Labor of Love

I was at IKEA yesterday, getting their cheap breakfast. 99 cents for eggs, bacon, and potatoes. 99 cents more for a cinnamon bun. 99 cents more for essentially crepes. Coffee free with the meal if you go early enough.

And the coffee. Well, it had run out, and there was someone to refill it. There was a container underneath with coffee filters with coffee grounds already pre-measured. All the person had to do was put it in the container, press the button, and more coffee would be made.

Except.

Except the container had a label "Decaff", or something like it. This made me think it contained decaffeinated coffee. Which would be fine were he refilling the decaf coffee. But he was not. He was filling the regular coffee.

Now assuming I simply didn't misread what was happening, I had to ask why. One possibility was that he didn't drink coffee. Moreover, despite not drinking coffee, he also didn't particularly know the difference between decaf and regular. Coffee's coffee, right? Just stick it in, and turn it on.

To be fair, this would be a colossal error, one borne of knowing very little about the products you serve. I recall, for example, asking for something at a place called Atlanta Bread Company, and the person had no idea what I was talking about when I wanted some kind of muffin or somesuch.

Many such places hire people who've never eaten or drank the product. They know very little of what they are serving. Others are much better. For example, I'm sure Starbucks employees are trained to know the various kinds of coffees. Sure, they're not going to be as expert as someone who's a professional coffee taster, but I suppose it happens.

The issue is expense. If you want to get someone cheap, you're probably also going to get someone whose knowledge is barely enough to do what's needed. This could be basic cleaning or serving. To get more than that, you'd need to find people who know more, and that probably costs you some money.

But I wonder if this is common or not. You think you're getting X, but not really. I know, when I used to get food at drive-throughs, that I would get the wrong order as often as 1 out of every 4 times. You would think keeping track of orders would be easy, but the umpteenth time a customer goes by, and you can't remember which order went with whom.

I recall this horrendous drive-through at McDonald's where the window was on the passenger side. I kid you not. You had to reach across the seat to get the meal. And, then, often you'd be in line, and they wouldn't have even started getting the order until you reached the window. So what was the point of being in a drive-through if you haven't fetched the food to make it orderly?

We have exams that test proficiency of math, science, literature, but it would be interesting to have a three hour test to see the proficiency of people doing their duties at a fast food restaurant. Perhaps that should be required before hiring, I don't know.

What I do know is that if you love what you're doing (or at least, care about what you're doing), you're far more likely to get it done correctly.