Proper Coffe Etiquette

I am not sure why but it really annoys me when I am sitting in Barnes and Noble and I hear people talking on their cell phones and calling this a Starbucks!  It simply does.  I just heard it...a few seconds ago!  There is not comparison.  Barns and Nobel does not take any Starbuck cards or honor any of their specials.  The service is not the same.  The staff at Starbucks treat you and your cup of coffee special.  You know you have been served by a REAL barista at Starbucks. Not the same at the book store  where any clerk can ring you up.

Maybe I am a coffee snob.  I think I might be leaning that way. The staff here at my local Barnes and Nobel are very quick to point out that they are not a Starbucks I any way, shape or form.  That is okay thought.  When I am coming here, I might not  have coffee as the focus. It is normally books with coffee being the after thought. In addition, there simply are not enough outlets here for all the people who want to use their laptops.  Not the case in the newly remodeled Starbucks now equipped with a plethora of outlets. 

Even the clientele of people are different.  The book store is normally filled with students with overstuffed backpacks dressed in emo or punk or drunge.  The Starbucks patron is normally  older, trendy and on way to some very important business meeting who must have that skinny soy latte! 
While the coffee brand is the same and served at both places, the feel, the service and customers are in  different leagues altogether.  I am sure.  I am sure, I am a coffee snob.  Please don't call the café at Barnes and Noble, Starbucks!  It is not proper coffee etiquette!



Posers

Posers.  With this economy has come the birth of posers.  I spend a lot of time in book stores and coffee shops using the free wifi and what I have noticed is that a lot of posers have come out of people losing jobs.  I see men dressed in suits sitting in Barnes and Nobel for  hours using tables like they are their offices.  I guess the local coffee shops and book stores with WiFi had become virtual offices.

There was a man sitting behind me this morning in black pants, gray shirt and sweater vest with his laptop and appointment book all set up.  At first glance it looked like he was actually working.  He was in a way.  He was looking for jobs.  But he gives the appearance that he already has one.  I only found out the truth when a woman that he knew walked up and asked him what he was doing now since he had left.  Well he then said he would give her the three minute version which turned out to be the 30 minute version.  He sells insurance and is between companies.  Medical sales is also something he has done as well.  Sales.  Not good.

I worked in the past in an office for an insurance company as an admin/support type person.  I was in the HR department, recruiting specifically.  The majority of the men and women who came in looking for sales jobs had no other alternative.  For some reason they were unable to get jobs in other fields whether it be from past arrests, legal issues, severe financial issues, the inability to pass a background check or they had done something that made them on the black list from a past employer.  The people I saw were the dregs of the employment world.  There were a few who genuinely liked sales and had been in the field for a long time.  They really were the few.

The man behind me had been looking for a long time an was trying to line up interviews this week with other insurance companies.  It is hard out there and I know he is trying.  He is and has been apparently looking relentlessly for work.  I hope he finds it.  He is a poser and I have seen many other posers like him too.  It is hard.  If you are used to getting dressed for work, looking the professional everyday, I guess it would still help to stay in that mode.

I guess I used to be a poser.  I used to get up and get dressed when I first was laid off, then I stopped.  No need.  My focus became to look the part when I needed to...when networking, going to job fairs and going on interviews.  Casual is my dress at my local coffee shops and book stores now.  Looking for work does not mean that I have to look like my office is now the book stores.  When I stopped being a poser some of the anxiety and stress left me.  It is stressful enough being without work and looking constantly.  The strain  of keeping up a public image was just an unneeded worry.