No escaping the sound

“It was in the employee’s interests to know that not everyone wants to know what she did last night”

Speaker’s Corner
Denise Horan

I WENT into a coffee shop at the weekend for a quiet cup of tea, a sandwich and a glance at the paper. It was after 2pm, the lunchtime rush was over and the overall atmosphere of the place was relaxed.
Lunch arrived with little delay and so began what was supposed to be my brief oasis of tranquility in the middle of a hectic day. All was well for 30 seconds or so, until a previously mute girl in the corner decided to make a phonecall. She worked in the coffee shop and was on a break, it quickly emerged from the conversation. I really didn’t need – or want – to know that, but there was no escaping it. There was no escaping either the details of her drinking exploits the previous night, her parents’ reaction to her drunkenness when she got home or the fact that she was ‘wrecked’ and was barely able to keep going at work that day.
With one of the palest complexions in the northern hemisphere and a complete lack of any exotic-looking features, the chances of me being mistaken for a foreigner who spoke a different language were quite remote. Nevertheless, she carried on loudly. Even when I looked over at her briefly, my presence didn’t register on her radar. Probably ‘wrecked’ too from the night before. Either that or she thought I wanted to hear that ‘Dan is bisexual’ and ‘he lost his job because of it’.
Had she explained the latter part I might have been interested, but no explanation was either asked for or given, it was just a source of great hilarity for both parties to the phone conversation. As for the unwitting third party to the conversation, details of anonymous Dan’s sexual exploits were an unavoidable accompaniment to lunch.
I glared again, and again drew no response. Finishing my food quickly, I contemplated telling the manager or supervisor or whoever looked to be in charge (not about Dan specifically, just about the fact that I had intended my newspaper to be my lunch companion, not a hungover member of staff).
After a brief wrestle with my conscience over whether or not it was fair to get the girl in trouble, I decided it was in the management’s interests to know if its customers were being put off by its staff and, in the long run, it was probably in the employee’s best interests to know that not everyone wants to know what she did last night, no matter how fascinating she thinks the details are.
When I got up to register my complaint, I scanned every face to find someone who looked like a member of management, an owner or someone who cared vaguely about what was going on. None of the faces offered any such assurance. So I left, resolving never to return.
I suspect this happens a lot. Because (a) like me, most people don’t bother to complain, and, (b) many people open businesses and expect their staff to manage them, without any direction or any list of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ to guide them.
For my part, I intend to complain in future, not in the really embarrassing, over-the-top way that annoyingly pretentious people do. That is as off-putting as the rudeness or indifference of staff and is usually only done to make the complainant feel powerful. No, I intend to do it in a simple, polite way that makes the point without being condescending. Which is what we should all do. After all, we do pay for the products and services we get.
As for managers and owners of businesses, it is time some of them started taking an interest in how their businesses are being run. It is obvious from mere observation that the businesses that succeed best are the ones that are managed in a hands-on way.
 Just as children are products of their parents’ upbringing and example, so employees are products of their managers’ level of interest and investment in them. And every business is only as good as its staff. Nothing is truer.
My hopes for the future of the aforementioned coffee shop are not high.