The Starbucks Condiment Bar Demonstrates Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Working as a barista isn't the easiest job in the world. Everyone thinks they know how to make coffee because they press a little button on their Mr. Coffees at home. Unfortunately, being a barista is a lot of things, but it's mostly a constant battle between finishing orders and keeping things tidy. Which is why the bane of every barista's shift is the condiment bar. I would know, I was a barista for five years. That's why a post on reddit about customers abusing the condiment bar really resonated with me. 

The post is short and punchy: A regular comes in every single day, adds four raw sugar packets to his coffee, and promptly leaves the sugary detritus behind. Sugar spilled everywhere, packets strewn about, a perfectly clean condiment bar now looks like the cafe equivalent to the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan" — has this man ever cleaned up after himself in his life? There are three trashcans mere inches away.

It doesn't matter if it's Starbucks or your local, ultra-cool craft coffee shop — the condiment bar will be an unmitigated disaster by the second or third customer. This isn't really a "tragedy of the commons" problem, it's a "holy crap, we as a society tolerate bad behavior far too much" problem. No one is so important that they have to leave their trash behind. At the condiment bar we are all equals just trying to get our morning started and we should act like it.

Beyond not having nice things, the condiment bar is the perfect indication that our society often denigrates (and in a way loathes) service workers. From constantly whining about leaving tips to the mandatory Waffle House fight, some patrons seem to lack the basic empathy required to live with others in society. Service work can be backbreaking. It has some of the highest rates of burnout in any industry, which is no wonder since it requires an enormous amount of social intelligence, emotional control, timing, and multi-tasking. Can you remember five drinks in rapid succession, the name and face attached to each drink, keeping track of the pastry you're heating up, while also keeping tabs on surfaces and areas that need cleaning? All while making a quality drink? Baristas, servers, and bartenders can.

To top it all off, the pay is abysmal. Add in the 10 to 12 hour shifts, mandatory holiday work, evenings, weekends, no benefits, and each shift being utterly monotonous ... it makes me wonder why we don't respect this line of work. Without it, society would probably collapse. We are wholly dependent on the service sector to function. So the next time you're dumping sugar into your latte, for the love of all that's holy, just throw away your little packet. The trash can is right there.