Crafting caffeinated beverages and slinging flakey pastries at Chromatic Coffee in Santa Clara, the baristas and roasters who served the front lines say they expected growing pains when the cafe reopened under a new name in early 2020.
The newly dubbed Paper Moon Coffee, which split into its own brand at the same location along Stevens Creek Boulevard, centered its business around a mission to support the South Bay’s community inside and outside its doors. However, that transition—unknowingly at the onset of a global pandemic—came with its own logistical and managerial issues, eventually leading to the exodus of numerous employees.
Baristas formerly employed with the Santa Clara coffee house told San Jose Inside that feelings of being overworked and undervalued stem from a phenomena continuing to beset the service industry: a lack of empathy around mental health.
Sara, who requested to withhold their last name to speak candidly about experiences working at the cafe from February 2020 to May 2021, says they saw first-hand how the mental wellness of many of their fellow employees hinged on feeling validated in the workplace by managers and ownership, especially at an establishment that boasts a staff of transgender and nonbinary workers, as well as folks who are neurodivergent.
Unfortunately, after management of the still-developing cafe asked its crew how to communicate better, they said not even rudimentary resources on the subject proved helpful.
“Nobody in that meeting read the materials, even going as far as saying, ‘Just tell me what I have to do,’” Sara says. “You want a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but when I told them that [communication] can vary from person-to-person, they just kind of moved past that.”
The coffee industry is notorious for back-to-back shifts and longer hours, leading to high turnover rates—for both entry-level baristas and long-term managers—but the Covid-19 pandemic and its accompanying restrictions and prejudices exacerbated issues for cafes across Santa Clara County.
Guests have often disregarded the indoor mask mandate when coming picking up their coffee, said Chromatic Coffee barista Zoe Martin. The waves of people coming into the coffee house near downtown San Jose grew as the pandemic dragged on, they said, to the point where they started to feel resentment for the guests.
“I continue to mask whenever I'm out in public and I don't dine out, which is extremely rare because I'm still very cautious,” Martin said. “I don't understand—why don't customers adopt that same sense of caution and care for me?”
Describing the potential exposure to Covid-19 through maskless guests as a threat to her safety and her family’s safety. Martin said they had been locking down at her father’s house with her brother and sister before she was able to move into an apartment.
Another symptom of the pandemic, concerns about mental wellbeing clashed with a rising number of hate crimes and incidents against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the spring.
Former Starbucks barista Arthur Arboleda says he was subjected to racist slurs from a guest while working at a Cupertino location. When a woman began yelling at a group of regular customers outside the coffee shop, Arboleda intervened and tried to scare off the maskless aggressor; that’s when she turned her ire toward him.
“She called me a dirty Korean over and over again, saying I didn’t belong in this country and we should’ve been kept in camps,” Arboleda wrote in a May 28 Instagram post. “I tried to keep calm but I also thought about all of the potential guests she could be endangering by yelling this much. I put both my hands on her shoulders and forced her outside and held the doors closed while my barista called for 911.”
Arboleda says the managers at his Starbucks location suggested he take an unpaid leave of absence to recover emotionally from the ordeal that left him traumatized.
But describing a lack of support from management after they refused to accommodate his new schedule amid his wellness break from work, the barista stated he retained an attorney to represent his case. Arboleda did not respond to requests for further comment regarding his situation.
“I hated that I had to deal with her on my own, despite the cafe being full of people that could intervene or even record the situation. No one intervened,” Arboleda continued online. “Now, I don’t feel safe at work.”
Rovina Nimbalkar, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Clara County chapter’s executive director, says any job involving dealing with the public every day can get stressful, and the financial instability that came along with constant openings and closings throughout the pandemic has only added to the pressure.
“I think all of us have paid more attention to mental health in the last one and a half years like no other,” Nimbalkar says. “That’s because it impacts not only people with a [mental illness] diagnosis, but everybody.”
Locally, she said NAMI fields numerous requests from corporations to give presentations on mental health—whether that means explaining the basics of talking about wellness in the workplace or detailing ways to create a space for employees to feel comfortable reaching out to management for resources.
“One of the things we want to do at NAMI is normalize being able to express to your boss or your supervisor or your manager how you feel, like if you're feeling stressed out or if you have a mental health diagnosis,” Nimbalkar said. “It should be done without making any assumptions that it might impact job performance. Workers shouldn't feel scared to disclose that information.”
Sara says the combination of ineffective communication with colleagues at Paper Moon Coffee and the continued mistreatment they’ve faced as a Chinese-American was just too much; after working on-and-off in the coffee house industry for the past seven years, including a stint as a roaster, Sara doesn’t plan on returning for the sake of retaining her emotional wellbeing.
“It was just so bad, I probably might not ever go back.”
Reading this article makes you fear for the future – Retitle it “Everyone is a VICTIM”.
Seems like today’s youth are Coddled & Brainwashed.. Victimhood, Envy & Entitlement are the New Norm..
They prefer claiming some transgression and want some “easy way” of life..
They consider proven successful values of..Personal Responsibility, Self Sufficiency & Hard Work..
to be “Micro-Aggressions”.
They didn’t learn or understand that “Paying your FAIR SHARE” applies to Earning an Education- Working Hard in School, in a Valued Major or Trade Skill to become a PRODUCTIVE Member of Society..
“the mental wellness of many of their fellow employees hinged on feeling validated in the workplace by managers and ownership…” — Sara (paraphrased by author)
What was it that sent these young people out into the world expecting to be “validated” by others? Was it weak parents, incompetent teachers, social harm, mental illness, or some combination thereof? When I think back to my first jobs I recall the validation precisely, as it was in dollars and cents per hour, just as I was raised and educated to expect. I also remember that in selling my labor by the hour I encountered some unpleasant bosses and working conditions, which forced me to examine them (the degree of unpleasantness, my need of the job, the availability of other options, etc.) and make a decision regarding what to do. In the process I suffered for my bad decisions, benefited from the good ones, and matured considerably.
Looking for validation in all the wrong places is a recipe for personal failure and crippling depression. Such people should set their speed dials to suicide prevention hotlines.
Contrary to what Mr. Blowhard Resource Management commented in the #2 spot, merely possessing a job (being paid for showing up) is not the same as being a productive member of society (being paid for services rendered). In the former, the only beneficiary is the unproductive employee; in the latter, those in need of the services offered also benefit.
There is a reason those capable of only showing up fare best when working for the government.
Phu Tan Elli, Entirely On Point!.. Imagine if the Founders chose Crayons, Cookies, Crying & Safe Spaces?
.. Versus …Personal Responsibility, Self Sufficiency, Sacrifice and Hard Work..
“The America established by our Founders Believed that Most People Valued their Liberty Above All Else.
People were Expected to be Independent, Resourceful, Responsible, Religious, Fair-Minded and PROUD of their Heritage.
For the most part, the folks who have a Conservative Outlook are such people. ” ….
…
As you Mature..
“You come to see how Reality Does NOT Match the Liberal Prescriptions that you were fed in school.”
…
Who Can Resist the Liberal Brainwashing? (canadafreepress)
“Sara, who requested to withhold their last name to speak candidly about experiences working at the cafe from February 2020 to May 2021, says they saw first-hand how the mental wellness of many of their fellow employees hinged on feeling validated in the workplace by managers and ownership, especially at an establishment that boasts a staff of transgender and nonbinary workers, as well as folks who are neurodivergent.”
I seem to be reading a different article than the one a lot of the back and forth in the comment section.
I do not think it is a surprise that these employees are struggling from stress, it does seem quite consistent with many of these “virtue signaling” workplaces, as “virtue signaling” is frequently employed to cover up cruel and manipulative behavior, and it certainly is employed to cover up via distraction outright corruption and rent seeking in bay area politics.
The fact that these employers specifically hired “divergent” likely signals predatory behavior, especially if these so-called divergent are finding it difficult to gain employment elsewhere. Like the coach or teacher who singles out the neglected child and uses hot and cold grooming techniques to control and manipulate those said kids, bending them to their will.
“Hinged on feeling validated” is kind of a tell. My bosses had always made it clear to me – work is about trading labor for cash, you want friend, get a dog, you want to own, buy a house. I was never much for nonmonetary accolades nor do I believe any compliments. These “empathic” managements styles are just manipulation, which is why empaths are frequently grouped with fortune tellers and psychics. If I can “feel your pain”, I can control you, period.
I think you see this type of manager in many organizations where profit is not the central driver, e.g. NGOs, government bureaucracies, craft breweries, artistic endeavors, etc. Every place I worked was a grindhouse – earn and you get paid and given a wide birth, don’t earn and you get the door. Brutal but honest, and I could give two shakes about what anyone thought of me, cause the number don’t lie.
If you sit around wishing the boss liked you, or your mental health “Hinged on feeling validated”, rest assured they know that, you were probably hired because they want that, and they are probably using that to get their kicks on making you suffer or worse.
smh
you dont have a clue about how I run my business or how I treated my employees or anyone else, but I have watched chumps fall for manipulators forever
so, if you think empathy doesnt frequently lead to abuse, youre in denial
as far as work or dont work, the moratorium will end and you’ll have to start paying rent again, dont worry people will work
What? the multi-degreed local expert on every topic, StevenG, is a DEADBEAT?
..Figures.
so this proves Im abused, no no no this proves Im an abuser, whatever, think what you like
but fine lets say all thats true, that changes nothing
If im a victim of abuse, then I would say whenever I got abused it started when someone sacrificed the truth to be kind
or
im an abuser and if:
I wanted to abuse my employees, I would hire them based on immutable attributes that are generally associated with societal alienation, recruit them not on any measurable skillset but as a vitue signal, and then make my subjective assessment of their proformance the only meassure of their competence
I wanted to increase my property value I would saddle new development with $100ks in cost and call it inclusionary to pay for problems my current ownership created
I wanted to distract the public of my corporate takeover of single family homes resulting in the mass denail of homeownership and monopolistic jacking of rent for POCs after I already disproportionly foreclosed on them, I would make my employees take CRT training to decolonize their minds of the white supremacy of capitalism
I were a governor or congressman and wanted to help a company, say like Blackrock, buy up real estate cheap, I would make it illegal to collect rent while simultaneously withholding rent relief and call it saving brown bodies from homelessness
either way, abuser or abused, in doesnt matter, the techniques are the same
so, my gift to all the abused out their is my wisdom, never fall for someone line of bs when they would rather be kind than truthful and call it empathy
another clear tell of a abusive manipulator:
one – levy personal attacks like:
NOT HIM, YOU CLEARLY ARE ABUSIVE
two – claim victimhood:
“WOW! YOU ALL ATTACK ME”
three – misrepresent others statements:
“ALL I DO IS PROVE MY LANDLORD FAILED TO MAINTAIN THE PROPERTY?”
when caught in a classic fork justifying his shafting of his landlord out of rent for what a year now? No one cares about your “lawsuit”
if I were an abuser – that’s how I’d debate
and if I were abused – that’s how I would get debated
StevenG complains on another comment string “WILL YOU PLEASE STICK TO THE TOPIC, YOU KEEP GOING OFF ON TANGENTS.” but has to bring up his rent grifting repeatedly?
Like our Failing Governor Gavin New(TAX)som he has RULES for THEE but NOT for ME attitudes.
Another reason to:
Vote YES to RECALL Gavin Newsom and then VOTE for Diversity in Sacramento Politics.
Another Newsom GRIFT Gift:
“French Laundry Restaurant Where Newsom Dined Received Over $2.4 Million in PPP COVID Loans”
This was 17 times more than what the average Bay Area restaurant received from the PPP.
Though empathy can indeed be a tool for connivers of all kinds, it may today be the case that more employees are damaged over the long term by employers who extend them a genuine but excessive amount of empathy. This didn’t used to be true, back when bosses understood they shouldn’t behave like mommies; but with employees bringing more and more feelings into the workplace bosses have been pushed into unknown territory.
I’ve held a number of jobs and from all I made some money, learned something, and came away a more valuable commodity. But never did I receive any lasting benefit from a boss who was focused on his employees personal problems, tolerated lateness or sloth, overlooked unprofessional conduct, or ignored the bottom line (be it customer service, production, or whatever). The fact that empathy, if at all in evidence, was so rare as to be unexpected, prevented me and my coworkers from ever counting on it or being disappointed by its absence.
To be lost in your work can mean many things, but for the young who are excessively self-obsessed, hampered by anxiety, or prone to squandering their free time, having a place to forget yourself, turn off the outside world, and surrender to the structured expectations of others can be resuscitating. A place of emotional stillness. It can also be a place that, by forcing you to check your neurosis at the door, you can begin to understand the high price that comes with being self-centered and undisciplined.
But the workplace can’t be those good things if your employer nurtures your every dysfunction and becomes just one more of the enablers you’ve collected along the path to your own unhappy state.