I just told 16 that when he gets to UNCW hopefully his customer service work needs to be as a barista in a cafe.
"why?"
Because making the drinks correctly will satisfy you because it requires fiddling properly and you're going to get to know everyone who comes in regularly.
"That sounds amazing."
You will also smell really bad at the end of a shift and it's hard.
16- "I love it."
#CafeStories
So we started talking about my management time in the Borders Cafe.
I said remember this was 2001 and I was actually an HR nightmare in 2023.
Never put your hands on anyone.
Kid - wtf
Me- it was really busy one day and one of my kids was standing at a table and chatting with a regular while the lines kept growing so I walked over, picked her up, and put her down at the register at which point she started ringing up people while I made drinks.
#CafeStories
I said, "Never ever put your hands on someone without permission."
Kid - "It was funny, though."
"It was hilarious. The only reason I wasn't taken to court was because these were my kids and I loved them and they loved me. This is not how retail is done. But there was trust and retail is weird anyway. But establishing that level of trust isn't usual."
My kid starts laughing. "Should I be laughing?"
"As a person who was also an HR manager I would have fired me for doing that. While laughing."