The Last Attendant

Progress is often measured by what is created: new technologies, new professions, new efficiencies. Less celebrated, but just as significant, is what it discards along the way. Entire job descriptions, once part of the everyday fabric of society, are quietly retired, not with a bang but with a simple calculation of cost versus benefit. The full-service gas station attendant is one such role, a relic of an era when time was perhaps less monetised and human interaction at the pump was considered a service worth paying for.

In Aarau Rohr, this abstract economic trend has a human face. For over three decades, Sandra Dietiker has been that face for countless customers. Her position is being eliminated at the end of the month, not due to a corporate restructuring or a sudden downturn, but because of the simple, unceremonious retirement of the station's manager. The business will continue, but the role of the person who fills your tank for you will not. It has become an unnecessary expense.

According to Avenergy Suisse, the industry association, a mere four such attended stations remain in the whole of Switzerland. This is not a localised event but the final chapter of a story. Dietiker, 54, found her way to the job after finding office work unfulfilling. She enjoyed the variety, the outdoor work, and the daily conversations with a long list of regulars. It was, in her words, a cool job. Yet, even here, market forces were visible. She noted that tips had dwindled since the pandemic, as fewer people carry cash—another small sign of a changing world.

The response to such a situation is telling. Faced with the obsolescence of her profession, Dietiker did not wait for a solution to present itself. A year and a half ago, seeing the inevitable, she began retraining as a bus driver. Inspired by a colleague who made a similar career change, she is already working one day a week for the local bus company and will soon transition to a full-time position. Her final days at the pump are reportedly spent teaching long-standing customers how to operate the fuel dispensers themselves. One wonders what other basic tasks we have outsourced, not to machines, but to the simple expectation that someone else will be there to do them for us.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com