Popular Insite on Life in London
Our Bar Tried a Tip-Pooling Experiment for a Month and the Actual Results Surprised Nearly Everyone Involved – We voted on it as a staff, ran it for thirty days, and the outcome didn’t split cleanly along the lines any of us expected going in.
A Regular at the Bar Told Me Tonight He Lost His Job to Automation Last Week, and I Did Not Know What to Actually Say to Him – Twenty-two years at the same warehouse. Replaced, essentially, in a single afternoon. I poured him a drink and listened, because that was the only thing I actually had to offer.
I Sat in on a Tenants Union Meeting Last Night for the First Time and Left With a Considerably More Complicated View of My Own Landlord – I went in expecting a fairly simple story about a bad landlord. What I actually heard was messier, and more useful, than that.
I Wrote a Genuinely Angry Piece About Wage Theft Today and My Editor Sent It Back Asking Me to Make It ‘Less Personal,’ Which I Am Still Turning Over – The wage theft happened to me directly. Removing the personal stake felt, at first, like being asked to lie about why the piece existed at all.
Our Bar Hosted a Genuinely Chaotic Benefit Night for a Coworker’s Medical Bills, and I Have Complicated Feelings About Why That Was Necessary in the First Place – We raised more money in one night than I expected. I am still angry that raising it was ever necessary at all.