Sarah Warren 1m 320
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
I’ve worked as a Barista for a number of years at various locations. I recently started going to college and got a job at the café on campus. I’m used to getting free drinks while on the clock. This is normal for most cafés. You’re usually limited to one free drink and if you want anything else you pay but at a discounted price. However, I noticed that the other students were constantly making several drinks for themselves throughout their shifts and even coming in while off the clock to receive multiple free drinks– not just for them, but for their friends as well. They were also taking other products and merchandise like it was theirs to take. They’d swipe whatever food they wanted, take gallons of milk home and grab bottled drinks by the case.
I thought this was outright stealing until I saw my bosses doing the same thing. No one cares what happens or how much goes missing. It almost seems like the behavior is encouraged. It’s like the motto is “Take advantage of the system while you can. It’s all on the University’s dime. Who cares?” But I can’t help but feel like this the cause for rising tuition and the lack of funding I find elsewhere on campus.
The art department doesn’t have the money to replace scratched up drawing boards but we can have whatever we want from the café. It really doesn’t seem right to me. I’ve never worked around this much corruption.
I wish there was someone I could talk to about this but I also don’t want to make enemies out of almost everyone around me. The most I can do is just play along and not rock the boat. As bizarre as it sounds- I don’t want to lose my job for not being a thief.
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