I work at one of the busiest stores in my district. Today was a very strange Saturday - very on-and-off, stop-and-go - you know those weeks. We were one person down, and when we were on our “go” moments, we had cars lined up both ends of the road waiting for drive and a packed lot. On our “stop” moments, we were scrambling to restock and get backups of everything we hadn’t needed on the fly while bar 1 kept up with the 3-5 cars in our drive during that time.

I was on bar (either bar 1 or 2) all day from 6:30 in the morning till I left at 2:30pm - and so was my bar partner. Toward the end I was really struggling to keep up and I could tell I wasn’t functioning at 100% in my position.

I overheard the night shift ask the morning shift why my bar partner and I had been on bar all day long with the exceptions only being when we went on our breaks. My morning shift said, “I wanted our two strongest partners on bar because today’s been hell. We needed them bad.”

I’m exhausted. I’m so happy I don’t have to go back tomorrow, and I’m so happy I have a little weekend. I’m sore everywhere and I just wanted to take a 3-hour nap when I got home. But hearing that made that last 30 minutes of my day feel like 10.

Starbucks may not give a f*ck about us, but sometimes our partners make us realize how much we’re valued, whether they tell us or not.