of these folks in person, but flight attendants have absolutely NO problem routinely disrespecting passengers because they know they can have them arrested for interfering with a flight crew if they respond in kind.
On the exceedingly rare occasion I do fly, in great part because I don’t want to have to deal with surly sky waitresses, I would happily pay more for a flight attendant-less flight. Robot servers would work just as well in the air, too.
All I can say to all of these overly entitled folk is, mediocrity is something to be avoided, it’s not supposed to be a calling.
Authors Note:
Always on the ball reader Ron Anderson aptly noted what this journalist completely missed. His theory is, not only will soon-to-be minimum wage paid Chicago food servers no longer get tips, but now they’ll have to report their full income to the IRS by payroll tax default.
That prospect gives a whole new meaning to the Shakespearean phrase “hoist by their own petard.”
