Daniel O'Brien's Blog, page 82

Hello Dan O'brien I am frowny face service industry girl and can I just say that the customer was such a curmudgeon! I'm just here to defend myself a little bit, I didn't make the post to grind anyone's gears and it seems that's what I've done to you a lit

Haha, oh shit, that IS you! What a crazy world this is.

It’s great to meet you. Sorry for my cranky words; you sound like a completely reasonable person and I’m clearly out of line here. I apologize for adding negativity into your life, I just got caught up in a rapidly-spreading internet meme, the message of which seemed problematic to me, and forgot that the meme’s source was a human being, with the kind of feelings that all non-Daniel human beings have.

Hello Dan O'brien I am frowny face service industry girl and can I just say that the customer was such a curmudgeon! I'm just here to defend myself a little bit, I didn't make the post to grind anyone's gears and it seems that's what I've done to you a lit

Haha, oh shit, that IS you! What a crazy world this is.

It’s great to meet you. Sorry for my cranky words; you sound like a completely reasonable person and I’m clearly out of line here. I apologize for adding negativity into your life, I just got caught up in a rapidly-spreading internet meme, the message of which seemed problematic to me, and forgot that the meme’s source was a human being, with the kind of feelings that all non-Daniel human beings have.

Hello Dan O'brien I am frowny face service industry girl and can I just say that the customer was such a curmudgeon! I'm just here to defend myself a little bit, I didn't make the post to grind anyone's gears and it seems that's what I've done to you a lit

Haha, oh shit, that IS you! What a crazy world this is.

It’s great to meet you. Sorry for my cranky words; you sound like a completely reasonable person and I’m clearly out of line here. I apologize for adding negativity into your life, I just got caught up in a rapidly-spreading internet meme, the message of which seemed problematic to me, and forgot that the meme’s source was a human being, with the kind of feelings that all non-Daniel human beings have.

Hello Dan O'brien I am frowny face service industry girl and can I just say that the customer was such a curmudgeon! I'm just here to defend myself a little bit, I didn't make the post to grind anyone's gears and it seems that's what I've done to you a lit

Haha, oh shit, that IS you! What a crazy world this is.

It’s great to meet you. Sorry for my cranky words; you sound like a completely reasonable person and I’m clearly out of line here. I apologize for adding negativity into your life, I just got caught up in a rapidly-spreading internet meme, the message of which seemed problematic to me, and forgot that the meme’s source was a human being, with the kind of feelings that all non-Daniel human beings have.

astrongersuit:thisdanobrien:I’ve seen this on my dashboard a...

astrongersuit:

thisdanobrien:

I’ve seen this on my dashboard a lot in the last week and I’ve felt like an outsider. It seems like the narrative is “The customer wanted [x] and I made a minor mistake and the customer reacted negatively WHAT AN IDIOT!”

I understand that the woman in the photoset is attractive, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that she was hired for a job and then did it poorly, correct? I mean, who’s the bad guy here? It’s scary to me if this is a world where someone can administer poor service, then post a photoset to Tumblr and still be the victor. That’s just…silly, to me.  

I actually think it’s more, “I made an easily fixable mistake and the customer overreacted and tried to make me feel terrible, when he or she could have just asked nicely and I would have fixed it.” Everyone makes mistakes, and to lose your shit over the wrong cup is absurd. Take your to-go cup and grab a dine-in seat.

Any mistake can be remedied. Just ask nicely, and remember that there has probably been a time when you made a mistake on the job that caused annoyance to someone else. We all have. 

(Responding because a ton of people have messaged this exact thing. Also, hi Liz, hope you’re having a good day.)

To be clear, I’m not siding with the customer here. Banning yourself from a restaurant or Starbucks is an absurd thing to do, especially over a small mistake. That customer sounds like a crazy person. I’ve spent many, many years working in the service industry and have seen plenty of crazy people like the customer being described here. I know that service industry jobs can be terrible and I know that a few stray but loud crazy people can make ruin your day.

My reaction (which I shouldn’t even fucking have because why should I care about a Tumblr photoset that could be fake, for all I know), was based on how popular this post was getting and how so many people are waving it around like “Hahaha, take that, THE MAN!” Like it was some kind of rallying point or victory for… the working class? People in the service industry? Hooray! Here’s to making mistakes at work and losing the company business!

It was the celebration aspect, it was based on a woman making a mistake and still sort of celebrating herself over it. I know it was a small mistake (putting a drink in the wrong cup) that ultimately doesn’t change the world, and it sounds like the customer was a cranky curmudgeon from jump. But the sequence of events still to me reads like this: Employee makes mistake. Customer gets upset. Employee decides that the way Customer feels is the thing that’s wrong in this situation. It’s that self-congratulatory, mocking face she’s got on that burns me a little bit.

"Excuse me, I asked for this as dine-in, not to go."

"Awwww, wittle baby wants her drink in a cup? Are you gonna crrryyyyyy?"

It’s the face of someone who made a mistake and then doesn’t give a shit, which is an attitude I have a problem with.

Oh just get over it Daniel.

I’ve seen this on my dashboard a lot in the last week and...

I’ve seen this on my dashboard a lot in the last week and I’ve felt like an outsider. It seems like the narrative is “The customer wanted [x] and I made a minor mistake and the customer reacted negatively WHAT AN IDIOT!”

I understand that the woman in the photoset is attractive, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that she was hired for a job and then did it poorly, correct? I mean, who’s the bad guy here? It’s scary to me if this is a world where someone can administer poor service, then post a photoset to Tumblr and still be the victor. That’s just…silly, to me.  

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 12: (L-R) Actors Sir Patrick Stewart,...

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 12: (L-R) Actors Sir Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Sir Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender attend the UK Premiere of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ at Odeon Leicester Square on May 12, 2014 in London, England.

Look, I don’t know what to do with myself. This is a very sexy thing. Can we just agree this transcends sexuality as a concept? Am I crazy to suggest that we all look upon these four men of wildly different age and gender preference and just collectively, as a a people, say “Oh, damn.”?

Two Opportunities to See my Dumb Face in May

There are technically lots of opportunities to see my dumb face throughout May, but I’m only posting the specifics of two of them here (the rest of them, broadly, include dog parks, dog beaches, bars and the forest).

Online Comedy Panel (May 16): This Friday, I’ll be speaking about online comedy and the business of building a career off of creative works in this rapidly changing new landscape of the internet (or, rather, the smarter people on the panel will be doing that and I will pop in every once in a while with dumb jokes). The panel includes Spencer Griffin and Sam Reich of CollegeHumor (both wonderful, intelligent and hilarious gentleman who wear glasses) and Angela Petrella (Fox Animation) and Mike Rosenstein (Red Hour Productions), whom I’ve never met but seem lovely. This is part of the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival. $13 gets you a ticket to my event plus all other events at the festival, which sounds like a pretty cool place.

I legitimately love doing panels and it’s always fun to talk about internet successes as if any of us has any control or any clue what we’re doing.

Reading/Signing at Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica (May 30): I’ll be speaking and joking and signing copies of How to Fight Presidents at the Barnes and Noble on the Third Street Promenade May 30th. I’m going to try to invite some cool guests and make it more of an event than just a straightforward signing, but it should be fun regardless. When I moved to LA six (holy shit) years ago, I used to spend a lot of time in that Barnes and Noble because I like reading and didn’t have any friends yet. I took my lunch breaks there and read a bunch of comics for free like an asshole. It was almost as comforting as my home-town Barnes and Noble (RT 35 in Holmdel, New Jersey) where I spent the majority of what would in retrospect turn out to be the period of my life during which I should have been having the most sex.

And now I get to sign books at the Santa Monica B&N, which is ridiculous.

OH! Also, Soren, Jack and I will be at the Webby Awards in New York this year. In case anyone who follows me happens to be going to that.

http://taliabobalia.tumblr.com/post/8...

http://taliabobalia.tumblr.com/post/85566380463:

taliabobalia:

trying not to freak out with excitement but my hands are sweating so it’s like if my body wants to party why the fuck hold back, ya know?

i haven’t really said anything about this because i’m a Cool Cat but a billion years ago in a galaxy far, far away, i emailed the beautiful king of the…

Ba-BOW! And for context, here’s me calling my shots re: Talia about a month ago.

startthemachine:About to watch an hour-long YouTube...

startthemachine:

About to watch an hour-long YouTube walkthrough of Sega CD Jurassic Park in my ED-209 shirt, in case you were wondering whether or not I ate lunch alone in fourth grade.

I like the part in Jurassic Park for Sega CD where you have to honk the horn on the car to get the dinosaur to charge at it (the destruction of the car in the field is important for the continuation of the game) but you can’t do it too often or else she’ll notice you and charge at you instead, he said without having to Google a single fucking thing.