I’ve only seen a couple posts about the three options that Starbuck’s is giving its’ employees, but they’ve all been negative and make it seem like Starbucks is being unreasonable. I would just like to give an opposed opinion about the company that we work for and help shed some bright light on what they’re doing.

First, Starbucks doesn’t have to do anything for us. They didn’t have to give us CAT pay, they didn’t have to provide a $3 pay increase during lockdown and possible shutdowns of stores, and they don’t have to give employees any options right now. Starbucks could opt to fire the employees they don’t need and operate with less employees regardless.

In contrast to this, Starbucks has decided to present three preferences to their partners:
The first one, to keep working like most of us have been. Yes, this creates the possibility of contact with Covid, no it won’t include a $3 pay increase, and yes it ends a period of maximum safety during this time. However, Starbucks is keeping policies in place to keep us as safe as they can while accepting that some exposure is going to happen.
The second, to take an unpaid leave of absence. This almost completely removes the chance of infection, but it also removes a source of income. The benefit to this option, is that Starbucks has guaranteed current benefits to employees who choose this preference through the duration of their leave. This allows people who may not need the income from Starbucks to keep important benefits while staying safe from possible infection.
The third, to take a severance package and leave Starbucks. Some people see this preference as a slap in the face. But in reality, Starbucks isn’t required to give any sort of package to anyone. They could choose to fire any unneeded employees and they would be completely justified in doing that. The benefit of this preference, is the severance package. The con is that you would no longer have a job.

Whatever preference suits your needs the best, you are able to take.

I think that the most important thing to remember through this time is that Starbucks, in its simplest form, is a business that has to make a profit in order to keep paying us and giving us benefits. Starbucks spent Billions, and I would like to repeat that, Billions of dollars paying its’ employees while they didn’t work. They’ve spent Billions of dollars giving thousands of employees a $3 increase in pay since February. They have continued to put their partners first throughout the COVID pandemic and are continuing to operate in the safest ways while they start to revamp business and try and fill in the hole that they made in their budget.

I’m not disagreeing that each and every one of us deserves more, but don’t refuse to recognize that Starbucks has done more for us than they had to, more for us than most employers could do, and they’ve continued to keep us employees the safest that they can while opening up operations slowly.