TWS

A knock-on effect of the Covid border closures has been a labour shortage, which has led to a new frustrating phenomenon – Teenage Worker Syndrome.

Every few days now I will enter a shop to be confronted by a shiny young person, all smiley and uncynical, and my expectations will immediately drop.

I will then brace myself for 5 minutes of “how do you select soy?” type questions of older colleagues and cancelled eftpos transactions as they fight the till system.

Or a 15 minute wait for them to make a coffee in agonising slow motion, if it arrives at the table at all and not sit on the counter going cold. Or wait while they ignore you to shout across the store to their mate.

It’s all quite exasperating until I remember what a gormless tit I was as a teenager, and accept that I can always catch the next train, or have another coffee made for me (in another 15 minutes). Which, if I’m lucky, may even use soy milk.