shifts tend to place people based on their strengths which is great and all until you have partners that are really only experienced in one or two roles. had a similar experience always being on drive until i said something about it to the shifts.

We don’t even have a CS at my store- technically the shift is? My SM said we’re in perma go-mode at our store. But the shift/cs don’t actually do any help most of the time. One of our nighttime ssv was on bar with me the other night and he actually stayed in position (wasn’t the shift that night, was acting as barista) and he was getting so frustrated that we were busy and no one was stocking up. We need milk, we still need milk, why hasn’t anyone gotten us ice?
I stopped once to say “hey homie, no one is going to. The shift isn’t going to drop their stuff to help us unless we ask. Now think about how often we ask you for help and you tell us “you got it! I believe in you! You’re doing so great!” and then go back to the pull. I’ll go get some milk and we’ll keep on. Take a breath.”

I love CS. I'm good at it, I understand its importance, and doing it well myself makes everything else less stressful. But I'm also autistic and a slight neatnik when it comes to my work space so I suppose the shoe fits. I'm usually put on bar if we have baby baristas ringing or during happy hour because I'm tidy and I don't lose my mind, or on reg during other rushes because I'm fast and accurate, but when I'm allowed to choose for myself I take CS or otherwise set to various tasks. I find it satisfying and it lets me get away from people.

Oh boy. Feel this! There are def people who are better at different roles than others so they get placed there consistently. We all need to rotate all the roles for us all to grow in them. It sucks because during peak, as a shift, you want your best people in their best role. Ask your shift you’d like to spend more time in different positions! A good leader will broaden your experience.

I used to be assigned floors every day. Then I started taking my time to do them properly.

They stopped assigning me CS after that.

yeah this happens to me too. i'm fast in bar but apparently customers rly like me. i hate it so so much my store is full of the rudest people on the planet

I'm exactly the same but only on register and drive. I've never gotten to work bar, I've been CS all of *one* time. My shifts are all during morning peak, since a ton of our partners are in school and can only work in the afternoons -- so I'm almost always either on front or DTR.

I've literally never been trained on bar. Literally! I did all the computer training in a rush on one afternoon because we got told we had to do it within like four days. And I'm guessing that a good part of why I get so few hours is because I can't bar.

As a closing shift I sympathise. But I also understand why they're doing that. When you're barely staffed to what you need is not the time to try to teach a new partner CS. I try when I can, but especially with the labor cuts it's hard to do. I would try talking to your SSV and ask that they try to mix it up more when they can.