Working Class: a Starbucks employee moves beyond the stereotype of tea-drinking Brits
Erin McEvoy graduated in May 2003 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a B.A. in Political Science. While in college, she worked as a peer advisor at the Overseas Opportunities Office of the University of Michigan’s International Center, a resource center for students interested in study and work abroad. She is currently a first year student at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, LA.
We interviewed Erin about her work experience in London during the summer after her semester abroad in Florence on a U of M program.
AV:What made you decide to work in England rather than in Italy?
EM: I briefly thought about staying in Italy and looking for work, but once I became aware of the near impossibility of obtaining an Italian work visa as a U.S. student, I started looking for more practical options. I had visited London once before and decided that I would love the chance to work there. I also knew it would be much easier for me to get a job in an English-speaking country, where I would be a more desirable candidate because I could use my native language. A U.S. friend in Florence mentioned BUNAC. I looked up the web site from Florence and found it was exactly what I was looking for—a non-competitive application process, a minimal fee and the opportunity to work legally anywhere in the U.K. for up to six months.
AV:Was it difficult to get a job in London?
EM: Most BUNAC participants find work within two to six days of arrival. I found a job at a Starbucks in Mayfair (a business district in the central city) on my second day. Though Starbucks is far from an emblematic British cultural institution, ironically, I learned a tremendous amount about the dynamics of London and its inhabitants by working for this prototypical American company.
AV:What surprised you most about London’s dynamics?
EM: I hadn’t expected it to be so cosmopolitan. My coworkers—British, Irish, Italian, Kenyan, French, Russian, Malaysian and Australian—were representative of London’s diversity. As a service industry employee, I also observed a more blatant sense of class division than I had ever come across in the U.S. While my observations stemmed from working in a business district where a lot of professionals patronized our Starbucks, I felt that customers distanced themselves from us servers and expected us to conform to a role of waiting on them. In interacting with them, I was surprised to find that sometimes before I opened my mouth, customers would be really condescending. Once I spoke and they heard my American accent, they changed their attitude, as if they realized that I might be doing this job on a temporary basis only.
For the most part customers were courteous and amiable, but I observed several instances when British people made derogatory remarks about a few of my foreign co-workers not being able to speak English well.
AV:Did you notice any differences between how Americans and British conduct business?
EM: The value of customer service that is so highly extolled in the U.S. is simply not as cherished in Britain. While all the American companies I’ve worked for in the U.S. held the philosophy that the customer is always right, and my managers in the U.S. always honed in on customer service, my employers in London didn’t even mention it. And from what I gathered this is pretty universal across the service industry in England. This may have to do with the fact that British customers don’t tip. It is just understood that a customer pays for an item and gets what he or she pays for. The British seem more concerned with the actual product than with making sure you smile or say, “Have a nice day.” A lot of my coworkers loved Americans because they tipped.
I also noticed a more pronounced camaraderie among fellow workers. Heading to the local pub after the closing shift seemed to be practically a job requirement across service and professional industries. The managers would join us, too.
AV:How did living in London as a local help you to get to know the city better?
EM: I would open the store in the morning so I would go to work really early—around 5:30am. It was cool to see the city dormant and then to see how it transformed into the vibrant place most people know later in the day. It was also interesting to see the tourists but not be one and to get to know the whole of the city so that I could see comparisons with U.S. cities. For instance, I’m from Detroit, where you know what kind of neighborhood you are in by the appearance of the buildings and streets—there’s a huge dichotomy between rich and poor. The difference in London was not as striking. It was interesting to see a metropolitan area where nothing was really dilapidated— unlike most U.S. cities I’ve been to.
AV:Do you think your relationship and interaction with British people was better than it would have been if you were a student and not an employee?
EM: Definitely. As a working person at Starbucks I was able to meet people from all the Starbucks in the area, so we would all hang out and go to each other’s houses. I went to my British friends’ houses—for the most part they lived in the suburbs because the rent was cheaper. We watched a lot of T.V., which I found funny, because I thought there was so much to do in London. I didn’t have the pressure of needing to do schoolwork, so when I got off work my time was my own and I had the luxury to get to know my new friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with. I even worked with a few Italian people, and I hope to visit them someday in Italy.
AV:What were some of your favorite spots?
EM: After my first month of living in London I moved from West Kensington to Camden Town, an area known for its open-air markets and eccentric atmosphere. I enjoyed day-to-day life there and seeing the patterns of the local people. I really liked that there was an open-air market every weekend where you could gather and people-watch, hear music and shop for food and clothes.
The pub atmosphere is also very different from the American bar scene. American bars on college campuses seem more about drinking, whereas British pubs provide a more relaxed atmosphere to enjoy in the afternoon and evening, and the focus is not to get drunk but to sit down and talk with friends.
AV:Any closing thoughts on experiencing London as a worker rather than a student?
EM:It gave me the opportunityto interact with various sects of society and people of different ages. I also really appreciated being on my own and not attached to a group of fellow students like I was in Florence. There I felt defined as an American studying in Florence, and we often traveled in packs, whereas in London it was nice to be independent and freer.
AV:Would you consider living in London on a more long-term basis?
EM: I would live there in a second. I found the public transportation impressive. I felt really safe going out at night, and it was a nice atmosphere. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but the city was easy to navigate, and the parks were fantastic. It was nice to have so many well maintained green spaces that you felt safe to walk around in. I would definitely return to live there if I could. AV