Welcome to my store! Are you ready for *only* 3 months worth of working in hell?! Here's a tour:

The cafe store was closed down for 6 months (and the last month it was closed was used for training new baristas in which they never cleaned anything at all. Specifically they never cleaned the drains, so when we were about to reopen, I had to clean the drains of a month of inclusions, espresso and milk. Let's just say that's the closest I've ever come to vomiting because of a smell alone)

When we were about to reopen, nobody and I mean NOBODY but the manager came back to the store, even when some of them lived a couple minutes away.

First day at a shift meeting before we open, half way through, the manager (Let's call them SM) has to go pick up their kid from daycare because kid is sick (SM has a 1 y.o. and 16 y.o.). Next day, the whole store is meeting (baristas, shifts, and SM). SM doesn't show up for 4 hours and nearly misses meeting the baristas (most of which are fresh green beans, with only 2 baristas who had worked at the bux before, one of them having been a licensed store barista).

Third day, cleaning day, SM doesn't show up at all. No text, or call. Just leaves everything to the shifts. SM tells us to set the store up the way we think is best for everyone (and us shifts came from 2 different drive-thrus and 1 busy cafe store). We set it up to what we think is best (*and this is where it gets good*)

Opening day goes relatively smoothly with the 5 customers that came in.

Fast forward a week. Come in for my shift. Sees that the fridges are rearranged. I rearrange them thinking nothing of it. I come in the next day and they are rearranged again. I ask if anyone knows who did it. Everyone has the same answer: "*It was SM*"

At this point I'm a bit frustrated, and next time I see SM I ask them "Why did you rearrange the fridges? Did something change?"
SM: "Oh, no nothing changed, that's just the way it was before the pandemic."
Me: "This isn't 'before the pandemic' anymore. Why did you have us rearrange them if you were just going to change it back to the way it was?"
SM: "Oh! Great question! I don't have an answer for you."
I walk away before I get snippier

This was the first of many many many MANY things that led to not only 2 of the 3 shifts that opened the store up again quiting, but also the shift that was transfered to replace the first one that left. 3 out of 4 shifts (I'm the last shift left), and 3 out of 9 baristas gone within 3 months of the store being reopened. One barista did end up becoming a shift, and we got a transfer, but the store is running on fumes already. We close at 430pm because SM has to close the store as a shift 2 days out of the week and they have to pick up their kid from daycare.

Rapid fire mode:

》Constant smoke breaks (when not scheduled for breaks, and more than the amount of breaks they get per day).
I.e. SM scheduled themselves 8-4. It actually went ("Admin" till 1130 with three 20 min smoke breaks, took a 50 min lunch at 12, came out of the back to tell us we shouldn't make more sweet cream even though we only had 2 in the fridge, went in the back to "take a call" which was actually their kid calling them to talk to them about how school went, 2pm SM comes out of the back, makes 6 drinks and goes on a 20 min smoke break again, comes back at 240 and says "I don't know why I'm scheduled until 4, so I'm gonna leave now if that's okay.")
Btw, admin = watching Netflix on their phone while PC screen is on the desktop page.

》Messes up everybody on schedule. With only 12-14 ppl to schedule
I.e. didn't schedule a partner bc SM "forgot they worked there"???, not in partners' availability, giving multiple partners that need 20hrs for benefits and SCHOOL TUITION 18 hrs a week so the baristas have to scrape 2 hours somehow (I gave them extra hours where I could help) and gives the newest barista who doesn't listen and doesn't remember anything we tell them and doesn't care about work 30+ hours. I guess in their mind tenured=less hours.

》Tells us to use the expired products we have (i.e. strawberry inclusions, toffeenut and peppermint syrups, frap chips)

》No firmness about tardiness, no-call-no-shows, calling out
I.e. the newest barista mentioned above (Let's call them L) was scheduled to open and on 4 separate occasions, didn't show up to open so the opening shift had to open when the next morning crew showed up. L got no repercussions, no write up, not even a talking to because they're in the with the manager and snitch on everybody about things that don't even need to be snitched on.

》SM never steps on the floor unless there is only one other person. If there are 2 people on the floor, they don't come out of the back unless it's to go smoke or go to the bathroom. Even during morning peak with 40+ people, apparently 2 people can handle the endless amount of angry customers because the drinks are taking forever and they're going to be late to work.

》SM finally takes action on IMS but instead of ordering what we have all been asking for (i.e. Grindz to clean the grinder, Descal to clean the dishwasher, a tea riser) SM zeroes out everything including milks and food. Fast forward 2 days, we run out of 2% and hour into the night shift, and by the end of the day, we have one half and half gallon in ALL of the fridges, not just the back. We also only have 2 kale egg bites, 1 reduced fat turkey bacon sandwich, and ONLY CHOCOLATE DIPPED MADELINES, SPROUTED GRAIN BAGELS AND 3 BANANA NUT BREADS to pull.........

》SM dropped their phone in the ocean and got sand in it so it was obviously broken. They decided to spend their admin time at their respective phone store and get a new phone. After they came back they sat in the back and set up their phone for an hour. They came back out when they were supposed to be on floor and said they had to go get their kid from daycare because they were sick (pretty sure this was the 20th time i heard those words from SMs mouth in 3 months)

》SM missed 3 RP orders in a row. In. A. Row. We now have a leaning tower of Berry Hibiscus Base that I hope will fall on me and give me work comp. We also have 5 boxes of grande hot cups. We go through maybe a sleeve a day. At least I can block off the customers from view when I sit in the break corner of the lobby. SM delegated the RP order to the morning shift (who just promoted btw).

SM also capped the food ordering so morning shift can't order more food than they've been ordering. Every day I come in to close,there is barely 1 or 2 of a few items and I'm tired of "Unfortunately we don't have that today" being my greeting as people walk in.

》SM misses important milk counts

》SM almost always "forgets" to take their temp before shifts and "forgets" to wear a mask, even walking through the lobby full of customers (it's still highly mandated in this state)

》SM is the worst barista, worse if possible than L. Well actually, L and SM are about the same. SM free poured cold brew into a keg. Ended up being so transparent I could see the ice in the cold brew. Needless to say, I dumped out the entire keg because we had no more concentrate to balance it out. I kid you not, the very next day, SM made a toddy, I'm almost positive it reached 18L of water because it was about to spill out of the top when you moved it an inch.

》What is FIFO when you can dump gallons of milk because others don't know how to count dates to take the oldest one and use it first? Obviously we love dumping expired milks at this store.

》Fast forward a day after the cold brews. Health inspector came to audit us. SM had no folder visible to pull out for the information needed to give the inspector. I called SM twice and didn't get any answer, so I had to dig for 5 mins around the back to find the right info. I tried to open the filing cabinet under the desk but it was locked. The folder I was looking for was in a box in the back corner of the highest shelf. Audit went okay. We got a passing score (barely). We called the stores next to us to tell them the health inspector is in the area, and get this. The store right next to us told us they had gotten audited right before us and *they'd called to tell SM the health inspector was on their way soon*. SM knew. SM knew they were coming but didn't bother to tell anyone in the store. SM didn't even call or text back to ask what was wrong about me calling twice. SM then had the audacity to go to the other shift and say "Yeah, I usually prefer my shift calls me when the health inspector comes in. I'll have to talk to u/beam-me-up about that".

》Ah yes, and on the day of the audit, morning shift tells me she had to scramble this morning and have somebody pick up mastrena cleaning tablets which she had to beg for from a nearby store so the mastrenas didn't shut down. The night before, SM had closed. I kid you not, she wrote in the book "Happy Tuesday! So sorry I didn't realize we didn't have any mastrena pills, so you'll have to find some. Also, don't forget to do the RP order today, thanks!" And SM clocked out 15 mins early that day..........

》》》THE WORST ONE IF THATS POSSIBLE!!!!!!! 《《《
SM doesn't enter punches in correctly. I mean, straight illegal. A partner (Let's call them R) worked a 5 hour shift when they took somebody else's shift. Mind you, this was a shift they picked up because they needed 20+ hours for tuition. When they got to work, the system didn't let them clock in so they wrote it in the book. SM never signed off on it. They wrote it in the next week so they would see it again. They never signed off on it even though SM signed off on the others around the partner's previous shift. R tries one more time and SM never signs off on anything, and just tells R "You wrote it on the wrong week." R asks SM why they aren't punching it in and SM answers "I just didn't have time for it yet." From what I understand, it's relatively easy to put clock in and clock out times in the system. You just have to log in and do it.

Fast forward a week after SM says they didn't have time to do it. R asks if they did it yet and they say "Yes it should be in the system now." A month later, R is feeling a bit off about the whole thing so they call the payroll people to ask if they got paid for the day. Payroll people tell R that nothing is entered in for that day and there is nothing indicating that there should be a payment there. R is understandably furious and the payroll people say they'll escalate it because if SM tells this to one, they probably did it to others too. And let me tell you, SM did indeed do it to others too. SM tried to do it to the R again, another partner, and me, a shift. The only shift left.

Me and R ended up staying very late trying to figure out what went wrong with the deposit (as it was off ~$100) and in the end after we figured out what happened (morning shift punched an extra 1 in front of their deposit), we clocked out. Simple. A week later, R asks me if I saw that SM had changed her clock out time to when we're SUPPOSED to clock out, not when we did an hour later than we were supposed to (mind you, we were working the whole time we were on the clock). I look and lo and behold, my clock out time says 5. We left at ~6. We physically clocked ourselves in the system AT 6. WE DIDNT STAY IN THE STORE UNTIL 6 JUST TO CLOCK OUT AT 6!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

Still to this day I don't know if I got paid for that hour.

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I'm transferring across the ocean soon, and as soon as I do I'm ready to rip into SM. Not only are they the worst manager I've ever in my life worked for at any job whatsoever (I've had 5+), they're also a horrible person and a compulsive liar. How they got to where they were boggles my mind.

Thank you for listening and spending 5-10 mins being mad at a stranger with me.





TL:DR Honestly idk how to sum up that rant but I hope you have a wonderful day!




Btw: SM stands for S***tyManager, L stands for LeavePls, and R stands for RealOne


Ps: I have pics of the cold brews and empty fridges if anyone doesn't believe