Earlier this month, a worker at a branch of a large drinks chain was irritated because a customer had placed an order just before closing time, and she made a “spit special” drink for the customer to express her annoyance, later uploading a video of it online. That video, unsurprisingly, triggered a major uproar.
The worker in question later issued a statement on social media, but failed to express any contrition for her behavior, even complaining that she had already apologized, asking what more do people expect her to do.
This situation is an example of the deviation of values in Taiwan.
Judging the case as it stands, if a customer places an order before closing time, and if it delays employees getting off work, then the correct response would be to decline to accept the last-minute order. That said, since the person in question was being paid to work, the expectation would be that she should do her job properly during working hours. Even if tempers flare, the appropriate thing to do would be to find a resolution through normal channels. It is bad to vent your anger on customers, and stupid to film and upload a misconduct online.
If a store hires a poor performing employee and fails to fulfill supervisory responsibilities, the head office suffers damage to its reputation and the store might be subject to collateral penalties, forced to cease business and have its contract terminated.
Looking at Japan, early last year, a high-school student licked a soy sauce bottle at a sushi restaurant chain as a stupid prank, licking off a market value of ￥16 billion (US$102 million). Even if the teenager spends the rest of his life compensating for the company’s huge loss, it would still be a drop in the bucket. The parent company of the restaurant chain took legal action to prevent such pranks from recurring again.
Similarly, a few days ago in Taiwan, a college student put her pet, a lizard, on a plate of a restaurant, just before the “spit special” incident happened. These young Taiwanese are not motivated by revenge against a specific target, but rather by having “fun,” wanting to show off on the Internet, apparently unaware that their behavior is illegal.
As a junior-high schoolteacher, I often encourage students to challenge the system, instead of being the best behaved students, as long as they do not break the law or cause any trouble to others. Education should be the capacity that stays in the mind long after graduation, and the most basic thing is to know what you can do and what you cannot do in life.
If young people do something silly, they would be disciplined by their parents at home, and would receive demerits from their teachers at school, but they might face legal penalties for playing pranks after entering the workplace. People say that it is not shameful to do something wrong, but it is shameful to repeat bad behavior. Now, perhaps we need to add: the most shameful thing is to do something wrong, and to film and upload it online without knowing that it is wrong.
Lin Cheng-wu is a junior-high schoolteacher.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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