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You’re right, of course; Subway tastes like resignation and apathy. But even the most mundane things can surprise you every once in a while. Years ago, I walke
by i_am_nomad 7y ago
You’re right, of course; Subway tastes like resignation and apathy. But even the most mundane things can surprise you every once in a while.
Years ago, I walked into a random Subway, somewhere, and ordered some random sandwich. I asked for onions, olives, and yellow peppers on it. The energetic “sandwich artist” (their term, not mine) shook his head.
“No, no,” he said, with a friendly sincerity, “that’s not a good combination for this sandwich. You should go with olives, yes, but also the green peppers and spinach, with the sweet onion sauce. Much more balanced that way.”
I let him make it his way. I couldn’t even object, because I was struck speechless by this man, making probably minimum wage at the crappiest sandwich chain in America, caring so deeply about his work and my lunch. This man and his pride in his work, his determination to actually care, helped me see my own work in a new light, and honestly helped me climb out of the burnout I’d been suffering at the time.
Whatever you do, do it the best you can; thanks for the reminder, Subway dude.
- ctchocula 7y agoThis is a beautiful story. It reminds me of the stories collected in "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do" by Studs Terkel. The overall theme is how people find meaning in what they do and the nobility of the human spirit. Thank you for sharing it.
- asah 7y agoThx. Another great book: How to Tell When You're Tired, by Reg Theriault
- Nasrudith 7y agoI think the resignation and apathy is just something that happens always with chain restaurants and scale. At a certain point consistency becomes the big priority and it becomes soulless as process dominates and it depressingly seems to work.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- newen 7y agoI think cost cutting becomes a bigger priority than expanding to new franchises (I guess expanding becomes harder to achieve after a certain point and cost cutting becomes a better way to improve financials). So they use lower and lower quality ingredients. Burger King is a prime example of this. Chick-fil-A is good counter example.
- chrisseaton 7y agoSeems extremely rude to criticise someone’s preferences like that?
- pfortuny 7y agoIt is not rude if you smile and say it with respect.
- chrisseaton 7y ago> No, no, ... that’s not a good combination for this sandwich ... You should go with ... Repeatedly telling a customer 'no'? Telling them their choice is not good? Telling them what they 'should' do instead? It's not even a suggestion, it's a demand! Smiling while dictating your opinions at the customer and telling them how wrong they are doesn't make it not rude. Super rude, for anyone, let alone to a customer.
- ffwacom 7y agoYou vastly underestimate social skills and the value of authenticity.
- gbear605 7y agoIt would be rude if they refused to make it if you still insisted. It’s polite of them to tell you before they make it that it’s a bad choice.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jessaustin 7y agoEvery time a waiter tells me I'm making a mistake ordering "rare", it is rude and it does annoy me. I don't let it show, because bodily fluids, but the tip definitely suffers. It's really amazing how many waiters can't imagine eating steak that tastes good...
- 7y ago
- cheesymuffin 7y agoOkay but how was the sandwich? Edit: downvotes??? really??? Edit2: thanks for the gold, kind stranger! :^)
- _nhynes 7y ago> Edit: downvotes??? really??? > Edit2: thanks for the gold, kind stranger! :^) That's a weird way to spell "/s"
- zentiggr 7y ago"Worst I ever had."
- jessaustin 7y agoYes the "sweet onion sauce" is literally excrement.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ik_RIGHT 7y agoSeriously, how the fuck do you even tell that story without resolving the mystery of the quality of the revised sandwich? Subway tastes like resignation and apathy. One can only adjourn with the assumption that the alteration had zero effect or less, because it's unremarkable and forgotten, which would detract from the parable about burnout, because holy shit. mundane things can surprise you I guess that means hoagie chef's ardent recommendation. The story leaves us to imagine the chef (age, appearance, demeanor) on our own. Fuck dumping your soul into human hamster wheels.
- geodel 7y agoGreat story! I once drove 15 miles to a place because FM radio would blare about how great is the sandwich. In the shop an overgrown bored teenager prepared an unbalanced and totally disgusting sandwich for me. Needless to say it was disappointing experience as I could have walked down a block to Potbelly and gotten much much better sandwich without filling a fucking form on what meats and condiments I want in the sandwich.
- Operyl 7y agoI love Potbelly! I miss that place and Beck's Prime when I lived in Houston.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoSubway dude was probably told he had to meet his spinach quota or lose his job.
- tempguy9999 7y agoI left an HN-type site a few years ago because it was filling up with this kind of negative, destructive, cynical, all's-fucked-so-don't-bother comment that ever presumes the worst in everything. Either try to make the world a better place (it is possible, small things are not wasted) or be quiet and stop infecting the rest of us with your apathy. Edit: I really must stop being an obnoxious arse. Let me try again, then. Comments like that are damaging and self-reinforcing because they demoralise. A lot of people care and are decent but will not try to remain that way if comments like this corrode them - why should they, if decency is met with nastiness? Why even try? So please don't do this.
- asdffdsaqazxs 7y agoThe original comment had a kind of upward twist at the end, due to the cognitive dissonance introduced by the poster’s use of the colloquial phrase “Thanks for the ___, Subway guy”. What read as a mostly older, serious comment was upturned on its head at the end by the change in tone. I think the OP here was responding to the change in tone which signaled that such dry wit of response was “allowed” on such a post. Had OPs comment not ended with some sort of puzzling naive phrasing and twist at the end, I doubt he would have felt comfortable with his dry cynical joke. In some sense, he’s trying to cancel out the overly positive naive tone introduced by OP at the very end. Equanimity and balance is not so bad. OPs weird ending belied a sort of youthful immaturity which struck counter to the wisened, aged tone with which he had cumulatively relayed with his story thus far.
- chimpburger 7y agoYou sound like you're on the autistic spectrum, struggling to understand basic human social interactions like some kind of hyper analytical artificial intelligence. The server was being helpful, not bossy. That was a great example of customer service going beyond reasonable expectations. The OP could have said "no thanks" and continued with his original order. Simple as that. It seems that your social cognitive circuitry is overloaded by someone acting like an actual person instead of a simple robot.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- asdffdsaqazxs 7y agoI would be annoyed actually. That’s the kind of overly bossy attitude that becomes annoying. I could foresee him doing that to you and every customer.
- war1025 7y agoI worked at a Subway in high school, and the thing I liked most about that job is that there were two, at most three, people working, and if it wasn't standard 9-5 M-F hours, those people were all in high school. Being trusted not to completely screw up a business with no adult supervision was a very rewarding experience.
- nestorherre 7y agoI recommend you all check the book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience". Probably mentioned already a ton of times before in HN, but it shows how to achieve the so called "Flow" state in any activity that you do, even in mundane jobs like a factory line guy working in quality assurance or something related (can't remember exactly), how he actually enjoyed that "crappy job" and how he excelled others in their same position.