Katie Drummond, Artsci’08, is known for her trailblazing work transforming brands and navigating rapid change in the media landscape – but she thinks everyone should work in a service job at least once. Dealing with customers as a teenager in a fast-paced coffee shop helped her develop skills that served her well as she pursued a career in journalism, landing top jobs at VICE, Bloomberg, and Gizmodo. It’s been decades since she stood behind a counter taking coffee orders, but she still applies the lessons she learned then about people, empathy, and respect in her role as global editorial director of Wired.
My first job was working on the weekends and after school at a Tim Hortons in Calgary, where I grew up. I look back on that job fondly, but it was fast-paced, very demanding work where I’d interact with many different people getting their coffees and doughnuts before their shifts started. It taught 16-year-old me that I like chaos, I like a fast pace, and I like to do something demanding. I sit behind a desk now, but I still like to work at a rapid clip, so I was also well suited to Tim Hortons.
That job also taught me how to deal with some really difficult people at a relatively young age. I still think a lot about one interaction in particular. After Tim Hortons shifted from baking the doughnuts fresh in the store to having them shipped in frozen, one disgruntled long-time customer showed his displeasure by taking a bite out of a blueberry fritter and then throwing it over the counter. I think about that interaction very often in terms of the kind of adversity we all need to deal with at work.
I went to university knowing that I wanted to be either a lawyer or a writer. My mom was a writer and she died during my first year at Queen’s. You learn that life is short when something like that happens, and I immediately thought, “Well, I’m not going to be a lawyer; I’m going to be a writer, because that’s what I really want to do, and that’s what my mom did.” I started pitching stories to Canadian magazines and newspapers and then I did summer internships in Toronto and then moved to New York to become a journalist right after I graduated. So, it was Tim Hortons and then publishing; I’ve never really done anything else.
But I really think everyone should work in the service industry once in their lives because it certainly changes the way you behave on the other side of the counter. I’m also convinced that it helped me become a more empathetic manager who treats everyone with respect and gives them the support they need and every opportunity to succeed.
Now I am the last line of defence for our newsroom, so when the subject of a story is upset, I field those calls. As long as you work with integrity and honesty, and publish accurate information, they can be as mad as they want, but the truth is the truth. I will always stand up for what we’ve published, as long as they don’t have a blueberry fritter.
