I will say that gifts like that go a long way to fostering good relations with shop employees but so do good manners.
After reading several opinions on the subject I have come to several conclusions:
• Bicycle professionals are nothing if not opinionated
• Alcohol is good but only after hours
• As nice as alcohol is food is good too
• If you are going to tip cash is always appreciated
Here’s the thing, if you strip away the fact that you are playing with some pretty cool toys most of the jobs in the bike industry are not tremendously well-paying service sector jobs.
Most of the time you are on your feet, sometimes you have to deal with unpleasant customers, and often times the hours you work are not conducive to maintaining long-term relationships.
I must give my wife credit for suffering through the times we had non-concurrent schedules. Believe you me that shit gets pretty old especially when you have to beg Junior Birdman the manager for weekend days off.
As many years as I have been involved with the bike industry, I’ve been involved with the music world even longer.
(Don’t worry I’m going to try to tie these two things together).
A little while ago I was chatting with a well-known person in the music world and as we exchanged messages back and forth I brought up the fact that the world of entertainment doesn’t do a very good job with people that have mental health issues.
While that paragraph may be worth a couple of chuckles I will say that the bike industry does a pretty piss poor job addressing mental health issues too.
Almost everyone I know in the industry had a fucked up childhood. Add to that performance enhancing drugs, recreational drugs, alcohol, head injuries and craptastic insurance plans, it’s a mixture that’s bound to mess with your head.
Differed medical treatments are obviously problematic but so are untreated mental disorders. I’ve worked with guys that had severe head injuries (possibly resulting in Traumatic Brain Injuries, TBI), post-traumatic stress disorders, schizophrenia, and people that had serious drug and alcohol problems.
We know that some people try to address mental health issues by self-medicating but not only is that not a long-term solution it can also be dangerous.
Addressing mental health issues may be difficult for an independent bike shop to take on. Given the rising prices of health insurance and the added pressures that bike shops face from customer direct sales that helping employees with health issues will be very difficult.
With the absence of employer-provided insurance, county mental health clinics become a last ditch effort and even they can only do so much.
I know several bike shop guys that are getting close to retirement age. They worry what that looks like and many are reconciling themselves to the fact they are going to be solely dependent on government assistance the rest of their lives.
Given the systematic efforts to dismantle whatever minor strides had been made towards universal health care, I fear many graying shop employees will simply fall through the cracks.
What can be done?
• Recognize symptoms of mental illness and substance abuse
• Work with employees that have mental health or substance abuse issues and get them help
• Fight for low-cost insurance not against it
The last one is a hard sell especially given what razor thin profits most shops make. I also recognize that not everyone shares my politics. Wherever you are on the political spectrum there is a dazzling array of free market or social welfare state health care models to choose from.
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