Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
↑
16
↓
why won't workers organize for better treatment, adequate staffing, and requiring management to trespass abusive customers? (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by Fast-Tower151
these things should be simple. doesn't even require a union. a manager is not going to fire all members of staff and try to replace them in the exact moment. the workers who replace you will have a high learning curve and the store will go up in smokes if people can't get their drinks because no one in the store knows how to make a drink.
people can debate me on this, but I bet men who work at mechanic shops or people who are receptionists at dental office's don't have coffee thrown on them , threatened, or yelled at at the same frequency of baristas.
would the average middle aged psycho walk into a biker bar and act this way? prob no. but a female dominated workspace? yeah, of course they will go crazy and abusive. not one person wants to ask these insane customers to leave.
people can debate me on this, but I bet men who work at mechanic shops or people who are receptionists at dental office's don't have coffee thrown on them , threatened, or yelled at at the same frequency of baristas.
would the average middle aged psycho walk into a biker bar and act this way? prob no. but a female dominated workspace? yeah, of course they will go crazy and abusive. not one person wants to ask these insane customers to leave.
colonade17 12 points 2y ago
Why don't we have a union yet?
1. many partners work for 2 years or less. More than half of the partners who have ever worked in my store knew this was a short term or part time job and just weren't invested in the long term thinking required to form a union
2. You need a group of organizers who are dedicated and determined with spotless records to make sure that starbucks doesn't find some excuse to fire the people trying organize the union (see what happened in Philadelphia)
3. many workers are young and this is their first job so they a) don't understand when they're being taken advantage of b) don't understand that conditions can and should be better c) don't want to rock the boat too much
4. while there are certainly lots of problems a union would solve, starbucks uses lots of strategies to try to convince us that we don't need a union. Little things like calling us "partners", and bragging about how good the benefits are to us (even though most of the benefits are now industry standards)
5. Starbucks engages in union busting activity, and hires consulting firms to put a stop to it when they it about to start (again see the NLRB trial from Philadelphia from this past year)
To organize a union you have to overcome these issues.
1. many partners work for 2 years or less. More than half of the partners who have ever worked in my store knew this was a short term or part time job and just weren't invested in the long term thinking required to form a union
2. You need a group of organizers who are dedicated and determined with spotless records to make sure that starbucks doesn't find some excuse to fire the people trying organize the union (see what happened in Philadelphia)
3. many workers are young and this is their first job so they a) don't understand when they're being taken advantage of b) don't understand that conditions can and should be better c) don't want to rock the boat too much
4. while there are certainly lots of problems a union would solve, starbucks uses lots of strategies to try to convince us that we don't need a union. Little things like calling us "partners", and bragging about how good the benefits are to us (even though most of the benefits are now industry standards)
5. Starbucks engages in union busting activity, and hires consulting firms to put a stop to it when they it about to start (again see the NLRB trial from Philadelphia from this past year)
To organize a union you have to overcome these issues.
Fast-Tower151 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Even if we ignore the union stuff and those are great points that you made by the way, there's no reason a grown man should be threatening or stalking or harassing young women without a manager trespassing him or calling law enforcement. The stories I hear on here and on Facebook about women getting pushed and shoved and sexually harassed are horrendous. Manager should be held responsible if they refuse to kick these people out of the store. Back at my dad's day, if a man did that to a woman in public, other people would have beat the hell out of the guy. Why is no one's saying anything about the physical violence?
colonade17 1 points 2y ago
I agree that some customers are terrible entitled people who should know better. And the company and our managers should do more to stand up for us when those kinds of incidents happen.
I think some of our older customers don't understand that what society thought was ok 50 years ago isn't ok now (not that it was ok then either)
Kicking people out is hard, because I'm not a bouncer or a social worker. All I have is the power of persuasion to convince these people to leave. Get a trespassing order against them and you can call the police, but it takes them about 20 minutes to show up, and in that time they've been a horrible person, or leave before the police arrive. And the police rarely follow up.
I think some of our older customers don't understand that what society thought was ok 50 years ago isn't ok now (not that it was ok then either)
Kicking people out is hard, because I'm not a bouncer or a social worker. All I have is the power of persuasion to convince these people to leave. Get a trespassing order against them and you can call the police, but it takes them about 20 minutes to show up, and in that time they've been a horrible person, or leave before the police arrive. And the police rarely follow up.
Sisyphus66 6 points 2y ago
I like how you pointed out that since Starbucks is a woman-dominated space people treat us with even more disrespect.
c8ham 5 points 2y ago
Honestly I work at a store employed by all women and 2 guys (both under 18) and I can recognize a huge difference between the way our customers treat the women vs these two guys. And lemme tell you, they’re not treating the women with more respect
Lilium816 -6 points 2y ago
I'm sorry, but this has absolutely nothing to do with it.
People are shitty to service workers. Period. Spend any amount of time on r/PublicFreakout or r/ActualPublicFreakouts and you'll see service workers of all race, age, and gender being harassed and having shit thrown at them.
Attempting to excuse the shittyness of customers by turning it into gender-based issue is nothing more or less than hyperbole.
Edit: wording for clarity
People are shitty to service workers. Period. Spend any amount of time on r/PublicFreakout or r/ActualPublicFreakouts and you'll see service workers of all race, age, and gender being harassed and having shit thrown at them.
Attempting to excuse the shittyness of customers by turning it into gender-based issue is nothing more or less than hyperbole.
Edit: wording for clarity
Sisyphus66 3 points 2y ago
Really? We’ve had customers honk at girls in the drive thru, and they’re not even employees. We’ve customers make comments about how they’re here for the girls instead of the coffee to our male baristas because they think they can get away with it if they say it to a man.
Lilium816 0 points 2y ago
We've had female customers come and do the *exact same thing* to some of our male partners.
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.