At the Cafe of the Kind...
There's a classic science fiction short story called The Country of the Kind by Damon Knight that was published in 1955. The narrator of the story walks around a utopia acting like a huge asshole, disrupting lives and smashing up properties. He thinks of himself as the king of the world because everyone around him is too nice--like enlightened and tolerant and kind--to stand up to him. It's a humane and permissive society, completely free of violence and conflict. For some reason it's reminiscent of Seattle, but that's not why we bring it up.
We bring it up because we were reminded of it by this post at the Starbucks Gossip blog about the "Just say yes" policy at Starbucks. If you're not familiar with "Just say yes" it's the everything answer that Starbucks ingrains into its employees for use when dealing with customers. Whatever the complaint, comment or concern, "just say yes." You get really good customer service with a "just say yes" philosophy. You also get taken advantage of by customers, it turns out. The post at Starbucks Gossip gives employees a venting outlet.
I love Kathy, but when 2/5 trips a week she says she gets this one for free 'cause they messed up her last one...and, well, we know we didn't...it gets hard to hand them that drink with a smile.
Or the 13-year-olds who have discovered this and will come up to the hand-off at a busy moment and tell us that we forgot their frappuccino.
There are two older women who come into my store about 1-3 times a day, everyone knows them and their usual drinks. From time to time, one of them will pick up a merchandise item and ask a barista "Can I use your discount for this?"
Just say yes! It's a tough gig.
At the end of The Country of the Kind it's revealed that the humane and permissive society has excommunicated the asshole narrator. They all completely ignore him and he's allowed no social contact. More, they've physically altered him so that when he attempts violence he has a seizure AND they've made him smell really bad so everyone can tell he's coming. Don't know how that part relates to the "just say yes" policy, but it's a great story anyway.
