Yup, I’m going to rant about a first world problem today. But it matters to me – not more than anything else, or even as much as some things. But in the very moment when it happens, it’s everything. It’s my morning coffee.
My drive into the radio station lands somewhere between a really late night out and a morning so early that even the birds are still sleeping. It’s my little treat to pick up a dark roast Timmies. I take my coffee so seriously and love it so much that I would rather go without, than drink weak brew. I live by the motto: Life is Too Short for a Bad Cup of Coffee. McDonald’s is always shut down for inventory from 3-4, and Starbucks isn’t open, so Tim’s dark roast it is.
There are three open locations between home and work and I’m getting to know where the lazy employees are, and plan my stops accordingly. Some of them won’t put on a pot of dark roast on until 5 am. I’ve talked to the local managers and head office and they all tell me that dark roast and decaf should both be ready to pour 24/7. Still, each of the three locations has one overnight worker on rotation who refuses to put on a pot until it’s ordered and they want me to sit for five minutes and wait for it to brew. One tells me to “order the original roast, I guess”, and won’t even offer me the dark!
Is it potentially wasteful to have dark roast at the ready, all the time? Yes. Is it company policy to do so? Yes! I have the right to expect it. However, on Mondays I can’t go to one of the locations, the rest of the week I can’t go to another one and the third one – the busiest one – is touch and go.
You might ask, what’s five minutes in the middle of the night? Well, I will reply, your middle of the night is my morning drive-time. I don’t want to sit idle for five minutes at 3:30 any more than anyone else does at 7:30. Neither do I want to make it at home and take it in, or make it in the communal coffee-maker at work. I don’t want to find another way around what I should rightfully be able to expect: a damn cup of coffee. Now I’m memorizing the work schedules of part-time overnighters. If someone has a week off and a new employee fills in, well, I’m potentially screwed.
Tim’s head office says it’s sending me a Tim Card as an apology and a thank you, and reminding those particular outlets of the company standards. I wasn’t looking for free coffee and I know it’s sometimes hard to get good help on crummy shifts. But they’ve also got to fix the system when it isn’t working. A cup of coffee seems like such a small thing, but in my middle-of-the-night world, having it ready-made and good to go is worth its weight in liquid gold.
What would be nice and has been experimented with would be the ability to text in your order before you arrive. This way the pot of coffee can be put on and hot and ready to go when you arrive.