There are so many little things this comic says about Dora and Hannelore that I don't particularly like.
Yes. I am overthinking this again. But you probably are too. That's why we're here, right?
Hannelore never felt comfortable enough to tell Dora about how hard her first few days were. Faye addressed this well; "It'll never get easier. You either get better or get fired" At the time.[1]. But none of the other employees felt comfortable telling her? The supposedly micromanaging Dora never figured it out? We're starting to border on willful ignorance.
Blah blah blah overanalysing blah.
However, the other thing that makes me more uncomfortable is that so far Emily seemed to be doing a lot better on her first day then any of the other recent hires[2] and they didn't get trashed so hard by management. Dora's immediate response to how hard she crashed on coffee was "So she sucks at this?". Why? Did it follow on from the customer service story? That wouldn't have been the worst customer service Coffee of Doom had that hour, let alone day, let alone week! And again, Faye was comparatively lenient. Emily was doing fine until Hannelore suggested she drink the shot. Like, we can't even say this was bad decision making on Emily's part!
Any argument replying to this with the words "Someone who can't handle coffee shouldn't work in a coffee shop" will immediately met with; "And yet the recovering alcoholic worked in with bourbon under the counter?" Unless Emily voluntarily starts abusing caffeine highs, this whole strip just hits me wrong. Maybe if we'd seen Emily fuck up harder than her supposed customer service incident?
On something I did like: Dora's lips worked. Hannelore's lack of lips worked. The dichotomy was subtle but really helped make the two characters distinctive from each other. I agree with this art decision.
[1] Well relative to the Pugnacious Peach, I s'pose. Though admittedly good advice to those suffering from depression?
[2] With the notable exception of Dale