Editor’s Note: Throughout this piece, ‘they’ and ‘them’ are used to refer to a singular person, not multiple people. Olivia Corby uses ‘they/them’ pronouns, and Emily O’Regan uses ‘she/they’ pronouns. When a ‘they’ or ‘them’ pronoun is used to refer to either Corby or O’Regan, the pronoun is referring to the singular person, not a group of people.
Multiple former employees of local coffee shop Knowledge Perk have come forward with allegations of transphobia and misogyny in the workplace, including intentional misgendering and gender stereotyping.
Junior psychology major at Winthrop and former Knowledge Perk employee Olivia Corby said they experienced transphobia and misogyny while working as a barista at the coffee shop, despite disclosing their pronouns.
“I was asked for my pronouns when I was hired, so I outed myself just to be harassed every day. $9.50 an hour was not worth coming home and crying every day,” Corby said.
When reached for comment, Knowledge Perk CEO and co-founder Ryan Sanderson said in an email interview that employees were always encouraged to use the correct pronouns for their fellow staff members.
“We have had multiple nonbinary team members who have and still do work for us. If an employee volunteers their pronouns, other employees are encouraged to use those pronouns. At a recent company meeting, I reaffirmed this encouragement by reminding that it is company policy that employees use known, requested pronouns,” Sanderson said.
Corby said they were often binding their chest and doing whatever they could to appear more masculine in an attempt to get their coworkers to respect both their pronouns and gender identity.
“I would have bruises and cuts and scars from taping and wearing a binder, and my coworkers would scoff at my attempts to correct them,” they said. “[I was] often in tears from both the physical pain I was in from binding my chest to appear more masculine … and simultaneously being misgendered.”
Corby was not the only transgender or nonbinary staff member to experience transphobia at the establishment.
“During my time there, one of my coworkers who is trans was told by a coworker that they were not valid as a person. You cannot preach a better world when coworkers are making cruel statements,” Corby said.
The Knowledge Perk mission statement is “Coffee Innovation. Flourishing Community. Better World,” but Corby said the mission is a “hoax” because the business does not care for women or LGBTQ people in its community.
Former Knowledge Perk barista and supervisor Emily O’Regan said they had their own experiences with misogyny and transphobia while working at Knowledge Perk.
“One of my coworkers was a female-presenting nonbinary person, and I witnessed one of my cis male coworkers continue to speak over them and cut them off in the middle of sentences while they were trying to explain things to customers,” O’Regan said.
According to O’Regan, this male coworker also often misgendered his non-binary coworker, despite being corrected many times by his other coworker, and preceded to call them dramatic.
“There was a moment where my coworker got reasonably frustrated with him after having to correct him again, and he left and began complaining to the owners about their ‘emotional and dramatic behavior,’ thus diminishing them and making them feel unsafe to express themself in their workplace,” O’Regan said.
Male coworkers at Knowledge Perk often looked down on their female and female–presenting coworkers, O’Regan said. Despite being promoted to a supervisor, O’Regan continued to be belittled by male coworkers.
“Many of my male coworkers, mostly baristas, continued to ask me if I knew how to make simple drinks such as lattes, and they insisted on teaching me even after I told them that I knew what I was doing. Many of them would try to take over tasks for me and act like I was oblivious to what needed to get done,” O’Regan said.
Another former supervisor, who agreed to share her experience on the condition of anonymity, said she experienced misogyny at the coffee shop as well, including a barista telling her the only reason she was promoted was due to her gender.
“A fellow barista who had worked several months longer than me at KP once told me that the only reason I became a supervisor was because I’m a woman,” said the former employee. “I clarified with him that this was hurtful and asked whether he thought I hadn’t earned that position on merit, and he explained further that he meant [Knowledge Perk] was trying to improve their image by putting more women in leadership roles.”
The former employee also said female employees were apparently not allowed to work on the company’s coffee bus for a period of time due to the supposed belief that they lacked the strength to lift the bus’s generator.
“A consistent joke between female employees of KP was that we weren’t allowed to work on the coffee bus (we really weren’t) because it required lifting the generator (over 100lbs) into the bus, which women (apparently) could not do, even with the help,” the former employee said.
Corby said that despite their previous experience with such buses and lifting generators, they were still not allowed to work on the bus.
“I was told that I couldn’t work the bus because women couldn’t work on the bus because they couldn’t lift the generator, which seemed preposterous to me. Because how would they know that I can’t lift a generator? They’re assuming because they see me as a woman, I can’t. I’ve had food truck experience. I’ve lifted many generators in my day, but they didn’t want to hear that. They didn’t really care,” Corby said.
Sanderson said all employees can now work on the bus since purchasing a lighter generator and having a ramp installed, but never directly answered whether women and female–presenting employees were prohibited from working on the bus due to the belief that they lacked physical strength.
“At one time, it is correct that the generator was very heavy and required a strong, two-person team to lift it, in order to avoid employee injuries. We take employee safety very seriously. For a short time following an incident, we only scheduled employees with experience with the bus and generator to work on the bus,” Sanderson said.
Sanderson said Knowledge Perk takes all concerns seriously and has recently updated its policies.
“We have further recently updated our policies regarding the handling of employee complaints and implemented more expansive employee training on such issues as use of pronouns, anti-harassment, bullying, and other topics,” Sanderson said.
Corby said when they brought up the idea of sensitivity training during their employment, it was not received well by management.
“I mentioned the possibility of implementing sensitivity training for all employees, but it was not reciprocated well. So far, nothing has been put into place. I do not think they care enough to put anything like that in place,” Corby said.
Corby said their experience working at Knowledge Perk has ruined their desire to work at another coffee shop, despite having worked at different coffee shops for over six years.
“I love making coffee for people, and it was disappointing for me to have that taken away from me. Now I don’t want to work at another coffee shop,” they said.
Corby hopes that by sharing their experience, people will think about their own relationship with gender and how they can be kinder, gentler and let others live their lives freely instead of trying to bring them down.
“I hope that when people hear this, they can either see themselves in it. Or they can see the world through a different pair of eyes, because to me, it wasn’t just like a fun coffee shop with, like, cinnamon rolls. It was, like, where all of my abusers had housed themselves, you know? I hope that they understand that, like, the trans experience is pretty vast, and that it’s not just about pronouns, but, like, I was risking my health to succumb to this idea of gender that these close–minded people had,” Corby said.
