Now, while Tiktok has become a digital platform for creatives, it is no stranger to ill-intentioned people and their harmful content—online Karens are real! As if online Marites weren’t enough, the Karen behavior has successfully migrated locally and, to our surprise, is a middle-aged upper-class man.
Recently comedian Tim Tayag became the talk of the local Tiktok and Twitter-verse after sharing his problematic take and disapproval of the customer-friendliness of our Starbucks baristas.
In a recent and now private TikTok video, he asks baristas to quit engaging in small conversations as it is too early and the morning and he has not had his caffeine. Since the video’s release on the said social media platform, Tayag has received a handful of hate comments and disapproving video responses to his take, and here are the reasons why.
Sometimes, you need to keep your bad comments to yourself
Especially if it comes from a person who’s clearly still enclosed in his privilege bubble. Baristas and other café and restaurant staff are not required, yet they are encouraged to be friendly with their customers. Apart from providing you with the services as part of their work, they are still human beings at the end of the day. It somewhat dehumanizes them when after they provide for you, they are responded with a “Just give me my damn coffee!” energy.
Like them, you’re not required to smile and engage in a small chat, even though it’s ironic since it’s part of your work as a comedian to enable positive energy. If you’re simply having a rough day, it’s valid to feel the way you do, but you have to acknowledge that there are people around you who are not responsible for why you feel that way. If you can’t reciprocate their uplifted mood, you can simply nod unwittingly or ignore them, but disrespecting them to the extent of making a Tiktok video is different.
Read: Its about time we raise the bar for the Filipino paycheck
You don't need coffee. You need good morals
And you’re not the only person who’s been awake at an ungodly time of the day. Knowing that several Starbucks branches run 24/7, these people may have been awake earlier than you or may have even been awake before you slept the previous evening. Sure, that does not invalidate how you’re already exhausted at your second hour of the day, and if their way of lightening up your mood isn’t effective, then that doesn’t give you a right to tell them to stop.
It’s basic human decency to acknowledge that you’re not aware of what people may be going through, and even though these people may also not know that, they somewhat try to cheer you up, especially when your face is painted in a somber mood. We also don’t know what these people are dealing with past their work hours. This is not limited to public service workers, but to everyone we encounter on a daily basis.
Remember this: Being naturally kind may not have an effect on the people we interact with every day but being effortlessly rude will have an effect no matter how their day has been. So, if you currently succumb to your dreadful void, you have every right to your emotions, but it does not excuse how you treat others. Energy reciprocation is an option, but respect is mandatory.
