Via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Target Stores is leading the pack, by refusing to fire employees who refuse to serve the needs of their pork-consuming customers. In most occupations, not doing your job is grounds for termination. Apparently Target’s robust business model permits them to effectively pay people to irritate paying customers.

Some stores have reassigned muslim employees to other areas of the store. Others took the following approach, which can only be described as asinine:

At Target stores, some Muslim cashiers opposed to selling pork had grown accustomed to waving over other employees whenever they came across bacon, ham or other pork products, even pepperoni pizza. In many cases, they simply switched on a little light above their registers and another cashier would rush to their side and swipe the product for them…

…Occasionally, however, Robla said, people would get annoyed when she told them it was because of her religion. “Some people would say, ‘If you won’t scan it, then I don’t want this thing,’ ” she said. “I don’t understand it. Some people don’t even want to wait a few seconds.

But another muslim employee had this to say: “If someone is trying to buy pork, you can’t just say, ‘Wait here,’ [y]ou can’t put a hold on the work system.”

He gets the gold star. It’s a mutually voluntary transaction – employment is: if you don’t like the terms of the position, don’t apply for it and complain about it later, don’t ask for special treatment, and don’t, under any circumstances, try to unilaterally alter the terms to which you agreed. The Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin reports the same story, and also tells the tale of Muse Dahir, a Sam’s Club employee who quit when he was informed that he couldn’t simply tell customers to go to another cashier. According to the PB article,

Jama Omar, a clerk at Otanga Grocery in Minneapolis… said Muslims shouldn’t expect special treatment. “If it causes a big problem for your employer, they have to make thm decision that’s best for them,” Omar said. “It’s not something to go on strike or file a civil suit. Go somewhere else that will accept your beliefs. There’s millions of jobs.“

And he’s right. Would an event moderately religious muslim dare to apply for a job as a server or a cook at an Applebee’s restaurant, and then refuse to prepare or serve babyback ribs or porkchops? Would a restaurant tolerate that sort of behavior from their employees? Would a devout buddhist accept a job at a slaughterhouse? As a meat-grinder? Would a vegan accept a job as a seal-clubber? You should be getting the point by now.

From now on, one of the interview questions – you know, right after: “Do you have a problem standing on your feet all day? Can you occasionally lift items weighing up to fifty pounds? Etc.,” should be: “Do you have a problem handling pork or products containing pork?” And it’s not discrimination. The question is religion-neutral, and you would not be refused the opportunity because of your religion, rather you’d be refused because you’ve identified yourself as someone unable or unwilling to do the job. Your excuses are beside the point.

A few friends and I spent the weekend at the Otsego Club, in Gaylord, Michigan, for their ski-season finale and St. Patrick’s day celebration. It was a very nice resort, by Michigan Standards, and the size and quality of the ski area far exceeded my expectations. For $2,200, a family can get unlimited skiing for the season, and by virtue of its private nature, the lift-lines are kept to a minimum, and the condition of the trails is optimized. Now, I don’t have a family, so that’s far from economical, for me, but their trial membership, for $395 and no monthly dues gives you unlimited golf and skiing for a year. I don’t golf, but $395 is less than the price of most ski area season passes.

But while I was there, I noticed something odd. Bartenders are generally friendly, gregarious individuals. So imagine being at a small bar, with only a handful of patrons, watching a sporting event on TV and trying to strike up small-talk with the bartender – which only resulted in nervous laughter or awkward silence. I found this to be queer, and upon further discussion, we determined that the most likely reason for the bartender’s apprehensiveness, was that the members of the club, in general, treated him like shit. Now, this is not typical – treating your bartender like shit.

Why don’t people generally treat bartenders like shit? Well, there are a couple of reasons that immediately come to mind:

1. If you treat a bartender poorly, he will ignore you, and you won’t get served.
2. If you treat a bartender poorly, he will call the bouncer, and you will be removed from the premises.

So, commerce in general requires a modicum of mutual respect and tact in order to continue. That is, generally, if the bartender treats you poorly, or gives bad service, you’ll take your business elsewhere, and he’ll be out of a job. If you treat him poorly, you’ll be going thirsty. But, what if you can treat him poorly – and – control the terms of his employment? I don’t want to go so far as to characterize the members of the club with malice – I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but something was seriously awry. One of the many jobs I’ve held was as a golf caddy at a local country club. In retrospect, the words and actions towards the hired help were similar in both circumstances. A common ground having been established, I came to a simple conclusion.

The relationship between bartender and member, or member and “the girl who works the beer-cart at the turn,” is no longer one based on commerce, it is one based on command and an undeserved sense of entitlement; the bartender is simply a tool in the employment of a corporation that has granted exclusive privileges in return for a sum of money. It has ceased altogether being a commercial, transactional relationship. The help is, for all intents and purposes, a servant class, and they will be treated and objectified accordingly. The staff’s only recourse to this is to quit, either en masse or frequently and in sufficient numbers so as to cause financial ruin. But because most of the jobs are seasonal, I’d suppose there is a high rate of year-over-year turnover; most people dissatisfied with the work environment, may be willing to stick it out until the end of the golf season, when they go back to school, and simply find a better job the following summer (or winter.)

There is not a very good market test because there is a disconnect somewhere between ownership, control, and transaction; those with a controlling interest – the members – are the vast majority of the clientele, and the members have been granted a certain set of powers and privileges that they can use or abuse. I’m not trying to make a universal, qualitative judgement about this sort of behavior – although to be candid, I deplore it. I’m just trying to explain how the behavior of men towards their bartender or server could be so radically different in the closed, country club environment. And that’s what I came up with, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely – according to Acton, and although the club members don’t have anything like “absolute power,” the power they have is far superior to that commanded by any run-of-the-mill market participant.