Dasha speaks about Support

Favorite drink: I have seen the light and I am gonna say an oat milk latte. 12 oz usually, or 8 oz if I am feeling frisky

Favorite album to play at work: Calling Out of Context by Arthur Russell- I liked playing it during my opening shifts.

Making coffee at home: either French press or drip. Depends on what level of clean up I want to deal with.

Favorite origin: Mainly Ethiopian coffees and Nicaraguan coffees.  

“I was in coffee for about a year and a half. I started in coffee when I first moved to Portland. I knew maybe three people that lived here and just so happened to meet somebody that worked at a local roasting company that was hiring at the time. I had always wanted to work in coffee but felt very intimidated by it.

I decided though to jump on this opportunity since I had an in with my new friend and encouragement to do so.

The day of the interview came and I was extremely nervous. I remember I walked in and was immediately offered a free drink, which to my little coffee-newb brain was the coolest nicest thing in the world. It immediately set the stage for the kind of environment that it was. I think I ordered a vanilla latte cause those are delicious.

During the interview I was asked a handful of coffee questions; what kind of coffee do I like, how do I make it at home, etc etc- and for some reason I wasn’t expecting that so I wasn’t prepared to answer those questions. I answered honestly but felt like I wasn’t answering them right. In hindsight it wasn’t that big of a deal, but still, I left the interview thinking there was no way I was getting that job- I just thought I wasn’t cool enough to be in coffee. I think maybe something to do with latte art- which was so cool but also so inaccessible, and seemed so far removed from anything I would ever be able to do- lead me to believe that the coffee world was exclusive, and that I could never be a part of it. I usually see really cool fashionable straight white dudes pouring these really beautiful lattes, and it seemed like a very exclusive club that I would never have a chance of being a part of. Because, for the record, I have not seen very many black women baristas. Like, ever. Maybe three, other than myself.

But, I DID get the job and it ended up being one of the most cool, chill, work environments I’ve ever been in. It was very nonjudgmental, and it was a really great community to be walking into. I felt very lucky to be there.

At the point where I got hired, I wasn’t thinking far ahead in my coffee career- like looking towards opportunities of management. The biggest thing for me was walking into my interview and seeing that the person interviewing me was a woman of color. Immediately, I felt very safe. And even though my café manager was a white man, just knowing that his boss was someone like me. That helped me feel way more comfortable and able to let my guard down a little bit.”

Over the course of Dasha’s time at that café she felt it was easy to ask for guidance. “The training I received as part of my onboarding is probably my fondest memory of working for that company. My training session was with the Operations Manager. It really opened my eyes. The coolest part was going over the anatomy of a shot of espresso. I am a very visual learner, and I learn by example, so I can remember it very vividly still.

The way it was explained was such a clear way for me to understand what can go wrong and how to fix it. Because just being told how to do something correctly isn’t enough. Being able to troubleshoot when something goes wrong- and understand your mistakes- that’s how you learn. Rather than being told not to fuck up. It helped me understand coffee and also how I learn.”

After being out of coffee for about a year, Dasha has decided she would like to start applying to jobs back in the coffee industry.

“I miss the community of working in coffee and the autonomy of the work. I like how most cafes have their own vibe and their own people, and I like that individuality. I am excited to get back into coffee, but I am also nervous, because people in the coffee industry are not paid enough. That was the reason I left first coffee job. I wasn’t making a living wage and I didn’t really see any opportunity to get a livable wage. I would like to move into management in the coffee world next- but still, baristas need to get paid more.

I have been working an office job over the last year, and so I haven’t been engaging with the public face-to-face. In a café you’re usually working in a bigger team and interacting with customers every day and I have an easier time engaging with people when its face-to-face rather than over the phone or through a computer. Its more authentic for me. But it can also be tricky because sometimes customers suck. But people suck everywhere, so you can’t avoid it.”

Working in a public facing position on a daily basis can present lots of challenges. Regarding receiving support for this aspect of the job: “For the most part I have felt supported- I didn’t so much feel support from co-workers but I did with my managers. And at the end of the day it isn’t your coworker’s job to provide support for you. But it is also nice to have each other’s backs when you’re only on shift with a co-worker and a regular you don’t want to interact with comes in. But mostly I felt it from management. I think also that my co-workers didn’t experience the same things I was dealing with, so they didn’t know how to support me. Most of my coworkers were straight white dudes. And the women that I worked with were mostly not women of color, so that added another layer to the shit I was dealing with on my own.

I had a handful of customers I had a strong bond with but in general I felt like it was harder for customers to feel like they could be easy or casual with me, versus my white and nonblack coworkers. The café that I was at had a mostly wealthy and white clientele base. I and think that it was really difficult for them to relate to me, or even respect me. It seemed to come more naturally for my coworkers, and customers were much more forgiving with them, not so much with me.

We didn’t really know how to deal with some really bad customer interactions. I didn’t know how to deal with it, and I don’t think my coworkers did either. I think having a policy or rules in place on what you can say or do when you are being mistreated by a customer is really important. Like would it be ok to tell someone to fuck off and leave you alone, or really just give us parameters on how to draw a boundary and when it’s appropriate, and know that your manager will back you and that you won’t get in trouble for snapping at someone who is being horrible to you. That was the biggest thing for me- being worried that I was going to get in trouble in some way.”

One word Dasha would use to describe her time in coffee: “I’m a Libra! I can’t just choose one word. So I’ll choose two. Challenging and fulfilling.”

“Here is a hilarious story about my time in coffee that sticks with me. One time I was trying to rinse my pitcher- we all know where this story is going - and I missed the spout, and water shot directly onto my face and directly across the entire café ON TO a customer. And this was all happening while a different customer was standing at the bar talking to me, waiting for his drink. I think about it almost daily cause it was horrifying and really funny at the same time. Luckily the person that got sprayed wasn’t mad. It happened like not even two months into being a barista, so I had no idea that could happen. Like, here I am still pouring white dots onto lattes, I don’t know what’s going on, and now I’m spraying a customer across the café with water.”

On the other side of the fun and lighthearted customer interactions, there can be interactions that don’t leave you feeling great. “So this was my very first shift, working on my own. At this point I wasn’t fully trained yet- there was some scheduling conflict, so I had to jump in- and I was doing an opening shift on my own. I was alone for the first two hours of the shift, I had never served a drink yet, and I shit you not, the very first espresso drink that I severed, I just poured a little white dot on the top. I didn’t know how to make a rosetta yet, and I was told it was ok to finish the drink with a white dot on top- and the customer that I handed the drink to looked down at the drink and just scoffed. He looked at me and said, ‘how long have you even been a barista?’ So I was honest, and said, ‘just a few days- this is my first shift,’ and he said something along the lines of ‘yeah I can tell.’ He was clearly displeased, but the things is I am positive that the shot that I pulled was good, the milk was steamed correctly, and the only thing lacking was the latte art. I am positive of that.

I know that for me, personally, just in any job that I have, I try to put myself in the customer’s shoes. I think about how I would feel if I walked into a café and it looked like this, or the barista talked to you like that, or whatever. So for me, I tried to not be a coffee snob. I would even tease my coworkers sometimes if they made snobby comments like ‘oh, so and so doesn’t know what a macchiato really is, or you should add this flavor to your coffee, etc etc.’ I would try to diffuse that and point out the absurdity of that way of thinking. A lot of customers would come in and be embarrassed to ask questions, so I would try to diffuse it and nip it in the bud. I would joke around with the customer and say, ‘yeah I didn’t know what a macchiato was either until I started working here, and it’s so funny that we are so nervous to ask questions.’ I wanted to make sure customers felt comfortable and able to ask whatever they wanted.

I think the customer that came in and was rude to me my first day, first shift, first drink- that was a really good learning experience for me. I was confident that I was serving a good drink, that it tasted good, and it helped click in my head that yeah, just because a coffee has a rosetta on it doesn’t automatically mean it tastes good. In a way I am grateful to that jerk who made me cry on my first day, cause I got over it eventually, and learned from it.”

When it comes to representation behind the bar and the role that third wave coffee shops play in neighborhoods, Dasha sees a parallel. “Black women are expected to be hospitable and be caretaking. So it’s weird to me that the coffee industry doesn’t generally have a lot of black women working in it. And I think that is because of the elitist sphere that it tries to stay in; for some reason the third wave coffee world has become really exclusive and, in a way, it’s almost an exception to the service industry.

It’s like a gentrifying approach to business and the service industry. All these neighborhoods, for instance, in North Portland, were built by and for poor, black communities. And now Mississippi avenue is full of ‘cool’ bars and sushi places and little boutiques, and there are no black people in sight. But the reason that street exists, and those buildings and structures are the, is because of black communities, and that history is what makes it cool and different or interesting for people. I think a similar thing has happened in coffee. Coffee comes from communities of color- that is how you get your product.

The approach is the same. You aren’t getting third wave cafes, generally, that are being built with the community in mind. And these businesses are coming at the expense of black owned businesses. And then not even hiring on a lot of black baristas.

Additionally, a lot of coffee companies use communities color that they get their coffee from as marketing tools. Like posting pictures on Instagram and stating, ‘we are helping these farmers and communities in Colombia cause we buy their coffee!’ even though there are huge mark ups and the buyers are pocketing all that money. That yet adds another layer and feels gross to me- it’s just more exploitation of communities of color. And in my experience, companies that try to exploit those trade relationships are the companies where you get tokenized if you’re a person of color. Obviously, that doesn’t make for a place where black and brown people want to work. I steer clear of that as much as I can.”

What would Dasha like to see more of in the coffee world? “Higher wages, more people of color, and more room for growth- more room for people to move into different positions and learn more. We need more of a reason to stay in the industry. I know a lot of people, myself included, that would definitely like to learn new skills like ordering supplies, what goes into running a café, how do we do payroll- any of the things that go into running a business. I know that lot of people would want to learn and grow, but there doesn’t seem to be enough opportunities for baristas to move into learning those new skills.”

Advice to new baristas trying to get into the industry: “Make sure, as best as you can- because I know this is hard to do- that you are pursuing employment with a company that has support systems in place. Make sure you have a manager that you can go and cry to, or vent to. I think that is important in any customer service job. It’s very draining and you need to be able to voice your concerns and also just vent, without repercussions. Because you’re a fucking human, and things are going to get to you, and that should be fine. And that would also be my advice to managers in general- provide the support your employees need.

I didn’t necessarily know that I was going to get that sort of support from my coffee shop job. But I had a gut feeling that, because the boss was a woman of color, like me, even if I didn’t go directly to her for support in dealing with challenging customer service interactions, I knew there was a mutual understanding because we inevitably experience similar things on the job. That alone helped me feel like I could receive support in this work environment. Even though it was not explicitly stated.

Being represented in your company says so much. It takes the burden off of you, feeling like you have to further explain or teach somebody how to see you as a human in order to understand your grievances.

I would love to be a manager in the coffee world. I would like to provide my staff with the same support and tools that I received at my coffee job. I think that kind of support is very hard to find in any job, and it’s very important.

And the very, very last thing I want to say: treat your baristas well. Tip your baristas the way you would your bartender.”