We have this crazy guy come to our store almost everyday. For the sake of this post, let’s just call him Bob. Bob mobile orders a grande cappuccino with whole milk and vanilla. And all last week, I made Bob’s drink, and there were no issues. He would pick his drink up and leave. And that would be that. Then all of a sudden, one Monday morning, he decided his drink wasn’t made properly. (Even though I made his drink almost everyday the week before and I make cappuccinos the same way... all the time) so Bob comes up to me, while I’m super busy, making like 5739 drinks and he’s like “do you even know how to make a cappuccino?” And because it was loud in the store, I didn’t hear him so I said “I’m sorry?” And he said “do you even KNOW HOW TO MAKE A CAPPUCCINO??” And I just remade it for him without saying a word. So, I made it and handed it to him. He took the lid off, look at his drink and walked over to me and said “are you kidding? You clearly don’t know how to make a cappuccino!!!” And started yelling. The person who was on bar besides me heard the guy yelling and got involved. He made the drink for him and gave it to him. While my other partner was making the drink, Bob was still going on and on saying “of course she stops listening to me. Typical!” My other barista continued to make the drink, and I stepped away to the back to take a sip of my water and to catch my breath. I was shocked that a customer treated me like that. And my shift didn’t do shit about it. The shift pretended they didn’t see this customer (who all shifts and baristas recognize) yelling at me and didn’t step in to help. Another partner told this shift I stepped off the floor because bob was yelling at me, and the shift said “no surprise there.” (I step off the floor when I’m feeling overwhelmed/emotional so I don’t explode on anyone. I feel like that’s a pretty normal thing.) anyway, my shift went on to tell the barista who made his drink “properly” that he did such an amazing job, and that he handled that situation so well, and that my shift was so proud of him. Even though my shift didn’t even ask me how I was feeling, my shift didn’t try to step in to deescalate the situation, my shift clearly didn’t care how this situation impacted me. So when I walked back on the floor, I kept my head down, didn’t say anything, and just shut down for the rest of my shift. Talk about the feeling of defeat.

Fast forward to the other day when Bob was in the DT line, had his window rolled down, and started SCREAMING at the customer in front of him because she didn’t move fast enough in line. He has his window down and was screaming “YOU STUPID BITCH!!! MOVE YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!” And then the customer rolled down her window and said “WELL IF YOURE GOING TO BE THAT IMPATIENT, IM GOING TO SIT HERE ALL DAY!!” (There was lots of beeping going on at this point) my one shift was on their half, and my other shift wasn’t wearing a headset. I was on solo DT so I could step away to tell a shift what happened. Instead, another partner told a shift about the incident and the shift said, I shit you not, “when maybe he wouldn’t freak out so much if partners knew how to make his drink.” Can you imagine how much anger I had after my shift made that comment? So much.
I’m sick of a company that says they care about our mental health, yet let’s customers walk all over us. What’s it going to take for this company to recognize that this behavior is NOT okay? It’s one thing to verbally harass me, but it’s another story when it’s happening to customers minding their own business. I can’t believe this company tolerates this behavior. I can’t believe we have to suffer through this kind of treatment because we’re forced to “make the moment right.” Fuck making the moment right. How about we stick up for ourselves and other partners, and start hiring/promoting shifts who know how to lead and demonstrate dignity and who encourage us and stick up for us. I’m over letting this happen. And now they’re cutting back our labor big time? Yeah, no thanks. We don’t have time to deal with this. I’m taking a stand. Bye Starbucks. Your “benefits” won’t keep me at this company any longer. Suck my ass and GOODBYE.