Can confirm labour cuts going into the busiest time of the year for us was a questionable business decision.

I’ve sent in complaints before, usually for 20+ min wait times in a drive thru I’m unable to get out of (yikes). Each time, I’ve stressed that the employees were super nice, etc, but that it was clear to me there aren’t enough people working. Any time I’ve had an issue, it’s because it’s blatantly obvious they’re understaffed. And that pisses me off.
I’ve said in a previous comment that I’m really freaking grumpy. I’m depressed and I’m usually in a shit mood. I’m often bribing myself out of the house with the promise of Starbucks. As silly/ridiculous as that may sound, it’s true. I know how it is to feel like crap and the last thing I want is for the people who are working to make my delicious bribe drinks to be unhappy, too. I want them to be paid well and treated well and not feeling like complete crap. So when they’re purposely understaffed, it really gets my undies in a bunch. Ok, rant over.

Am Starbucks barista, can confirm my whole store is burnt out. Already lost 2 baristas this month :(

I’m stepping down as a shift because I’m sick of being told “2 people is enough to get a complete, sparkling close done without going over in hours” at a high volume drive thru. We used to have 3-4 person closes

It’s important to remember what we are to corporate. We are the bottom line, we are the path of least resistance when it comes to cutting costs.

These labor cuts which are a clear cost saving measure are especially heinous when you consider how much money this company just dumped on the leadership conference, where they in a classically two faced fashion promised us more hours and “mental health benefits”. Not to mention the untold millions of dollars they spent setting up the newest roastery in Chicago, a store so large and wildly expensive I doubt it will ever turn a profit.

Not only does this company not pay anything near a living wage to its baristas and shifts. But when it comes time to show the share holders that we are always growing and generating more money, we are the ones who’s hours get cut.

This company does not care about you as a human being. You are just the thing that gets in the way of potential for profit.

I see a lot of frustration coming from partners and customers on these subreddits and other social media. I think it’s important to remember we are the ones who generate the money that this company needs to survive.

Through organized labor we can send a strong message to this company.

Sounds like its getting bad. sad to see Starbucks burn their Employs like this.

As 4 year partner, I've gone through a lot with this company, but these labour cuts this season are seriously killing morale. I have left every shift the past two months saying "I hate my fucking job and I need to quit." While I am grateful I have plenty of hours to make ends meet, I am not grateful that I am miserable 90% of the time.

National call out on happy hourrrrrrrrrrrrr who’s with me. Next Thursday ?????

So sad we all used to love being baristas making drinks not anymore moral has gone down and we’re running around like chickens without a head try to do DTO/DTR plus make drinks get warming do R1 we can not do it all. We need more staff on the floor starbucks is gunna loose some really awesome employees. Get friends family anyone to help, with getting our word out.

Post on /r/starbucks
More customers visit there

Yes I just posted something about this I feel every barista on Thursday should ask their customers to please answer surveys and comment to have more staff on the floor for happy hour also encourage your friends or family to comment as well especially yelp

It’s been extremely rough. I used to love going to work but these days I almost dread it, knowing my store is the busiest in our district. Makes me sad because I love this job so much but it’s taking such a huge toll on my physical and mental health

I’m so so sorry guys. I have seen this happen at a lot of the local stores that we visit. Once during happy hour, I had a barista who asked if I had already used my happy hour promo. I hadn’t but I guess the system showed I had (I had visited earlier, before happy hour, to buy my cousin a coffee; dunno if this somehow affected it) and he exasperatedly just said “you know what, forget it. We’re busy and I don’t wanna deal with it right now”. I felt soooo bad because I understood where he was coming from. My mom was with me and was a little upset by the interaction but working long ass hours with a huge constant line is CLEARLY going to have people stressed like holy shit, I probably would’ve broken down crying.

Anyway, how can we help as costumers? Should we just contact corporate via email and express our concerns or is there another way you suggest we do it?

As a night shift supervisor, happy hours are legit the worse. Without the proper labor needed me and a lot of my team have to stay late and we normally have really high drive thru times. I honestly feel sorry for all the customers and baristas because as we do enjoy our jobs, we can’t do it efficiently for the customers. The night time baristas I have feel overworked, under appreciated and just tired of the company. I think the company really needs to change how we staff the stores

What's the best way for a customer to complain to corporate?

Yes. Imagine opening with a shift and not getting another partner until almost mid peak because of these cuts.

I always felt that corporate doesn’t care what I have to say. I’ve been there, until I got married I was working for a company that underpaid and overworked us. Corporate looked the other way and my life has been great since I left. I haven’t visited any starbucks recently but I definitely try to be nice and I also leave if they are super busy.

For what it's worth, I was at a starbucks yesterday (SE Michigan) and there was a Now Hiring sign in the window.

As a partner i agree 😭😭

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Our DM got use more labor, so I don't know this problem you speak of.