Folks who've never worked in the service industry might not be familiar with one of the small "joys" of working in the service industry: reading reviews from customers you can 100% tell are about you.
Sometimes these reviews include identifying information related to tattoos or hair color or height or weight. Sometimes they call you out by name. And sometimes it's more about your general... attitude.
Such was the case for Nate Gurrola, local barista and member of the bedroom pop band Oftener, who tweeted the following over the weekend:
these are my children, Google Reviews Written By People Who Could Tell I Am Not Happy At Work pic.twitter.com/r0NDRoOKec
— employee of the month (@logurra) August 20, 2021
Just look at the engagement. Fast-food companies would kill for those numbers.
"They’re gonna can me for this one I can feel it in my old bones," Gurrola followed up. "Bruce if you’re reading this it was only a jokey."
The whole thread is here and it's much longer and it's very very good. If you don't trust us, trust Phoebe Bridgers.
Gurrola says the owner of the coffee shop where he works—which we will not identify here because we don't actually want him to get fired for this one—has a habit of closely reading the Google Reviews.
"A couple months ago my manager brought these reviews up in a meeting we had and then wrote me up and said I’d get fired if I got another bad review," he tells Racket.
Gurrola played nice barista for a while, and when another person left a good review mentioning him, the owner graciously decided not to can him over the whole ordeal. "So today I just felt frisky, I guess."
He sent the tweet, and it promptly blew the heck up. Who among us hasn't been "the one guy who works in there and always looks mad?" He's gotten 2,000 new followers so far, and tons of people are sharing their own stories of bad reviews in which they were mentioned.
"Alright Nate, it's time to delete the viral tweet," his bandmate joked. "I'm starting to worry that people on Twitter might find out about Oftener."
No one at work has found out yet (besides his best bud/coworker) but a few folks have come into the shop to ask if he's the barista behind the tweet.
"The moment of 'Okay, I have to be cool with getting fired for this' had to happen," Gurrola says. "Not deletin' it, I am letting go and letting god <3"
We absolutely love to see it. In the spirit of "check out my Soundcloud" (and at the risk of letting anyone else find out about Oftener), listen to Daydream here!
