S02.E06: Zoey’s Extraordinary Reckoning

[Jsage]

23 hours ago, springbarb said:

I thought this episode was well done, but I wish they had taken out a couple lines--Zoey's about being a woman in tech and Simon's about getting on an elevator and what people see. The show hasn't really dealt with the issues of women in tech, other than the bro-grammer stuff that was largely glossed over; and Zoey quite possibly could've had her own bad elevator experiences. I'm not saying that this episode should've been about women's issues, and it shouldn't have been about comparing the racism that Simon feels vs. sexism that Zoey has dealt with. I just wish it hd been more of, "That's valid, but we're not having that discussion right now." He was more dismissive, I guess, than I would've liked.

I actually believe Simon's dismissiveness was significant since it was out of character for him. It conveyed how distraught he was about the situation at SPRQ Point and how deeply frustrated he was with Zoey at that moment. 

 

[HappyBerry]

3 hours ago, Jsage said:

I actually believe Simon's dismissiveness was significant since it was out of character for him. It conveyed how distraught he was about the situation at SPRQ Point and how deeply frustrated he was with Zoey at that moment. 

 

I can see that. I think it's a tricky needle to thread to give the "we are talking about my problem right now, not yours" emphasis without going into "sexism is over because you had a female mentor" type feeling. 

I think their relationship makes it even trickier, because their initial bonding was over shared experience and bonding with father death. So I can see Zoey going "here is further shared experience to bond over" while being unaware of the bigger issues at play. 

[possibilities]

Blind people are not stupid. If you can be close to someone and not notice, know or care about anything about their race/culture/background, it has nothing to do with whether or not you are blind. I find this to be a ridiculous line of thought. I have spent quite a bit of time with blind people, because I produced a publication that was accessible in multiple formats, including audio and braille, and not one of the blind people I had interactions with was claiming they should ignore the existence of race in their interactions with other people. Please don't use blind people as straw men for an argument about the nature of racism or the responsibility to be an anti-racist. 

[90PercentGravity]

On 2/10/2021 at 3:32 PM, D Angel said:

While we are talking about a FICTIONAL character here, standing in for a generic open-minded and post-racial white person, nobody is asserting that a) Zoey doesn't realize that he's African American and b) that African American men in the US experience racism. That does NOT constitute a "blind spot" for Zoey or anyone. Are you saying Zoey or anyone in the real world should be treating the people they know personally differently because of their race? How is that not racism? And why should Zoey, as a white person, carry the requirement of extra sensitivity to someone's race so much as to become more important than their personal relationship with that person.

I highly recommend doing some research on this. Here's a useful link.

I hate how bad they are at representing the tech in this show. They had a diagram of a network on the whiteboard while trying to figure out the "coding glitch." It also looked like there was a bit of JSON next to it. Neither of those things would have anything to do with hitting all the APIs at once. I hope they charge Max for the time he took from their entire team.

I think they handled the racism issues fairly well. They called out a lot of things that people use to patch over racism without actually doing anything about it, like colorblindness, inclusivity seminars, workshops, etc.

[KaveDweller]

7 hours ago, 90PercentGravity said:

I highly recommend doing some research on this. Here's a useful link.

I hate how bad they are at representing the tech in this show. They had a diagram of a network on the whiteboard while trying to figure out the "coding glitch." It also looked like there was a bit of JSON next to it. Neither of those things would have anything to do with hitting all the APIs at once. I hope they charge Max for the time he took from their entire team.

It also seems like they should have had some kind of agreement about how the team was getting paid for their work. Say this business is a huge success. Tobin could claim he owns the code and none of the success would exist without his work, and sue for royalties or part ownership or something.

Plus, I'm sure the team has signed a contract saying that anything they do for SPRQ Point is owned by the company, and they were helping Max on company time and using company resources.

 

[snarktini]

On 2/9/2021 at 9:03 PM, possibilities said:

Simon suggests Zoey's idea isn't a good one. She says she's going to do it anyway, because it's time for her to listen, thus not listening AGAIN to Simon.

Ooooof, that was bad. "I see that I need to listen! And I have a solution for that! That I arrived at, without listening to the person who told me I need to listen!" It was hard to watch, but I'm glad we saw Zoey stumble at EVERY turn. She made basically every mistake. And the audience needed to see all those ways.

On 2/10/2021 at 8:54 AM, vibeology said:

This. She's the boss and she was right there. She could have said something.

Zoey was acting like she had no power in this situation when she in fact, did. She could have pushed back with Danny before even going to Simon. She could say something about casual microaggressions in the moment. She is the boss of the 4th floor (however little sense that makes) and she should be using her power to protect the BIPOC that work for her.

I commented about this on the softball episode, too. Why is Zoey acting so helpless? Did it really take a song to reveal that Tobin might not want to be called Slumdog? And even if he's okay with it, Zoey and Sprqpoint should not be. I haven't understood why she has been letting her team get away with bullshit behavior, but now that we've had this episode and she's become aware how oblivious she is, maybe we'll start seeing change. Is that too much to hope for?

On 2/10/2021 at 12:22 PM, Sarah 103 said:

Nice to know other people saw what I thought I saw as well. Maybe it's something trendy? I have no idea what is currently happening in fashion.

Bathrobe coats are definitely a current trend! A couple years ago it was "teddy bear" coats.

On 2/11/2021 at 9:30 AM, chaifan said:

I was really hoping Zoey's chat with Simon would have included a "This is BS, we know it, Danny knows it.  I'm willing to get fired or quit over this, but if you have another way of approaching this, let's talk about it."  I was disappointed that Zoey was so tow the corporate line about telling Simon to retract his statement.

When she went to Mo and said I need a way to tell Simon that the Board wants him to rectract but still let him know I have his back, I wanted Mo (or anyone) to say to Zoey -- you can't have it both ways. You actually don't have his back! Why was she so quick to fall in line? She didn't push back or seek a third way. This plus her unwillingness to check bad behavior on her team adds up to Zoey not being ready for leadership. I hope this is intentional + part of her arc.

Edited February 15, 2021 by snarktini

[D Angel]

On 2/12/2021 at 11:57 AM, 90PercentGravity said:

I highly recommend doing some research on this. Here's a useful link.

Well, those links are some opinions on being so called "race-blind". I wouldn't call what's at the top of the link "research" material, but rather just riffing on some social science theories. But either way, everything I read in the top links are based on generalities, not individual people who are friends and have been for some time. It's not like I don't know that my friend from college of 40 years (now you know I'm not a youngster) is Indian and Muslim, it just doesn't matter to me. His national origin or religion is not how I think of him and never have.

Zoey and Simon haven't been friends for as long, and if racial identity had been an issue in their relationship before, I might agree Zoey had a blind spot. But Simon is not her only African-American friend, and nobody in her circle has shown any racial animous or insensitivity, as you'd expect from a very progressive place like SF.

So maybe, just maybe, you all might take a lesson from them in your approach to personal relationships with people of different backgrounds rather than trying to school me with an "OK Boomer" attitude. MLK had it absolutely right when he said to judge people by the content of their character. That's what I see from Zoey and the show in general, and stirring the pot to try to claim some kind of moral high ground isn't helping.

 

 

[vibeology]

4 hours ago, D Angel said:

Zoey and Simon haven't been friends for as long, and if racial identity had been an issue in their relationship before, I might agree Zoey had a blind spot. But Simon is not her only African-American friend, and nobody in her circle has shown any racial animous or insensitivity, as you'd expect from a very progressive place like SF.

But Zoey has been racially insensitive. We've seen it. She did it in this episode when she pushed ahead with the Town Hall and then put Simon on the spot forcing him to do the emotional labour of making the white people feel better about themselves despite him telling her it was a bad idea. She was racially insensitive when Simon called her and told her the watch was racist and didn't read Black people and she didn't think to ask him how he was feeling about it. She was racially insensitive when she didn't shut down the slumdog comment on the spot and instead pressured Tobin to speak out about racial issues without checking with him on his comfort level. She's his boss. She shouldn't pressure him in that way. She was racially insensitive when she went to her other Black friend to get instructions on how to help Simon rather than seeing Mo as a person with his own pressing issues.

She has blind spots just like we all do. The point is to keep doing the important work of challenging our own blind spots and practice being anti-racist every day. Zoey, for the first time it seems, is realizing its not enough not to be racist. You have to be anti-racist and work to dismantle a system that holds up white supremacy. 

[D Angel]

14 hours ago, vibeology said:

But Zoey has been racially insensitive. We've seen it. She did it in this episode when she pushed ahead with the Town Hall and then put Simon on the spot forcing him to do the emotional labour of making the white people feel better about themselves despite him telling her it was a bad idea. She was racially insensitive when Simon called her and told her the watch was racist and didn't read Black people and she didn't think to ask him how he was feeling about it. She was racially insensitive when she didn't shut down the slumdog comment on the spot and instead pressured Tobin to speak out about racial issues without checking with him on his comfort level. She's his boss. She shouldn't pressure him in that way. She was racially insensitive when she went to her other Black friend to get instructions on how to help Simon rather than seeing Mo as a person with his own pressing issues.

She has blind spots just like we all do. The point is to keep doing the important work of challenging our own blind spots and practice being anti-racist every day. Zoey, for the first time it seems, is realizing its not enough not to be racist. You have to be anti-racist and work to dismantle a system that holds up white supremacy. 

I call BS on all of this.

Simon put it out there in a press conference and Zoey holding a Town Hall-style gathering of the employees on her floor to address it is both an appropriate and wise decision. Zoey handled the event well and is not in any way responsible for what other people said as she was just faciliting it, not directing it. That's the right way to handle it so that anyone who wants to speak can. She specifically asked Simon, who initiated the issue in a public forum, wanted to share and he declined for his own reasons.

It's also not Zoey's place to "shut down" someone calling Tobin "slumdog". Tobin made no immediate move to "shut down" the comment so it could very well be that Tobin had previously endorsed it as a term of endearment. But once Zoey saw Tobin's face (and then heart his heart song) that she made the private move to give him a safe space to express his feelings on the matter, both to her and to others. Tobin initially resisted, but recognized Zoey's affirmative effort, and accepted her prompt.

Zoey went to Mo for help on how best to help Simon. So I'd argue that if Mo cared about Simon and the cause he was promoting, it behooved her to help Zoey help him. It was Simon who admonished Zoey (unfairly, IMO) to see his race so Zoey reaching out to Mo is simly Zoey taking her cue from Simon.

I'm guessing that, unlike me, none of you commenters are trained and certified for mediation and conducting them regularly. ... I thought not. Well, let me just share that even though Zoey was NOT trained in mediation, she did an EXCELLENT job of it with Simon, DMD and Tobin and the rest of the SPRQ Point staff on her floor. And the parties achieved a good result for all of them.

What some of you see as a "blind spot", I recognize as her honest attempt to mediate and de-escalate the dispute so that the parties could reach a meeting of the minds on how to move ahead. If she had instead chosen to indulge herself in soothing her own feelings of neglect, maybe we'd have Simon quit, SPRQ Point putting out PR spin to absolve itself, and no celebrating a win at Maximos.

The more you start barking at good people like Zoey that they have to be even better, the less progress you make with others.

[seacliffsal]

The fact that Zoey heard the Slumdog comment and did nothing bothers me to no end.  As a teacher I will immediately shut down any disrespectful comment.  The students (high school-mainly 11th and 12th graders) will start with the "just kidding, we're friends, etc." defenses and I am always clear that there is no tolerance for any disrespectful/racist/sexist comment in the classroom.  I know, and admit, that I have no impact/control outside of the classroom, but while they are with me they know to be respectful (also, students will often tell me that they really appreciate that while in my classroom they feel safe [and we still have fun-it's not a draconian environment]).  I know that was long-winded, but she is the manager/supervisor and yet she doesn't react to negativity and inappropriateness.  She just looks bewildered. She also seems to want to be everyone's friend when in reality in her position she needs to be their supervisor.

[dubbel zout]

31 minutes ago, D Angel said:

even though Zoey was NOT trained in mediation, she did an EXCELLENT job of it with Simon, DMD and Tobin and the rest of the SPRQ Point staff on her floor. And the parties achieved a good result for all of them.

How is letting a town meeting to talk about race devolve into someone's wedding plans doing an excellent job? Saying she was facilitating the meeting and not directing it really lets her off the hook. If she's going to set up the meeting, she needs to take more ownership of it. Otherwise she should have just left. It was a bad idea to arrange that on the fly in the first place, with no HR or other support. And Simon was the one going through the social media with DMD before Zoey burst into the room to tell them what what going on.

If the show was trying to say that one town meeting and one board meeting won't solve racism, it totally succeeded. If it was trying to say that white people can be well-meaning and still do the absolute wrong thing? Again, total success. But if I'm supposed to believe Zoey has had some sort of racial breakthrough, the jury is still out there. She's saying some of the right things, now we have to see her back up those words with real action, like stopping people from calling Topher "Slumdog" and other racist names. 

16 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

She also seems to want to be everyone's friend when in reality in her position she needs to be their supervisor.

That's a big problem for new managers that I wish the show would deal with a bit more. She can still be friendly and warm to everyone; just really can't be their buddy. That's not good or fair to anyone.

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

The fact that Zoey heard the Slumdog comment and did nothing bothers me to no end.  As a teacher I will immediately shut down any disrespectful comment.  The students (high school-mainly 11th and 12th graders) will start with the "just kidding, we're friends, etc." defenses and I am always clear that there is no tolerance for any disrespectful/racist/sexist comment in the classroom.  I know, and admit, that I have no impact/control outside of the classroom, but while they are with me they know to be respectful (also, students will often tell me that they really appreciate that while in my classroom they feel safe [and we still have fun-it's not a draconian environment]).  I know that was long-winded, but she is the manager/supervisor and yet she doesn't react to negativity and inappropriateness.  She just looks bewildered. She also seems to want to be everyone's friend when in reality in her position she needs to be their supervisor.

I agree. I did like that it showed the problem with a color blind approach. Zoey’s had undoubtedly heard things like that but it never even occurred to her it could be an issue until she was focused on race issues. 

I’ve mentioned it before but my biggest problem with Zoey is that she acted helpless to help Tobin after she knew. Zoey knew that Simon was being pressured to retract his statement. Encouraging Tobin to come forward on his own could have easily backfired for him. Zoey is a horrible manager and an HR nightmare. She’s not protected her employees or the company. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

50 minutes ago, D Angel said:

It's also not Zoey's place to "shut down" someone calling Tobin "slumdog"

Zoey is a manager/supervisor so it is absolutely her responsibility to reprimand employees who are saying or doing offensive things in the workplace. The onus is not on Tobin. Whether he says anything or not has no bearing on the situation. Whether he was offended or not has no bearing on the situation either. Racist, sexist, and other offensive/disrespectful language is not appropriate, acceptable, or professional, even if the parties involved are friends.

To put it another way, Max and Zoey were friends and coworkers during S1. If Max had jokingly said to Zoey while at work before her promotion, "Hey, why don't you suck my big fat dick?" it matters not (1) that he was joking (2) that they were friends (3) if she said she wasn't offended. That's just something you should not say to anyone at work. If he said it loudly in a common area (because, let's be real, their department is just one big common area) and Joan heard him say it, as the manager it would have been her responsibility to tell Max how inappropriate and offensive his words were. It would not be Zoey's responsibility to pipe up and do it herself.

Part of being a manager is making sure that a hostile work environment does not exists. This is for the benefit of the employees. Another part of being a manager is protecting the company from potential liability. By not saying anything, Zoey leaves the company open to a lawsuit should anyone choose to take legal action. The first thing the company will be asked is, "Was management aware of this problem?" followed by "What action did they take?" In Simon's case, he went to both Zoey (his supervisor for reasons that are still unclear to us) and Danny in the previous episode. Neither of them addressed his concerns which is what made the issue even worse.

If Zoey is still not comfortable reprimanding her own employees (which is part of managing), then she needs to go to HR and get some training because it is her responsibility to address her employees' inappropriate behavior in the workplace.

[vibeology]

1 hour ago, D Angel said:

It's also not Zoey's place to "shut down" someone calling Tobin "slumdog". Tobin made no immediate move to "shut down" the comment so it could very well be that Tobin had previously endorsed it as a term of endearment. But once Zoey saw Tobin's face (and then heart his heart song) that she made the private move to give him a safe space to express his feelings on the matter, both to her and to others. Tobin initially resisted, but recognized Zoey's affirmative effort, and accepted her prompt.

It is absolutely her place at work to shut that down. She is the boss. It is not professional to make racist comments to your coworker. It's not just about how Tobin feels, though that is very important, but it's about creating an environment where racist comments aren't tolerated so that everyone who is there currently and anyone who may join the team down the line will feel welcome and safe. At work, Zoey is allowed to say "no racist comments." It's very much her place to hold her own staff to basic professional standards. I don't need to be certified in mediation to know that part of the job of managing is to make sure your staff is safe at work.

1 hour ago, D Angel said:

Simon put it out there in a press conference and Zoey holding a Town Hall-style gathering of the employees on her floor to address it is both an appropriate and wise decision. Zoey handled the event well and is not in any way responsible for what other people said as she was just faciliting it, not directing it. That's the right way to handle it so that anyone who wants to speak can. She specifically asked Simon, who initiated the issue in a public forum, wanted to share and he declined for his own reasons.

That town hall was a disaster. It quickly devolved into white people talking about their own problems. And it did so because Zoey does not have the skills, training or understanding in how to run that sort of event and she didn't take the time to find people who can. She just wanted to "fix" the problem and made it worse. Asking Simon, who had already told her privately that the town hall was a very bad idea, to save it was wildly unfair and placed an additional burden on him while he was already dealing with his own issues. Simon is a PR and marketing person without any power in the company. Just because he pointed out some of the problems there doesn't mean it's on him to fix them. In fact, it's unfair to ask the person who is suffering under the white supremacist system to do the labour of tearing it down.

36 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

If it was trying to say that white people can be well-meaning and still do the absolute wrong thing? Again, total success.

This! You can mean well and still do harm. Zoey did do some harm here. She hurt Simon, she hurt Mo, she hurt Tobin and she hurt the workplace. I think she'll be better going forward and this doesn't make her a bad person but it's wrong to close our eyes to the lessons the episode put forward. Zoey can't rely on Black people to do her emotional labour, conversations about race shouldn't burden racial minorities and she, as the boss, has to create a more welcoming and safe environment. And that some of her closest friends are Black and that does impact how they move through the world and she shouldn't turn a blind eye to that fact. And that doesn't mean everything in your relationship is about race but for example when they say "hey, I encountered this racist thing" you stop and check in on how they're doing. I don't doubt for a second that Zoey wants to do the right thing. She's just doesn't have the lived experience of Black and Brown people and needs to be more aware and open to that fact so she can do the work of being anti-racist.

[wonderwoman]

timely as this episode was (and the discussion that’s followed), i’m just not connecting as emotionally with this 2nd season as i did with the 1st. 

as a commenter noted (and i concurred) on a previous episode this season (don’t remember who or which episode), the death of zoey’s father has left a real emotional gap in the storytelling that has yet to be filled. will be interesting to see what happens when the show returns in late march.

[FnkyChkn34]

I finally caught up on this episode, and I really liked it.  It felt a bit more like last season, and I thought it was well done.  I thought that conversations and dialogue were good, I thought it was well acted, and even the songs were well done.  Every episode needs more Max singing, but we can't always get what we want. 😉  

I can't add much more to the discussion that's been going on; I've enjoyed reading it all.  I'm a white woman in a predominantly white city in a very white male-dominated profession (as many white collar jobs are), and I enjoy learning all that I can.  I've attended multiple seminars on the topic of microaggressions towards all minorities, women and people of color, and I think this episode reinforced that message.  I know that I am not perfect, and no one is.  While I don't think most people are bad intentioned, we ALL need to keep learning.  We probably all grew up in our own little bubbles, but bubbles need to be burst.  I enjoyed this episode immensely, and it didn't even feel like an after school special, so that was an added bonus.

As for the comments about Max reluctant to take the money, I agree - I don't understand why he is so hesitant.  But taking $150k from Danny Michael Davis is like me giving someone $10 for lunch.  If you don't pay me back, it'll be ok, and I'll forget about it in a month anyway.  

As for their restaurant concept, we had something sort of like it near where I live.  It was just a "beer garden" with 1,000 beers (or something like that), but with tables and booths and what not, so if you wanted something to eat, you ordered delivery from somewhere else.  (The people at the beer garden didn't help or facilitate the food ordering in any way, though.)  So MaxiMos is similar, in my mind at least - they are a bar, but then they will help you order your dinner from somewhere else.  Maybe in their "kitchen" they'll remove it from the takeout containers and plate it for you?  Max said something about timing the deliveries so everyone can get their food at the same time; they'll keep it warm for you in the back, I guess.  I actually like the idea.  They'll make money off of the drinks and tips, and probably a small service fee for facilitating the deliveries?

[Trini]

On 2/9/2021 at 9:27 PM, ams1001 said:

Interesting that a fired employee can just walk in and get the whole team to work on his project instead of doing, y'know, the things they are getting paid to do.

On 2/12/2021 at 11:57 AM, 90PercentGravity said:

I hate how bad they are at representing the tech in this show. They had a diagram of a network on the whiteboard while trying to figure out the "coding glitch." It also looked like there was a bit of JSON next to it. Neither of those things would have anything to do with hitting all the APIs at once. I hope they charge Max for the time he took from their entire team.

On 2/12/2021 at 7:41 PM, KaveDweller said:

It also seems like they should have had some kind of agreement about how the team was getting paid for their work. Say this business is a huge success. Tobin could claim he owns the code and none of the success would exist without his work, and sue for royalties or part ownership or something.

Plus, I'm sure the team has signed a contract saying that anything they do for SPRQ Point is owned by the company, and they were helping Max on company time and using company resources.

Yeah, this bugged. I guess they wanted to have a scene with Max and the employees (to set up Tobin's plot point), but it didn't make sense for like 4-5 programmers to drop everything for a non-employee's problem in the middle of the work day. If it was just one person working on it on the side, that would be one thing.

In any case, with the SprqPoint discount, we'll probably be seeing more Max/Mo plots intersect with SprqPoint plots/characters. Hopefully that helps with having everyone separated.

[Luckylyn]

33 minutes ago, Trini said:

Yeah, this bugged. I guess they wanted to have a scene with Max and the employees (to set up Tobin's plot point), but it didn't make sense for like 4-5 programmers to drop everything for a non-employee's problem in the middle of the work day. If it was just one person working on it on the side, that would be one thing.

In any case, with the SprqPoint discount, we'll probably be seeing more Max/Mo plots intersect with SprqPoint plots/characters. Hopefully that helps with having everyone separated.

What made it worse was the facial recognition was an urgent issue but nobody was working on it and basically goofing off with Max.  They should have had them meet him during their line break or after work.  
 

I hate how Zoey handled the Tobin situation.  If she felt “Slumdog” was  wrong than as a boss she she have spoken up to put a stop to it.  Instead she talks to Tobin privately and puts the responsibility on his shoulders instead of publicly supporting him.  We’ve seen Zoey not hesitate to shutdown sexist bs (ex: softball shirts).  If one of the guys had used a derogatory nickname for one of the women Zoey would have spoke up.  Because she can identify with dealing with sexism she’s better at recognizing that issue but she has a blind spot with race.  Even with the growth we saw from her this episode her handling of Tobin shows she still has work to do but I feel like the script doesn’t acknowledge it.  Like the writers think Zoey pressuring Tobin was the right thing since it does lead to him speaking out which then leads to the company agreeing to make changes.

I preferred the scene with Simon and Tobin. I thought Simon making it clear that privately supporting him while publicly going along with the wrong being done had more impact.  

[bros402]

11 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

What made it worse was the facial recognition was an urgent issue but nobody was working on it and basically goofing off with Max.  They should have had them meet him during their line break or after work.  
 

I hate how Zoey handled the Tobin situation.  If she felt “Slumdog” was  wrong than as a boss she she have spoken up to put a stop to it.  Instead she talks to Tobin privately and puts the responsibility on his shoulders instead of publicly supporting him.  We’ve seen Zoey not hesitate to shutdown sexist bs (ex: softball shirts).  If one of the guys had used a derogatory nickname for one of the women Zoey would have spoke up.  Because she can identify with dealing with sexism she’s better at recognizing that issue but she has a blind spot with race.  Even with the growth we saw from her this episode her handling of Tobin shows she still has work to do but I feel like the script doesn’t acknowledge it.  Like the writers think Zoey pressuring Tobin was the right thing since it does lead to him speaking out which then leads to the company agreeing to make changes.

I preferred the scene with Simon and Tobin. I thought Simon making it clear that privately supporting him while publicly going along with the wrong being done had more impact.  

I mean I can understand Zoey talking to Tobin first - but it should've been immediately followed by her dragging that employee down to HR for his termination for that slumdog comment, then talking to the team about how being racist will get you fired. Although I imagine HR would probably have some kind of presentation to give all of them for that.

[HappyBerry]

On 2/19/2021 at 7:36 AM, FnkyChkn34 said:

As for their restaurant concept, we had something sort of like it near where I live.  It was just a "beer garden" with 1,000 beers (or something like that), but with tables and booths and what not, so if you wanted something to eat, you ordered delivery from somewhere else.  (The people at the beer garden didn't help or facilitate the food ordering in any way, though.)  So MaxiMos is similar, in my mind at least - they are a bar, but then they will help you order your dinner from somewhere else.  Maybe in their "kitchen" they'll remove it from the takeout containers and plate it for you?  Max said something about timing the deliveries so everyone can get their food at the same time; they'll keep it warm for you in the back, I guess.  I actually like the idea.  They'll make money off of the drinks and tips, and probably a small service fee for facilitating the deliveries?

We've got breweries here that do that. They have partnered with nearby restaurants for delivery or have a food truck. But, in those situations they don't have to have any staff or other overhead  to deal with it and they accept no responsibility. At MaxiMo, they have to have staff to place the orders, plate the orders, serve the orders. But, they have entirely given up control over the quality and speed of the food. If the restaurant they order from is late or gets the order wrong or whatever, they will likely get at least partial blame, even if it isn't their fault. After all, the premise of the place seems to be that they'll take care of the logistics of all the delivery and so failure of that is their problem, even if it was due to things outside their control. 

It just seems like a high risk concept. I'm sure in-show universe it will be a great success, but IRL I see it failing after the novelty wears off. 

[hnygrl]

On 2/19/2021 at 4:36 AM, FnkyChkn34 said:

As for their restaurant concept, we had something sort of like it near where I live.  It was just a "beer garden" with 1,000 beers (or something like that), but with tables and booths and what not, so if you wanted something to eat, you ordered delivery from somewhere else.  (The people at the beer garden didn't help or facilitate the food ordering in any way, though.)  So MaxiMos is similar, in my mind at least - they are a bar, but then they will help you order your dinner from somewhere else.  Maybe in their "kitchen" they'll remove it from the takeout containers and plate it for you?  Max said something about timing the deliveries so everyone can get their food at the same time; they'll keep it warm for you in the back, I guess.  I actually like the idea.  They'll make money off of the drinks and tips, and probably a small service fee for facilitating the deliveries?

Oh.... I finally get it (Took me long enough!)!!!

Maximo’s orders the food, pays the delivery fees, etc., plates/serves it to the patrons, and THEY pay MAXIMO’S for the privilege.

Dang.  Great idea. I’d eat there all the time. Great atmosphere, ambiance, etc. and you get your favorite chicken wings to boot while your bestie gets her tacos. No more fighting over where to eat! 
 

Dang that’s actually a legit great idea!

[Notwisconsin]

"Wokeness" strikes again. One of those 'very special episodes' that we all loathe.

[vibeology]

4 hours ago, Notwisconsin said:

"Wokeness" strikes again. One of those 'very special episodes' that we all loathe.

You're free to speak for yourself but this is not a "we" situation. I thought this episode was great.

[Cowgirl]

I haven't seen this one yet, as I was only able to stand watching about a third of the last episode, but your comments all give me hope.  

Did the show take a break after this episode for part of the season, or is this a season finale? ETA:  Never mind! I just read that it returns next week in the spoilers thread.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Cowgirl

[bros402]

13 hours ago, Cowgirl said:

I haven't seen this one yet, as I was only able to stand watching about a third of the last episode, but your comments all give me hope.  

Did the show take a break after this episode for part of the season, or is this a season finale? ETA:  Never mind! I just read that it returns next week in the spoilers thread.

This episode was better.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Simon sings "Black Man in a White World" by Michael Kiwanuka

Simon feels alone in his struggle

Alex Newell (Mo), John Clarence Stewart (Simon), Kapil Talwalkar (Tobin) and writer Zora Bikangaga discuss the episode