My name is Nat. As many of you know I am an employee at The Oasis in Stillwater, MN. I serve, cook, post our weekly specials and help manage our Facebook page. Some of you may have never heard of this small town diner until Monday after a receipt from The O highlighting our newly enforced Minimum Wage Fee was posted to social media. From there it rapidly bounced around from one media outlet to another catching steam as it spread and has now turned into a national debate. The last week in my quiet family focused workplace has been emotionally humid. The air feeling tight, filled with phone calls and pointed fingers from everyone from reporters wanting interviews to passers-by wanting to be reimbursed for the $.35 fee that we hid from them. Wednesday evening, after multiple hostile phone calls threatening our boss and slandering our coworkers we finally chose to turn the ringer off. We had enough and were not going to volunteer for further deprivation. From what I understand, weve been labeled as cowards for this choice. I work Sunday-Friday mornings.. if you have something to say about my boss or how he chooses to run his business feel free to stop by because you are not attacking a man, you are attacking the entire Oasis family and we stand by Craig. This might sound like a story of being beaten down but oh how beautiful the dawn..Amongst the environmental exhaustion of constantly being on our guard, what has risen from the hearts and backbones of myself and my coworkers, my friends, and work family (which is really what they are) is a sense of camaraderie and an acknowledgement of gratitude and pride in the man we admiringly call Beem Slice. You might know him as the Dough Ho or as that man who refills your coffees and plays tic-tac-toe with your children or maybe you just know him as Craig.. but to us he is family. He is the one we go to when our car breaks down (again) and we dont know how we are going to make it to our next paycheck. He is the one who helps manage our schedules when relationships fall apart and we find ourselves frazzled single parents not knowing how to balance home and work. Craig, how do I do this? Craig, why is this happening? Craig, can you help me with ... is a constant stream. How do I know this? Because all of this and more he has done for me and I watch him do it for others. From loaning me money to fix my car to watching my son when I am in a jam and cant make my work shift, even extending his personal home to us so we could get back on our feet, Craig has gone out of his way to be kind, available, and loving to me, to my son, and to the hundreds of people he comes in to contact with on a weekly basis. Why do I feel the need to publically reenforce his character? Because that is what seems to be up for question.. Not questioning what the government planned to do about funding their minimum wage increase, not how it affects small business owners and their families all across Minnesota, not how tipped employees view the change and fear that this, in the long run, will harm their income more than help it. For some reason, these issues are lacking media coverage but when one man decided to do what he needed to do with integrity and outright honesty to keep his business afloat and more so to keep his employees without cutting hours or letting go of employees in general the negative perception of this decision goes viral?? And instead of questioning the government about its plans to successfully implement its new laws, I am watching uninformed, faceless, nameless people bandwagon because of one persons perception of a fee he did not even ask to be explained to him. What has come to my mind over and over is Theodore Roosevelts speech Citizenship in a Republic best remembered for its quotations commonly known as The Man in the Arena: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” And this is what I have to say to you- To the many people who have come forward to support Craig and everyone at The Oasis, thank you from all of us. We have a hot cup of coffee, a smile, and a haystack waiting for you. To the scoffers, to the critics in the cheap seats.. you are fighting the wrong enemy. We are not corporate America. We are not one of hundreds of chain restaurants profiting off of low wages, deficient food quality and poor service. We are the mom and pop shop, we are the small business owners, and if you are not in the arena with us also getting your ass kicked, we are not interested in your opinion.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 18:21:47 +0000