My interview was with a person who used to be a barista at the Coffee Project. It was around 11:00 AM on a Wednesday. She wanted to remain anonymous, despite me telling her it just a school paper, so we decided to give her a code-name, Creed, who is a character from a T.V. Show we liked called The Office. Overall, it was a show about workers in a Paper Company Branch, called Scranton, that caused various shenanigans throughout the office. Creed was a mutual favorite character of ours, because his sense of humor was very dark, and we believed that it would not be the same without him. The interviewee, Creed was about average height, with short curly hair that brushed the top of her ears but was shaved underneath. Her clothing reminded me of the “Punk Fashion” that trended in the ‘00s. She wore a black leather jacket on top of another black, distressed top. Her pants were also black, and ripped in various places, with various chains hanging around her waist that jingled every time she moved. It would be easy to guess the color of her shoes that were sturdy and had a worn-exterior

Because it was in the middle of both the day and time, rush hour had passed, and we were able to find seats for ourselves very easily. I looked around the café and noticed relatively few customers scattered around the shop. The weather was chilly that morning, and a lot of people seem content to just sit and ward off the biting-cold weather outside. There wasn’t a long line at the register, a middle-aged man tried to juggle ordering his drink and a toddler who was screaming his lungs out. An elderly patron with a red fedora sat by the right window that overlooked the street at Madison Ave. He quietly observed the people who walked across the storefront and enjoyed his slice of tiramisu cake. The well-known squatters were also present, a large, black iced-coffee kept them company, as they furiously typed away on their laptop. He was around his mid-twenties, with short, cropped hair. Despite the heater that kept the room warm and toasty, he still wore his layers of clothes.

 

[Start Transcript 1:05:00]

Me: So, my paper is about the subculture of coffee drinkers, more specifically about those who are always in a corner and working almost all day. In context, my paper is questioning the idea of coffee shops becoming more frequent these days, and it parallels with the idea of increased productivity.

Creed: Oh okay, that sounds cool. What do you mean by the ‘increase productivity’”.

Me: Well, more about the increasing demand for productivity that is seen everywhere in NYC, and since coffee is a drug to increase productivity. I wanted to explore the parallels over the increase in coffee shops around here because of the increase in demands.

Creed: Oh, I see, alright shoot!

Me: I’m sure you’re astutely aware of the types of people I am talking about, they often stay here for long periods of time just working.

Creed: Yeah you see them more often when school and work season starts, typically late August and steadily increase.

Me: Increase throughout what time frame exactly?

Creed: Well, I’m not sure what exact times …

Me: How about in a time frame of one week, how busy does the Coffee Project get on the weekdays versus the weekends?

Creed: Well, it does get busy the start of the Mondays, and it slows down until about Wednesdays, but you get another peak of activity towards Friday. The weekends is pretty slow, until Sunday.

Me: Why is it slower in the weekends, I know a lot of people have breaks, but a lot of people still work on the weekends?

Creed: Well other than the mornings, when it is always busy with people coming in to get a cup of Joe. But throughout the day it is empty on the floor of the café, and there are one or two empty seats.

Me: I did an observation, maybe two weekends ago, and I still noticed the people that are working all day.

[Creed laughs]

Creed: Let’s call them Squatters, because I got a cover-up name, it’s only fair.

Me: Oh sure, that’s a great idea, I felt really bad just saying ‘those people’”.

Creed: Well yes, there is always the Squatters no matter what the day it is. I don’t think I’ve seen a day, other than a snowstorm maybe, where they weren’t there.

Me: I know I’ve noted that stay here almost all day, but can you give a more specific time?

Creed: Yeah, one time, I was responsible for opening the store. I think it was a Tuesday, and we usually open at around 8:30AM on the weekdays. But there was this one person, a man with a huge backpack on his back that was waiting for me to come and open the door.

Me: How early are employees required to come when they are opening?

Creed: Oh, maybe an hour early? Our deserts are relatively easy to make, and we prep them 3 days before.

Me: Sorry for interrupting, but after you let the man in, did he order anything, or did he immediately got to work?

Creed: I did explain to him to give me some time to set up, so he did set up instead of ordering first. However, it did take him a while to order up, I think he was really focused on his work for about 30 minutes.

Me: What kind of drink did he order?

Creed: A large iced coffee with sugar, no milk and with 2 shots of espresso.

[Creed makes a face that makes me think she swallowed a sour lemon]

Me: Guessing you’re not a fan of that strong drink?

Creed: No way, I prefer tea and a milky coffee if I really feel like it. What that man ordered, its pretty common order, or so I’ve noticed.

Me: You said it was a pattern?

Creed: Yeah, and it makes sense, a coffee that’s with no milk and espresso shots? That’s a potent coffee, and the sugar just adds energy. But yeah, he stayed there the whole day, until an hour or so before closing.

Me: Do you think because they stay and focus on their work for so long represents how much workload is put on people these days?

[Creed pauses for a minute, her fingers creating a staccato rhythm on the wooden table]

Creed: I think that we are given more work, of course depending on what you do as a profession, I’m an architecture student and often, workloads often bleeds into each other and many times it seems endless. But, despite career differences, we all have countless workloads and can’t seem to get to the end of it.

Me: Being a student yourself, you probably know what it feels like to being pressured with so much work. Have you ever sat in a cafe yourself?

Creed: I mostly work in my studio, because everything is there and easy to look for quickly, but sometimes I did set up a space for myself when I had to finish making digitalized rendering of my works

Me: On your laptop, right?

[Creed pulls out a Surface Laptop, it’s a light grey with stickers of various bands from Queen to AC/DC]

Creed: Yes, other than my phone, I don’t know how my day would go without it. I can’t imagine being without it, because it has all my work!

Me: You spend how long on average?

Creed: I think its easier to tell you when I don’t. Its impossible not to be on your laptop these days, all my classes are doing assignments based on eBooks, and with social media, its very easy to spend your free times on it as well.

Me: You must have had to rely on coffee quite often

Creed: I used to, especially when my freshman year ended. The workload just doubled, I was STEM major student. And to be able to finish all my work, I had to pull quite a few all-nighters. Oh! And don’t forget about the exams.

Me: From research I read about the effects of caffeine, its important to understand that the more you rely on the caffeine to keep you awake, you had to even consume even more.

Creed: Definitely, my cups of coffee increased until I was having at least 5 a day because the 3^rd cup wasn’t helping me out.

Creed: So yes, I would say that the workload did really require me to consume so much to be able to keep up. But I’m a new woman now and limit myself to having tea or just some vitamin water. It’s not a healthy lifestyle.

Me: What do you mean?

Creed: Well since it’s a coffee is caffeine, right?  ..”

Me: Yes, Coffee contains caffeine.

Creed: Yeah, so I guess I was an addict, and depended on it very much. And I didn’t really notice the patterns afterwards. It was almost like I convinced myself that the withdrawal patterns was worth it because I was able to finish my work.

Me: Would you say that your increase in demand for workloads caused you to depend more on coffee?
Creed: For sure, it was hard to do anything really, especially when you hit the 5-cup-a-day point like me.

[End Transcript 13:29:07]

 

Being a student herself, Creed understood the sacrifice that was required to be able to keep up with her coursework. Being a STEM major myself, the work load is intense, and it was hard to focus without at least a coffee in the morning. I don’t think the workload changed for Creed after she switch her career path, architecture students often pull overnights to be able to finish projects. We see so many coffee shops open, typically big chains such as Starbucks whenever a neighborhood had been newly renovated.  And living in a big city like NYC, we are always expected to be able to work at maximum productivity. It brings us to question whether the increased amounts of coffee shops parallels to the rapid urbanization we see around, especially newly renovated neighborhoods that are deemed to be gentrified. It’s almost as if it keep up with the increased demand for productivity triggered the increased in the number of coffee shops.