The jury remains out…for now, as I too work in the Customer Service field so I have sympathies with the other side which is really being put to the test tonight. My home remodeling has decided to happen at the convergence of two shit storms: The Austin market being worse than normal in terms of demand (thanks Californicators) and CV-19 leading to the Great Resignation as demo’d by getting someone with half a brain at F&D. Ergo, I’m at the mercy of the contractors for the former and the return of Austin Time on the latter.
Let me explain Austin Time further. It’s a cousin of Hawaii’s Aloha Time, Irish Punctuality and how clocks are just a loose guideline in Latin America. When I moved here 28 years ago, my adopted home had horrendous, entitled service and it was probably thanks to Hippies. Everybody here had a story about how their waiter/waitress disappeared in the middle of their dining experience. It happened to me on my first night out with Doc and Eiko! Plus employees often greeted you with a surly “yeah, whatcha’ want?” or “hurry up, I have plans tonight!” Meanwhile, you weren’t allowed to ignore the tip jar. King of the Hill mocked it multiple times.
Those of you who know me are aware of how much I’ve mellowed since I was a teen or young adult in his obnoxious twenties. Even without my matador skills that I deploy daily at my job, I’m 99% of the time polite with service/retail workers. I get it, your gig sucks ass, the pay isn’t great and many other Amerikans have hairline triggers. Believe me, I never envied the wait staff serving my grandparents who forgot about the Emancipation Proclamation.
However, the executive caste-holes running Floor & Decor need to get their collective shit together. The Parmer/I-35 store was poorly understaffed. We said, screw this and booked it to the Braker Lane location which was nominally better. A very nice person took the order after I showed I had been approved for credit. They were probably exhausted from the phone call they were taking before me in person. I felt for them and the previous person who irked Jennifer with the statement, “I’m off the clock, I can’t help you.” I prefer them to have what little labor-law protection they get in Neo-Confederate Texas than to get pissed at them exercising what few rights they’re allowed.
Once the order was in place, we breathed relief and enjoyed dinner via Culver’s! The real thing from Wisconsin.
Today, my blood pressure shot back up. I paid the $350 to F&D for delivery of the materials. They had a week to prep the materials for shipping and transport. I even took the day off from work to be here for the truck. Their website was no help, only Wal-Mart-level AI answers, not humans. Calling was equal to running a half marathon but when I got a human, I found out the order wasn’t even started. The half-assed compromise I received from the manager was the night crew would put it together and the stuff will be at my house Monday at the earliest, they don’t do weekends. Now I have to tell the contractor, don’t bother with Monday, there’s no stuff to install.
The whole experience is filling me with dread about the near future. Given the greed and amoral nature of Amerikan Kapitalism, the nation’s true religion, the small gains Labor is winning in the Service Industry will be short lived because the long-term goal of replacing the people with robots is getting fast-tracked. Self-driving trucks, robot bell-hops for hotels and a kiosk to take an order with a hotline to a person who can answer the harder questions since AI isn’t there yet. I’m impressed with how much sooner laborer-bots are coming along as they’ll accompany the trucks.
Now I’m going to numb myself of the immediate dread on how long Jennifer and I will be living in a hotel and how much vacation I’m losing.