Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
↑
103
↓
Starbucks Has No Training Program (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by wildaloofrebel55
I just started my third week with Starbucks and I am so woefully unprepared I practically have a panic attack when asked to do my own job. I received a 20 hour overview on what baristas do and then was just told to do and learn.
How is this acceptable? There are millions of different combinations of drinks and hundreds of buttons on the register, how can I be expected to find them all quickly during a rush when I’ve had a 1 day intro? How am I supposed to find a groove on the ovens? How in the absolute FUCK am I supposed to make the millions of different types of beverages accurately and quickly when I’ve had 2 hours TWO HOURS of training?
I am making idiotic mistakes left and right. How idiotic? I got to work this morning and had so much on my mind about working I FORGOT TO CLOCK IN. I left coffee unbrewed because I was supposed to be brewing coffee, DTO, AND DTR, and frankly, I can’t do three things at once right now, I can’t do two. As a matter of fact, by the time they pulled me off DTR and DTO and just let me to DTR, there was a line of cars wrapped around the building. Trust me, that’s not the half of it.
Can someone please tell me why Starbucks has decided not to train their new baristas? This is incredibly painful for EVERYONE, because the seasoned partners have to answer my questions and bail me out every 5 seconds. I think I might quit and go work at Burger King…I wonder if they train you there!
Advice, hugs, encouragement welcome. Perhaps you can tell me what a normal amount of crying is for beginning your third week. Thanks.
How is this acceptable? There are millions of different combinations of drinks and hundreds of buttons on the register, how can I be expected to find them all quickly during a rush when I’ve had a 1 day intro? How am I supposed to find a groove on the ovens? How in the absolute FUCK am I supposed to make the millions of different types of beverages accurately and quickly when I’ve had 2 hours TWO HOURS of training?
I am making idiotic mistakes left and right. How idiotic? I got to work this morning and had so much on my mind about working I FORGOT TO CLOCK IN. I left coffee unbrewed because I was supposed to be brewing coffee, DTO, AND DTR, and frankly, I can’t do three things at once right now, I can’t do two. As a matter of fact, by the time they pulled me off DTR and DTO and just let me to DTR, there was a line of cars wrapped around the building. Trust me, that’s not the half of it.
Can someone please tell me why Starbucks has decided not to train their new baristas? This is incredibly painful for EVERYONE, because the seasoned partners have to answer my questions and bail me out every 5 seconds. I think I might quit and go work at Burger King…I wonder if they train you there!
Advice, hugs, encouragement welcome. Perhaps you can tell me what a normal amount of crying is for beginning your third week. Thanks.
asdfjklyss 65 points 1y ago
Because they won’t dish out the labor hours so big man kevin Johnson can get his big bonus. It’s ridiculous. And I promise none of them are mad or annoyed with *you* we all know the “training” is bad. It also is a very steep learning curve- so don’t feel bad you don’t know things quickly. If the training was better the amount to learn wouldn’t be so bad.
wildaloofrebel55 [OP] 24 points 1y ago
I was wondering who did the math on how much it costs to have a well trained partner vs a poorly trained partner. I’m making mistakes that absolutely cost the company money!!!
juiceyluicy 25 points 1y ago
Technically you’re supposed to have 21 hours with a barista trainer training you and then normally have training shifts the week after so it isn’t so overwhelming when you’re working as coverage. I agree there isn’t enough training time for all the shit the company and workers expect from new people. I’m sorry your store did that to you. In my opinion (and probably most others) it’s unacceptable that they had you doing two positions and brewing at once.
[deleted] 22 points 1y ago
I’ve been here for almost two years and breakdowns are a weekly occurrence. Today it was because I had a family emergency this morning that I couldn’t do anything about so I’d been awake since three am and my register fell and all of the money fell out while I was soloing DTO and dtr. I lost it and started crying and had to leave the floor for a minute to get my shit together. I had green beans asking me for help so I swallowed my breakdown and went back to being the salty 269**** that I usually am on the floor.
It’s gonna be okay. It takes six months to develop the skills to be a good barista. Prioritize your mental health, enjoy your days off, and ask for as much help as you need. Also my dms are open too.
Stay strong little green bean. Love a salty older espresso bean.
It’s gonna be okay. It takes six months to develop the skills to be a good barista. Prioritize your mental health, enjoy your days off, and ask for as much help as you need. Also my dms are open too.
Stay strong little green bean. Love a salty older espresso bean.
wildaloofrebel55 [OP] 13 points 1y ago
Thank you so much. I hope your family is okay and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and I REALLY appreciate you salty seasoned baristas helping me out.
[deleted] 8 points 1y ago
They’ll be alright. I’m just a constant worrier and I’m going an entire week at Starbucks without a day off which is brutal. It’s gonna be okay though. One step at a time and remember this mantra when customers get snappy. Water off a mother fucking duck’s back. This job is hard and we’re overworked and expected to deliver the world. You’re gonna do great okay? Eventually you’ll be the salty seasoned barista calming green beans down when they get overwhelmed.
[deleted] 10 points 1y ago
There was no till when I was training and, no cafe, no one taught me to read cups, and yea memorizing all the drink combinations suck, and honestly training there is torture because basically they put you on bar and then uh older baristas yell because you mess up.
MrsClaireUnderwood 8 points 1y ago
\>I FORGOT TO CLOCK IN.
14\*\*\*\*\* here, still do this.
14\*\*\*\*\* here, still do this.
[deleted] 6 points 1y ago
[deleted]
nonbinaryqueerfuck 4 points 1y ago
this for sure. they let me on cold bar for two days last week but they ALWAYS have me on DTR or front register. Even when it’s died down. How am I supposed to learn if you never have me on bar ever? I’m willing to learn. it frustrates me
dthomp0806 2 points 1y ago
At my store all new people go on register. Then they'll throw them on bar during busy times. They should have new people on bar, with a trainer shadowing them, during slow times only, until they know what they're doing. Literally all new partners at my store make everything wrong since they have no one watching them during their bar time. It's a shit show.
erizodelmar 6 points 1y ago
I dealt with the same thing when I started. It was so frustrating at first, and yeah, I made every dumb mistake (not getting the drip coffees when I was working front, not realizing there was a person who’d been waiting at the drive thru speaker for several minutes, making all sorts of drinks incorrectly, exploding a can of whipped cream all over myself, setting off the alarm when going out for a trash run, etc etc).
I’ve been a barista for 2 1/2 months now and it does get better. There were 2-3 weeks of feeling clueless though. I’m definitely still mad about the lack of proper training and I don’t know how much longer I’ll be staying with Starbucks honestly. If you really need a job, stick it out. If you know you could find a better job pretty easily and don’t feel attached to Starbucks just yet, I’d say get out now.
I’ve been a barista for 2 1/2 months now and it does get better. There were 2-3 weeks of feeling clueless though. I’m definitely still mad about the lack of proper training and I don’t know how much longer I’ll be staying with Starbucks honestly. If you really need a job, stick it out. If you know you could find a better job pretty easily and don’t feel attached to Starbucks just yet, I’d say get out now.
jjoorrrdddaan 5 points 1y ago
i think this is more of a manager/trainer issue. i’m an SM and i give my green beans 40 hours of training (shhh don’t tell) and the entire time i have my trainer coded as training too. the biggest part of training is that you need time to get a better understanding of everything.
did your SM do your skill checks? did they do your next chapter discussion aka the follow up to your training conversation? because you should be able to voice all of this to your SM and if they’re a good manager they should give you more support. i’ve worked hard on ensuring i have really good trainers and i follow up consistently during the training to see how they feel because i don’t want anyone to feel like you do. if you need any advice i’m here! good luck green bean!
did your SM do your skill checks? did they do your next chapter discussion aka the follow up to your training conversation? because you should be able to voice all of this to your SM and if they’re a good manager they should give you more support. i’ve worked hard on ensuring i have really good trainers and i follow up consistently during the training to see how they feel because i don’t want anyone to feel like you do. if you need any advice i’m here! good luck green bean!
SnuglyS 4 points 1y ago
You guys got training??? They had me do the web training then threw me on the floor. I came from a grocery store kiosk so they thought everything would be fine… it wasn’t fine…
dirtyydre 3 points 1y ago
I was trained with 5 other people at the beginning of the year. I realized pretty quick how lucky we were. We got trained in a closed down cafe store for a few days, so we got to get everything down before actually going into a live store. (We were a test group to see how this kind of training would go so they could move on and train 12 people at a time in a closed store, to eventually place in brand new stores that would be filled with green beans)
wildaloofrebel55 [OP] 2 points 1y ago
Oh my god, I am so jealous! This is exactly the type of training I wish I had. How was it?
dirtyydre 2 points 1y ago
It was great! We got to learn and practice everything. The first group trained was trained by the managers taking over the new stores so it allowed us to get to know them well. All of the partners that were trained this way were so much more comfortable when we opened our stores.
vodwalyn 2 points 1y ago
It took me 3 months to get the hang of everything I had to do as a barista. They anticipate throwing you into the fire. You either sink or swim, it sucks but it’s been like this for the 5+ years I’ve been at Starbucks
BatWeary 2 points 1y ago
My big one year anniversary is coming up with the company in August, truly have no idea how I haven’t quit yet lol
I’ve also noticed newer partners get shit training. My SM would schedule people to work their first/second/third day ever on the busiest days of the week and wonder why times are shit, and it’s because you’re putting people who have had 2 hours of bar training on bar during peak. It’s really not fair to you guys and I try to help our new beans out as much as I can. Just stick it out and continue asking for help—I promise you’ll learn your groove in time. But if Starbucks isn’t for you, that’s okay. I haven’t worked at Burger King, but I did work at Mcdonald’s for 3 years prior. I do have to say, the job was much much much easier in my opinion. Even so I still like Starbucks more by 100000000%
I’ve also noticed newer partners get shit training. My SM would schedule people to work their first/second/third day ever on the busiest days of the week and wonder why times are shit, and it’s because you’re putting people who have had 2 hours of bar training on bar during peak. It’s really not fair to you guys and I try to help our new beans out as much as I can. Just stick it out and continue asking for help—I promise you’ll learn your groove in time. But if Starbucks isn’t for you, that’s okay. I haven’t worked at Burger King, but I did work at Mcdonald’s for 3 years prior. I do have to say, the job was much much much easier in my opinion. Even so I still like Starbucks more by 100000000%
imlysscining 1 points 1y ago
Not only does it concern the absurd low amount of hours they give you to train (the computer training doesn’t do anything either, let’s be real) but it comes down to the manager letting people who aren’t ready become trainers because of how high the turnover time is. There’s no real time for development because they’re not paying you guys enough and the company as a whole is just running itself off of a cliff. I did corporate starbs for a while, had a wonderful trainer, lucked out, and became a leader at a target Starbucks. You either hit the jackpot with your trainer or you just get fucked because the store is inherently already a mess.
[deleted] 1 points 1y ago
[deleted]
XxTRUEPINOYxX 1 points 1y ago
Honestly it sucks that new beans are training in the worst times depending on the store or training at another store then coming back home base where they got hired. But honestly if SM/ASM could not schedule multiple people all at once with no proper assistance or support or labor to back up the slack. Then we can’t help new green beans succeed. And it makes everyone else tense and frustrated I came as an outside shift and I learned a lot in the time I been here. And honestly no one should be thrown in to which bad situations as you do not learn properly.
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.