Hot take: The best shift I ever had was because of a broken coffee machine

This was about three years ago at the little cafe I used to work at in Tempe. Our main espresso machine went down right at the morning rush, so we could only serve drip coffee and tea. Instead of getting mad, this one regular, a teacher named Mark, just laughed and said 'Well, guess it's a simple day!' and started telling jokes to the whole line. It spread, and for two hours we just had this whole crowd of people talking and being patient while we poured from carafes. It was the most fun I've ever had at a job. Anyone else have a day where a problem somehow made everything better?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronschmidt1mo ago

Totally, just roll with it and people will follow.

simonb921mo ago

We had a power outage at the library where I work that lasted almost four hours. All the computers and self-checkout machines went dark. Instead of sending everyone home, we got out the old paper check-out slips and a few battery powered lanterns. People started talking quietly in the stacks and a few parents just sat on the floor reading picture books to their kids by flashlight. The whole place got this calm, quiet feeling we never have on a normal day. It made me see how all our tech sometimes just gets in the way of people connecting.

betty_price141mo ago

That "calm, quiet feeling" you got at the library really hits home. It's like @cameronschmidt said about rolling with it, these little breaks from the normal routine (like a broken machine or a power outage) force people to look up and actually talk to each other. I see it when the card reader goes down at the store and everyone in line starts chatting instead of just staring at their phones. It's a weird little reminder that we're all just people, you know?