I’m a green bean who just finished day 2 of training, I have adhd/ASD (Aspergers before the diagnosis changed) and also anxiety). So far my store manager and trainer and shift have been good at helping me out by writing out processes and letting me know when I’m doing great. I got a bit overwhelmed doing drive through but apparently did ok? I’m nervous about doing bar but I don’t think we are training on that for a bit. I’d had issues with sensory processing in previous gigs with stress and hopefully everything is going to work out here now that I know what that’s like & hopefully can switch tasks til my brain recalibrates past the panic. I’m not sure my post is helpful but just know you’re not alone!

hey!! i have comorbid adhd/autism, though im pretty high functioning. my favorite part of my job as sbux was my social interactions with my customers :) they loved me and i loved them!

i have really bad anxiety, though, and i can get overwhelmed/sensory overload pretty easily sometimes. starbucks is kind of a unique environment because i feel like a lot of neurodivergent people work there. as i kept working at sbux, i saw a lot of green beans come in and immediately get super anxious, overwhelmed, defeated, or just feel like they werent doing enough. this is the story i always told them:

the first time i did bar during my training it was during our stores second peak, so pretty busy, i made a flat white as my first order. when i handed it to the lady, she just said “thats not a flat white.” and i didnt understand what was wrong with it. i started shaking and the whole store kind of got quiet and dull except for the sound of this chair that someone in the cafe kelt moving against the floor. my eyes started to tear up and i froze. my trainer had to push me towards drive because she knew thats where i would be comfortable, and she told me to switch to window. thank god. honestly, she saved me from having a panic attack on the floor in my first week.

after that experience, i wasnt put on bar again. i dont think it was a punishment thing, but we were a brand new store and i think people saw how scared i was of bar and didnt feel like pushing me was a top priority. to be fair, i made it very clear in every way except outwardly SAYING it how scared i was of bar. i’d be asked to replace milk for bar and get nervous and screwing something up or getting in the way. my first four months, i didnt touch bar again. at all.

after a few months, i felt like i could run the store. i became the go-to person for drive thru, i could handle an entire rush by myself all while building a relationship with my regulars. if a customer had a complaint or issue, my coworkers would usually ask me to help resolve it before going to the shift. i was good at my job. but i still felt like i wasnt. i didnt know anything about bar. partners who had been hired 2 months after me would have to explain drinks to me when i helped them catch up. i was embarrassed, and most importantly, i was sick of being so scared. but i didnt know how to say that yet.

about five months into my job, an opening shift lead switched onto my shift, and we got to know each other. we’d worked together one or two times before, but now we were together for 8-10 hours basically everyday. one day, she asked me why she’d never seen me on bar. i explained my bad experience to her and i told her that i had an anxiety disorder and issues with sensory overload. what she said to me next was really important. she told me that those things would make it difficult for me to overcome my fear of bar, but not impossible, as long as i stopped avoiding trying. then she told me that we would spend our free time that shift figuring out a strategy to ease me into learning bar, but i needed to tell her what would and wouldnt work for me.

we figured out a plan that night, and for the next two or three months, i eased my way from making 5 drinks a night, to 20, to working a busier times with support, and then, eventually to working peak on bar. i wasnt the best at bar at all. custmer service is much more my forte, and i dont think there was ever a point where i wasnt a bit anxious or while on bar. but the thing that saved me was self-advocacy. I was honest about what onstacles i had, how it might take me longer to overcome them. i clearly established my boundaries—if i ever reached a point where i was too overwhelmed or anxious, i asked for support, and would get it without question. and because i made those boundaries clear, i didnt push myself too hard and i got ACTUALLY comfortable with bar. but that never wouldve happened if i hadnt told someone what i needed.

in short, its really important that if youre neurodivergent, you learn to advocate for yourself. this goes for work as well as every other area of life. it’s not your manager’s responsibility to read the entire DSM-V and have a completely comprehensive understanding of yours and every other partners diagnoses. it IS their responsibility to help you succeed and to accommodate. ask a shift manager or two who you work with a lot if you could have a second to talk with them, and tell them “i have autism/adhd/whatever, and while it doesnt make it impossible for me to be good at my job, i do think this issue is holding me back.” or “i think maybe i need some help and patience in this area. could you push me a bit there and help me when i need it?”. tell them what you need and what they can do. and then act on it. ask for help. we all need it sometimes. as much as i hate the corporate pandering calling us “partners” instead of “employees”, i do think theres some truth in that everyone on the floor is your partner. were all there to help each other, or else the entire system falls apart.

so yeah. thats my big thing. self advocacy!! and good luck, from what ive seen, sbux baristas are some of the most understanding people ive ever worked with. youll be great :)

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Personally my mental illnesses don’t affect me to the point that it hinders my functioning at work, usually at home is where I struggle the most. But I do know that at least at my store everyone’s very accommodating. One day one of my shift supervisors went to the back w a panic attack and my SM was very supportive and let him take the time he needed which I really appreciate bc based on what I’ve seen in this sub that kind of understanding is not exactly widespread the higher up you go. We’ve also got an older partner, I think she’s in the early stages of dementia or something like that and she mainly is only and the drive thru window and we help her if she ever gets confused and it’s never an issue. A lot of partners at my store struggle with anxiety, depression, etc (ocd and depression for me personally) and in general we always have each other’s backs and help each other out when possible. If you have a good team they’ll help you too.

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