Jim,

If that is a personal story, my deepest sympathies. If it isn’t, than shame on you. Either way, your analogy is false.

Right off the bat, and I’m sure you’ll agree, a drunk driver bares the primary fault of any harm they cause: they broke the law and acted irresponsibly.

Now of course a server is obligated to serve alcohol both legally and responsibly.

Wayne served alcohol to someone who was both sober and of legal drinking age. That is neither illegal nor irresponsible.

What he did not do was check the ID of someone who allegedly “looked under 30″. That wasn’t illegal. Was it irresponsible? Only if it was unreasonable for him to believe that this 22 year-old woman was above the age of 18. I’m willing to guess that a man who has been selling beer for seven years can tell the difference between someone who is too young to be out of high school and someone who is old enough to be out of university.

But maybe we want to be obsessively cautions about not selling to underage people. I personally think we should focus on not selling to drunk people, and stop forcing young people to learn about alcohol in an unsanctioned environment without adult guidance, making them far more likely to use it irresponsibly. But maybe you disagree.

The thing is, I’m guessing that Aramark is kidding itself if it thinks that that policy is actually being enforced. Its rare that a teenager looks like they are in their late 20s, leading many to feel it is a bad rule. Plus, its a major inconvenience for customers and staff, especially since IDs need to be passed up and down isles in the middle of a game. And I bet if an employee was to actually follow it, they’d sell less beer than usual, and get in trouble from their boss.

So if Aramark actually wants to get employees to follow it, they should address those concerns and work to convince employees (and customers) that its a good idea.

And finally, any company with the slightest bit of respect and compassion for people does not fire a seven-year employee (who is also its most popular employee) for one mistake that didn’t result in any harm.

Thoughts?