I ve been a barista for 2 years. I been feeling like starbucks has been emotionally exploiting us, especially the shift leads. Ive never moved up in the company but i ve seen people with less experience rise and crack under the pressure. I find the main causes of this is a combination of stuff; The constant monitoring and micromanaging, the constant change on "3rd place policy" ( removing drinks and food our clients are accustomed to and then have us explain that it has been discontinued) The obnoxious way they make us engage with costumer who only want their coffee. For drive thru, we are expected to greet and make connections, and yet handle the transaction and hand off sometimes 5 drinks per car, no more than 1:10 min after arriving at the window. (57s during rushes)

I dont believe I deserve more pay, nor benefits that will " make up" for the work. Its just all of this seems a bit unreal and irrational. I ve seen my shift leads being cracked to tears, good people depraved of their jobs for mentioning unions and its breaking my heart. I ve seen alot of good, happy baristas become sad, chaotic shift leads . Managers break to an absolute state of madness, crying like an inconsolable child. I had some scary District Managers, to whom I see as the main cause of the chaos. Im not fully sure if someone might be pressuring DMs to be so harsh on us, which leads to manages mistreating shiftleads and so on.

I ve tried to talk about it, I tend to get weird looks and only get replies like " if corporate is making us do it, they know something we don't " or straight up silence, I was even told that I could be fired for bringing up unions ( sbux won't fire you specifically for wanting to unionize, but rather look for pety reasons.

Has anyone notice this, or is it just me?