I was at a coffee shop the other day, conversion with one of the employees there. She was being very corporate in her conversation — deferring to the company rules for things customers don’t like, fake smiles, not sharing any real opinions, though I’m sure she has some.

I’ve talked briefly with the same employee before; she led on to some of her non-work interests. She’s no robot. I just think working at certain places, under certain rules and standards, slowly sucks the souls out of people until they’re stale, opinionless automatons.

I’ve seen it happen before.