KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 / NEWS / 9
MANNERS
Food-service workers are people, too
Baskin Robbins, Pizza Street, M. Isabella's, Panera, University Book Shop, The Kansan, KU Catering. Over the past seven years, I have worked a part-time job at each of these companies. Some for as many as three years, and one only lasted five hours. However, I learned something from each of them, and while I didn't always enjoy going to work (particularly to open Panera at 5 a.m.), I never begrudged the necessity of having a job.
Working as a student is invaluable. You meet people who don't necessarily go to the same school or share the same interests. Part time jobs teach you social skills, the value of earning your own money, accountability and flexibility.
That being said, in any restaurant or retail store you can tell the difference between a customer who has worked a similar job and a customer who has never been behind the counter. The majority of these in the latter end up doing one or more of the following ignorant things. Here is what NOT to do when interacting with the nametag-adorned people behind the counter:
1. Don't leave a tip, because we're already getting paid, right? This is what we're here for anyway.
Guest columnist
BY CAITLIN THORNBRUGH cthornbrugh@kansan.com
2. Blame us for things completely out of our control; prices, the way the food tastes and the temperature of said establishment.
3. Treat us like we're less than you, like we're not there or like we don't have the power to mess with the food we're bringing you.
4. Talk on the phone while we try to decipher between your conversation about how short Kim's skirt was and how you don't want your soup actually in the bread bowl.
5. Tell us we're wrong about the ingredients in the food item from the menu we had to memorize and have been eating from the entire time we've worked there.
Being disrespectful to the people serving you food is arrogant. A black apron, polo shirt, or goofy hat is not an excuse to abuse or disregard someone.
It's the impression many people get when I tell them about courchsurfing.com, a free hospitality service website with nearly two million members. And it's why most people hesitate to sign up — it sounds dangerous.
Dispelling this common misbelfief is at the core of the second reason I couchsurf. William Butler Yeats' famous quote I spotted on the wall of a small Irish Pub in Hamburg summarizes it best: "There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't yet met."
HOLTZ (CONTINUED FROM 8)
With that in mind, it becomes apparent that couch surfing is far more than a free bed. It's an exponentially growing network of friends. More than 17,000 people signed up
Saving money is why I started couch surfing; meeting new people is why I continue. Sure there are plenty of people to meet at hostels, but such fleeting relationships have a short shelf life in comparison.
To quote Yeats again: "And say my glory was I had such friends."
last week alone.
(Disclaimer; I'm ashamed to say that as I write this column, I sit in the lobby of a hostel. The one downside of couch surfing sometimes it's not always easy to find a host.)
Though I'm considered a newcomer by couch-surfing standards — I just surfed my tenth couch — I can't imagine traveling any other way.
EDITORIAL (CONTINUED FROM 8)
he's receiving. This one (first generation) student introduces a plethora of individuals to the KU brand.
That's different from a student who comes from a chain of Jayhawk grads. If that student's parents and grandparents are alumni, the KU community isn't expanded. Their level of patronage is unlikely to change. If they gave to the University, theyll probably continue. If they didn't, they probably won't start. The student and his network were already familiar with the University. Other than his out-of-state tuition dollars, not much is gained.
There's nothing wrong with continuing family ties. Of course continued loyalty is a good thing. It's easier to create repeat customers than it is to lure in new
But this scholarship congratulates heredity. It rewards students for being part of something they were born into. It's medieval.
customers.
This practice looks eerily similar to sorority and fraternity "legacies," who are given preferential treatment during the recruitment process because of their parents' grandparents' or siblings' participation in the greek organization.
This discount sends the message that those whose relatives went to school here are more valuable, more deserving and more important, when in fact, that's absolutely not the case.
We should build and expand the KU community, not constrain it.
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