The Mandate - Part 9

First Impressions Count

If we want the average populace to respect the position of "professional barista" more than all the other service industry jobs in America then we need to act the part. That means both acting like a professional and dressing like a professional.

I personally am not very comfortable in buttondown shirts and I am downright UNcomfortable in a tie but I think that other people judge us by how we look. Is it fair? Of course not. Some of the nicest baristas I know are arm deep in paint and I would never try to make them hide that fact or homogenize them behind the bar.

I don’t want the uncoffeed world at large to think of us as bartenders, sommeliers or coffee snobs but something unique. We are like bartenders. We are like sommeliers. We are like coffee snobs. We are baristas.

To get the respect we deserve (some of us deserve) we need to impress on the public that we take our job seriously and take coffee seriously. Then maybe they will take us seriously.

So we’re buttoning up. Long sleeves probably, with the sleeves rolled up. I haven’t decided on whether they employees can pick and wear their own shirts or I should buy & logo-ize them. But I’m thinking along the lines of how baristas dress at the regional competions. We dress that way for a reason right?

But no ties. Definitely, no ties.

One last Mandate to come! Finally!