24 stories. 24 visits. One counter, same six faces.
The Third Cup
The AI wave hit, and I got laid off from a company I'd been at for...
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Just got my layoff notice this morning. Handover until next Friday. Reality really does hit faster than fiction. 😂
Oh my god, did you see it coming ... and why ... ? "AI" ... ?
That's terrible, or do you already have other options?
My manager told me this morning that I haven't been using AI well enough at work, and that everyone has to be an AI person now. Joke's on him, I use AI constantly in my personal life. The free tools just don't hold up for actual work, and the company won't pay for the good ones.
The company's been on the way down for a while. This isn't even the first round of layoffs. I thought I'd make it to the end of the year, but it's just until next Friday.
Then it's a few days off, fix up the resume, and maybe finally get my stories polished into Amazon ebooks. The series deserves that.
You seem to be pretty relaxed about it, no panic from what I can tell, which is good ...
"everyone has to be an AI person now" - manager probably has no clue, and might be panicking himself, probably sees the writing on the wall, maybe he's next on the chopping block ...
Haha, lately every day felt like a blind box. 🤣Never knew who'd be the next one called in, and the office kept getting emptier. I'm treating this as a mini vacation. Gonna do some hiking first, then hopefully lock in a new job next month. Wish me luck!
I wish you every possible luck and I'm sure you'll be fine - enjoy your little vacation!
Funny how the numbers tell it. 🙃 Same cups in both halves, but thirty percent more people staying after the coffee's done, so somewhere around entry twelve the shop stopped being about the coffee. Good luck with the last twelve seats, and sorry about the news this morning.
You read the numbers exactly right. Somewhere around entry twelve it became about the people, not the coffee. The last twelve seats are going to be the best ones. ☕
Amazing analogy! ☕
I’d love to visit The Third Cup more often, but there’s just too much work to stop by the café right now. 😔
Btw, I hope everything works out for you after the layoff. Take care!
Having work that keeps you this busy is its own kind of blessing, honestly. The café stays open: your seat's still there, and your mug's still behind the bar. You're welcome anytime. I'll be fine, just treating this as a long vacation 😄
I found myself in the ledger. The cloud type who left more than the cup cost, years of building before writing anything down, the one whose eyes light up over recipes. By the way, I might make the tofu this weekend and share if it goes well. ☕
Reading this right after your news was a strange mix. I'm sorry, and I'm a bit angry on your behalf. Being told you're not enough of an "AI person" while you're quietly publishing some of the most careful AI-assisted writing on this platform is its own kind of absurd.
Because that's the thing that hooked me, and I want to say it plainly. It was never that you use AI. Half this site uses AI. It's how you use it. The restraint, the structure, letting "unknown" stay unknown, three days of rewrites nobody would have known about if you hadn't told us. AI smoothed your English. It didn't write Alex refusing to conclude, or P leaving without a word. That's you, and anyone reading properly can tell the difference.
So take the hiking, take the few days, then go find a shop that deserves you. Twelve seats left, and I'll be at the counter for all of them.
And I'll keep buying a coffee now and then. Least I can do for a place I've spent this much time in. 👊
Ha, the tofu. It's genuinely that good. Five minutes, one pan, and it demolishes a bowl of rice. You'll see.
And thank you for the kind words. Honestly, I don't hold much against my manager: he took the pressure from above and still kept me through next Friday, which I'm grateful for. The all-in-AI directive is what got under my skin, and that's aimed at the policy, not at him. It's the environment we're in; I can't change it, so I'm going with the flow. Funny how it works out. If it hadn't happened, I might never have found the time to write these stories or meet people like you. Bad news and good news travel together, I guess. Staying calm and moving forward.
Your seat's still there, and your mug's still behind the bar. Thanks for the comment, and for the coffee. ☕
You understand this series on a whole different level!!!
Really enjoyed this one! The Third Cup, brilliant as a 'story device' and as a metaphor ...
"The Other Regulars"
Ah haha, yes of course I see what you did there, lol - that gave me a genuine chuckle 😄 - thanks for that!
Nice one - on to the "Grand Final" !
Ha, you found yourself in there. Was wondering if you'd spot it 😄
Twelve more to the grand finale. See you in all of them.
Yeah that was pretty easy to spot haha, and the Lazy Girl was of course a dead giveaway - nice & clever how you weaved "us" (and yourself) into it! The Third Cup must be one of my favorite story devices of all time, lol ...
Means a lot coming from you, leob. The Third Cup was always going to be about the people at the counter. ☕
The empty seats section got me. the person is gone, the entry stays, and you still wipe their cup and put it back in its old spot.
i build systems that do the exact opposite of that. everything i work on is about eviction, what expires, what goes stale, what earns the right to survive. an entry that stops halfway is a defect i have to go resolve. you made it a seat kept warm instead, and i dont think thats sentimental, i think its a different retention policy and yours is defensible in a way mine isnt. a record that ends without explanation is still true. it just stopped.
the other thing, and i think most people are going to walk past it because its buried under the story. your numbers folder is doing real work. first twelve entries, 650 cups, 296 stayed. last twelve, 654 cups, 383 stayed. the volume basically did not move and the composition did, thirty percent more people staying after the cup was empty.
thats the measurement almost nobody takes. traffic held flat so a headline number would say nothing changed, and underneath it the reason people were coming had already changed. you tracked the thing that moved instead of the thing that was easy to count. i spend most of my time arguing with people about denominators and you just quietly picked the right one and put it in a story about coffee.
twelve seats left. ill take the 4am one, i keep the same hours.
Your seat and your mug are still here, man. Like the story says, I remember everyone who walks in, and your spot is always waiting. Your comments are what keep this series going, honestly. Thanks for showing up, every time.
"Sit." I say, and go to boil the water.☕️
I really enjoyed this one. It felt different from the previous chapters, but in a good way. Looking back at all the characters through someone else's eyes made me realize how much the story has grown since the beginning. Looking forward to seeing where it goes next.
@hemapriya_kanagala Did you find yourself in this story?😄
I love that you had technical stories in your article.
Thanks, brother! So what are you drinking this time?☕ Americano, latte, pour-over, or something new? Haha😄
I prefer my americano. Pretty please
Haha🤣, whoever on the Dev.to team came up with that tagline 'Layoffs spark a café of stories' deserves a raise. It fits way too well!🤣