Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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The Good, The Bad.. Why I Chose Option 3 (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by ANONYMOUSvipBARISTA
Hi everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day. After a little over a year of working, I chose Option 3 (severance) from Starbucks. As I have now received the deposit from them, I feel "free" to share my experience with anyone wondering what this job is like, since I have seen a few posts lately about what it is like to work for the siren.
***Disclaimer: This was only my experience, just because some of my experiences were good/bad, does not mean yours will be.***
​
**The Good:**
​
**Coworkers** \- Fellow Baristas at my store were (generally) amazing people to work with and really made each shift tolerable and somewhat enjoyable. Some of my coworkers would bring gifts for birthdays, have gift swaps, and all in all were just great people who I am fortunate to call my friends. Without them, I don't think I would've lasted as long at this job as I did.
**Perks -** As someone who used to drink Starbucks regularly, the perks were absolutely unbelievable... Pretty much you get free drinks whenever you are working, and a 30% discount when you are not working. Also, you get a free 1lb bag of coffee each week, and while I don't drink much coffee at home due to the free ones I got at work, it was nice to hoard up a bunch of bags and donate them to my local hospital staff during the pandemic. As someone who had wanted to do a half marathon for a while, the fitness reimbursement of $240 was amazing, as it allowed me to participate in an otherwise cost-prohibitive race.
**(SOME) Customers -** Most of the regulars at my store were incredible people who genuinely care about us. To the people who would leave $5, $10, $20, and one time a $50 tip, don't think that it went unnoticed. These wonderful customers can turn a horrible day into a great one.
**Company Culture -** This one is iffy, but I am including it anyways. While I personally believe that Starbucks should naturally do what is right (like the COVID time-off pay), rather than being forced into it by petitions, they generally try to do the right thing. Starbucks was one of the few "fast-food" style companies that allowed employees to stay home with pay for over a month during the pandemic, which shows that they at least tried to do the right thing, even if some people feel that it was cut short, only implemented due to PR, etc.
​
**The Bad:**
​
**Coworkers -** While most of my coworkers were AMAZING and some of the best people I had ever met, a few really put a damper on my experience.
* There were a couple employees who always showed up to work depressed at my store, some of them seemed like they tried to make other people's days miserable because their day was miserable
* One shift supervisor in particular, who had been pretty much down on his luck his entire life and lived a pretty miserable life... Starbucks was his only form of "success," so he was often on a power-high at work, and would often just be rude to partners on and off of the floor. One time a partner was confused on how to use something in the store... they asked this shift supervisor to show them so that they could use it properly in the future. This shift supervisor show them, and then replied with "there, I just did your work for you, see how inefficient this is?" There were also several minors who worked at my store, which as the labor laws state, every 4hrs a minor must receive a 30min break. A green bean who was a minor went up to this shift after being on the floor for 3hrs 45min to tell him about how their break was coming up. No sooner did they turn their back to go back to DT and this shift was mocking the minor to another coworker.
**Managers -** While this is an iffy one depending on your store, my district was largely filled with incompetent managers and a DM who refused to do anything about their incompetency. While at SBUX, my manager:
* Repeatedly picked favorites and would just be rude to some coworkers, causing some people who should have been let go to stay around and cause chaos. One coworker would repeatedly drop the f-bomb in front of customers and my manager, along with various "opinions" about people of different political beliefs, yet was always praised for doing an amazing job
* Would schedule coworkers outside of their availability, and then when it was pointed out, would blame the system and claim that they were too busy to find coverage and that we had to find coverage for hours we weren't even supposed to work
* Would go behind partners backs and change their availability
* On a busy day, rather than parking at the back of the lot, my manager took up the only handicap spot at my store (no, my manager is not handicap)
* After accidentally forgetting to punch out after a shift, manager signed my name in the time-clock book. I am not upset about this as they did not lie about my shift duration, however I am pretty sure this is illegal and quite frankly, wrong
* Took a 1-2 week vacation every other month
* Argued with myself about how I was requesting what they felt was 2 days too much of time off for a medical procedure (even though my doctor told me that was the amount of time off I needed)
* Would keep partners who chose to leave in the system for up to several months so that turnover didn't look so high
* Would ask partners who chose to leave but were still in the system to come back and do oddball tasks every couple of weeks for a few hours (while clocked in), such as "IT support" and help changing lightbulbs
**The Starbucks Culture -**
* Starbucks is often seen as a progressive minded company. While I refuse to say that they don't do great things for their partners, often times these things (like the COVID stay-at-home pay) only come after a petition or movement is created and receives recognition.
* Starbucks pay is generally "un-livable" and quite frankly, depressing. Where I live, baristas made $0.40 more than minimum wage, and tips ranged from $0.50 - $2/hr (with the $2/hr typically during the holiday season)
* Constant need to be cheap. Starbucks is looking to maximize profits, which no one can fault them for, as they are a business. That being said, having an extra person on the floor at most times of the day, at a cost of only $8-15/hr (depending on where you live) would remove so much of the stress that is already put on baristas
* Many baristas often feel unheard and out of touch. Higher ups do not take the time to listen to their employees, unlike what is advertised by Starbucks - a company that cares. There are so many little improvements to be made, at little cost, that could be made to many stores, that simply aren't because there is either no place to voice these suggestions, or no one cares enough to listen to baristas/shift supervisors
**The Pay -** The pay Starbucks offers simply does not justify the work required for the job. There are other jobs out there in this industry that pay similar, but are less demanding. Especially when you are yelled at on DT for not maintaining a 45 second DT time, even though you constantly try to motivate the people on bar to push out drinks as quickly as possible, who chose to gossip instead of making their drinks. People who stick around for years are also not awarded with much of an increase in pay. The past couple of years SBUX has offered a 3% raise, which helps, but is not much for people who have been with the company for 5-10+ years, and the raise often amounts only to pennies.
​
​
I hope this provides insight and shows people what working for the siren is like. SBUX has many great opportunities, and while I did dislike 90% of the job, the 10% that I enjoyed often outweighed that dislike, and is why I stayed around for as long as I did. If anyone else chose option 3, I would love to hear as to why!!
​
273xxxx signing off!
***Disclaimer: This was only my experience, just because some of my experiences were good/bad, does not mean yours will be.***
​
**The Good:**
​
**Coworkers** \- Fellow Baristas at my store were (generally) amazing people to work with and really made each shift tolerable and somewhat enjoyable. Some of my coworkers would bring gifts for birthdays, have gift swaps, and all in all were just great people who I am fortunate to call my friends. Without them, I don't think I would've lasted as long at this job as I did.
**Perks -** As someone who used to drink Starbucks regularly, the perks were absolutely unbelievable... Pretty much you get free drinks whenever you are working, and a 30% discount when you are not working. Also, you get a free 1lb bag of coffee each week, and while I don't drink much coffee at home due to the free ones I got at work, it was nice to hoard up a bunch of bags and donate them to my local hospital staff during the pandemic. As someone who had wanted to do a half marathon for a while, the fitness reimbursement of $240 was amazing, as it allowed me to participate in an otherwise cost-prohibitive race.
**(SOME) Customers -** Most of the regulars at my store were incredible people who genuinely care about us. To the people who would leave $5, $10, $20, and one time a $50 tip, don't think that it went unnoticed. These wonderful customers can turn a horrible day into a great one.
**Company Culture -** This one is iffy, but I am including it anyways. While I personally believe that Starbucks should naturally do what is right (like the COVID time-off pay), rather than being forced into it by petitions, they generally try to do the right thing. Starbucks was one of the few "fast-food" style companies that allowed employees to stay home with pay for over a month during the pandemic, which shows that they at least tried to do the right thing, even if some people feel that it was cut short, only implemented due to PR, etc.
​
**The Bad:**
​
**Coworkers -** While most of my coworkers were AMAZING and some of the best people I had ever met, a few really put a damper on my experience.
* There were a couple employees who always showed up to work depressed at my store, some of them seemed like they tried to make other people's days miserable because their day was miserable
* One shift supervisor in particular, who had been pretty much down on his luck his entire life and lived a pretty miserable life... Starbucks was his only form of "success," so he was often on a power-high at work, and would often just be rude to partners on and off of the floor. One time a partner was confused on how to use something in the store... they asked this shift supervisor to show them so that they could use it properly in the future. This shift supervisor show them, and then replied with "there, I just did your work for you, see how inefficient this is?" There were also several minors who worked at my store, which as the labor laws state, every 4hrs a minor must receive a 30min break. A green bean who was a minor went up to this shift after being on the floor for 3hrs 45min to tell him about how their break was coming up. No sooner did they turn their back to go back to DT and this shift was mocking the minor to another coworker.
**Managers -** While this is an iffy one depending on your store, my district was largely filled with incompetent managers and a DM who refused to do anything about their incompetency. While at SBUX, my manager:
* Repeatedly picked favorites and would just be rude to some coworkers, causing some people who should have been let go to stay around and cause chaos. One coworker would repeatedly drop the f-bomb in front of customers and my manager, along with various "opinions" about people of different political beliefs, yet was always praised for doing an amazing job
* Would schedule coworkers outside of their availability, and then when it was pointed out, would blame the system and claim that they were too busy to find coverage and that we had to find coverage for hours we weren't even supposed to work
* Would go behind partners backs and change their availability
* On a busy day, rather than parking at the back of the lot, my manager took up the only handicap spot at my store (no, my manager is not handicap)
* After accidentally forgetting to punch out after a shift, manager signed my name in the time-clock book. I am not upset about this as they did not lie about my shift duration, however I am pretty sure this is illegal and quite frankly, wrong
* Took a 1-2 week vacation every other month
* Argued with myself about how I was requesting what they felt was 2 days too much of time off for a medical procedure (even though my doctor told me that was the amount of time off I needed)
* Would keep partners who chose to leave in the system for up to several months so that turnover didn't look so high
* Would ask partners who chose to leave but were still in the system to come back and do oddball tasks every couple of weeks for a few hours (while clocked in), such as "IT support" and help changing lightbulbs
**The Starbucks Culture -**
* Starbucks is often seen as a progressive minded company. While I refuse to say that they don't do great things for their partners, often times these things (like the COVID stay-at-home pay) only come after a petition or movement is created and receives recognition.
* Starbucks pay is generally "un-livable" and quite frankly, depressing. Where I live, baristas made $0.40 more than minimum wage, and tips ranged from $0.50 - $2/hr (with the $2/hr typically during the holiday season)
* Constant need to be cheap. Starbucks is looking to maximize profits, which no one can fault them for, as they are a business. That being said, having an extra person on the floor at most times of the day, at a cost of only $8-15/hr (depending on where you live) would remove so much of the stress that is already put on baristas
* Many baristas often feel unheard and out of touch. Higher ups do not take the time to listen to their employees, unlike what is advertised by Starbucks - a company that cares. There are so many little improvements to be made, at little cost, that could be made to many stores, that simply aren't because there is either no place to voice these suggestions, or no one cares enough to listen to baristas/shift supervisors
**The Pay -** The pay Starbucks offers simply does not justify the work required for the job. There are other jobs out there in this industry that pay similar, but are less demanding. Especially when you are yelled at on DT for not maintaining a 45 second DT time, even though you constantly try to motivate the people on bar to push out drinks as quickly as possible, who chose to gossip instead of making their drinks. People who stick around for years are also not awarded with much of an increase in pay. The past couple of years SBUX has offered a 3% raise, which helps, but is not much for people who have been with the company for 5-10+ years, and the raise often amounts only to pennies.
​
​
I hope this provides insight and shows people what working for the siren is like. SBUX has many great opportunities, and while I did dislike 90% of the job, the 10% that I enjoyed often outweighed that dislike, and is why I stayed around for as long as I did. If anyone else chose option 3, I would love to hear as to why!!
​
273xxxx signing off!
dancing_durian 4 points 3y ago
This is actually really cool and I wish I can upvote this a million times. This is super objective. No negative feelings. Just pure observations. I like this a lot and hopefully more people will see this.
Among many of the perks, partners also earn 3 stars per 1 dollar spent, versus 2 for every dollar like customers. There’s also Partner Shopping Days during the holiday where it’s 40% off. There’s also Perks at Work where you can find discounts to multiple stores. And I find out recently that Starbucks does donation match. So if you’re donating to a charity of your choice, you can fill out a form to see if it’s eligible for a match and Starbucks will match your donation to that charity.
Note: I’m not singing their praises. I’m just listing these benefits that seem to fly under the radar. It’s certainly not easy to maintain a positive outlook on this company during these times.
Among many of the perks, partners also earn 3 stars per 1 dollar spent, versus 2 for every dollar like customers. There’s also Partner Shopping Days during the holiday where it’s 40% off. There’s also Perks at Work where you can find discounts to multiple stores. And I find out recently that Starbucks does donation match. So if you’re donating to a charity of your choice, you can fill out a form to see if it’s eligible for a match and Starbucks will match your donation to that charity.
Note: I’m not singing their praises. I’m just listing these benefits that seem to fly under the radar. It’s certainly not easy to maintain a positive outlook on this company during these times.
ANONYMOUSvipBARISTA [OP] 2 points 3y ago
Yes, I totally agree, Starbucks has some pretty amazing perks compared to other companies in the industry. Funny thing - I worked there for over a year and never knew about the 3 stars per dollar, but that is definitely a great perk!!!
Definitely loved the 40% off too over the holidays, allowed me to stock up on some mugs as gifts. About the donation match... That is AMAZING!! I never knew and wished I took advantage of that.
Thank you for replying, I appreciate that someone brought up these benefits - you are right, unfortunately many fly under the radar and are often unknown by many partners.
Definitely loved the 40% off too over the holidays, allowed me to stock up on some mugs as gifts. About the donation match... That is AMAZING!! I never knew and wished I took advantage of that.
Thank you for replying, I appreciate that someone brought up these benefits - you are right, unfortunately many fly under the radar and are often unknown by many partners.
melidew 3 points 3y ago
Absolutely agree with every single one of these points!! But I need to ask...where is this fitness benefit you speak off?? I’ve never seen that anywhere.
ANONYMOUSvipBARISTA [OP] 2 points 3y ago
Thank you!! I can't walk you through step-by-step as I am now locked out of the system, but...
​
1. Visit $1 (when you get to this page, it will say that the page is no longer activate, but there is a link you can click on to get to the portal login)
2. Once you log into the portal with your credentials (partner #, password, random security question) you will be on the main page, which kind of looks like a news site. The top will have several tabs, I believe one of them is "Benefits".. Under the benefits tab, there should be a tab that says "Fitness Reimbursement" (it is very, very tiny)...
3. Click that and it will take you to a page that tells you about the program. Somewhere in that few paragraphs there is an embedded link to the site where you can file for the reimbursement.
Some info about the reimbursements...
​
You get up to $240, however if your fitness expense is over $240, they will still reimburse you up to $240. Similarly, if it is under $240, you can file multiple reimbursement claims. These claims work for pretty much anything fitness related, such as marathons/runs, competitions, and I believe gym memberships. I do not believe it covers equipment for your own home, nor will it cover any friends or family (for example, you + 3 people sign up for a 10k run, and it is $60 per person... Starbucks will only cover your $60, not the other people's). I don't remember the exact cut off date, but sometime in October it resets for the year. You also must. complete the event before submitting the reimbursement claim (so if you are registering for something months from now, you will have to pay out of pocket now and wait until the event has passed.). So right now you have until October to rack up $240, and then in November you have another year or so to rack up an additional $240.
​
One last thing, they can be pretty picky with accepting claims (they denied my first one because even though I completed the half marathon, I only submitted the billing information, without something that proved I participated). However, if they deny it, you can resubmit it as many times as you would like. Oh, and it may take a couple payment cycles from the time it is approved to be included in your paycheck.
​
Good luck!!!
​
1. Visit $1 (when you get to this page, it will say that the page is no longer activate, but there is a link you can click on to get to the portal login)
2. Once you log into the portal with your credentials (partner #, password, random security question) you will be on the main page, which kind of looks like a news site. The top will have several tabs, I believe one of them is "Benefits".. Under the benefits tab, there should be a tab that says "Fitness Reimbursement" (it is very, very tiny)...
3. Click that and it will take you to a page that tells you about the program. Somewhere in that few paragraphs there is an embedded link to the site where you can file for the reimbursement.
Some info about the reimbursements...
​
You get up to $240, however if your fitness expense is over $240, they will still reimburse you up to $240. Similarly, if it is under $240, you can file multiple reimbursement claims. These claims work for pretty much anything fitness related, such as marathons/runs, competitions, and I believe gym memberships. I do not believe it covers equipment for your own home, nor will it cover any friends or family (for example, you + 3 people sign up for a 10k run, and it is $60 per person... Starbucks will only cover your $60, not the other people's). I don't remember the exact cut off date, but sometime in October it resets for the year. You also must. complete the event before submitting the reimbursement claim (so if you are registering for something months from now, you will have to pay out of pocket now and wait until the event has passed.). So right now you have until October to rack up $240, and then in November you have another year or so to rack up an additional $240.
​
One last thing, they can be pretty picky with accepting claims (they denied my first one because even though I completed the half marathon, I only submitted the billing information, without something that proved I participated). However, if they deny it, you can resubmit it as many times as you would like. Oh, and it may take a couple payment cycles from the time it is approved to be included in your paycheck.
​
Good luck!!!
melidew 1 points 3y ago
This is SOOO cool. Thank you!!!
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