A short soundbite on NPR’s All Things Considered masterfully framed just how bad things have gotten in the labor market. I was driving with my father, now 4 years retired, when the radio program reported fresh job cuts, reductions in salary, 401k matching, raises and bonuses and even cuts in coffee service.
‘Coffee service? Are they F$#@ing insane?’ my father asked the radio incredulously.
‘No, I’m sure companies are cutting back anyway they can.’ I answered. We had all been numbed to reports like these, so it hardly registered in my mind as news.
‘Then they all deserve the total A$% kicking that’s coming. Don’t kid yourself, son, this country runs on coffee!
That colorful exchange got me thinking. A 30 year veteran of the business world probably knows a few things about the hidden underbelly of the beast. Was he right that the blood coursing through the machine was simply a pot of extra strong columbian? Was corporate America unwittingly turning off the tap on the fuel that powers our economy?
Starbucks is closing 300 of its stores and laying off 7000 people. I have never before seen the people lining up at Starbucks, usually clusters of teenage girls on their phones texting to each other about the cute Batista behind the espresso machine, as the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done productivity crowd. But mixed into that sea of varsity cheerleading letterjackets are your house painter, your stock broker, your dental hygienist, and your local air traffic controller. While they may not be quitting java cold turkey, they must be cutting back.
The office I worked at had a corporate owned mega brewer. Four pots would cycle from full to empty in continuation like it was a neighborhood IHOP. Over the machine, faded and slightly torn, was a typical Dilbert cartoon depicting what the office would be like on De-caf; bodies strewn over desks and leaning against hallway walls like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie. Next to that sign was a newly printed memo proclaiming that, in the interest of saving money, it was encouraged for employees to bring their own sugar and cream from home because ‘every little bit helps’.
If every coffee addicted American cut back on their consumption and if that slowed them down just a little bit, maybe just 1%, we would notice. US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) changes year to year are usually single digit. Q3 2008 was a .3% decline. I suspect Ill be drinking something stronger than coffee the day Q1 2009 numbers are released.
Photo attributed to Refracted Moments™