I was a barista with Starbucks since May of 2019 and resigned in April of 2021. I was promoted as a shift in august of 2020. Back in February of 2021, I received a call from PR asking about a conversation I talked about over headset. This said conversation was over headset when I was in the back room with 4/5 baristas who all have IUDS. I talked about a situation I had about intercourse and If my chances of getting pregnant were higher since I had only had the IUD for less than a month.
PR asked about if what I said was true and what exactly happened, you know the usual. I admitted to having talked about all of that. These baristas and I were all very close, one was my roommate at the time, the other two I had hung out with outside of work countless times before being promoted as a shift. The other was an ex girlfriend. I wrongfully thought she wasn’t wearing a headset.
I bet you could guess who might have made the call to PR. Fast forward to early April 2021 my DM comes in to talk to my manager. My manager comes up to tell me that us three need to have a conversation. We three go out to the lobby to discuss the steps they need to take for me after that whole situation. I get a final written warning (after having no previous write ups) and am required to transfer stores for breaking the close relationship policy.
Yes I understand 100% as to why I’m getting in trouble with this, not only did I date a coworker but I was also living with a coworker at the time. YET, back in February 2020, my manager and DM accepted my transfer even knowing I was dating this barista (I was also only a barista at the time so it wasn’t breaking policy either) and then in august, my roommates transfer to my store was approved also after our DM and manager both knowing we were roommates. My manager promotes me like I said in august of 2020 YES knowing the other coworker and I had been dating for two years. Of course with all workplace relationships, we break up in November of 2020.
The reason why my roommate transferred to my store was the same reason I thought working there would be a better option for me. It was about a 10 minutes walk from where I lived. I also (of course wrongfully assumed) that working with my girlfriend wouldn’t be an issue. I’m not going to blame it on my age but I’m 20 now and may have been naive to that but we always live and learn in this life.
In mid april 2021, in transferred to the nearest store that I felt as though I could walk to. Of course it’s hardly in walking distance from my house, despite being the closest store. And it’s downtown where I live, so driving there and not having to pay a fortune in parking was difficult as we were not given parking passes at this store. Upset and stressed, already being a young adult living on my own without financial help from my parents (as it was a very toxic living situation and I don’t try to depend on my parents financially to create less of a dependency on them) I don’t show up to my second shift at the downtown store because the night before my shift, I couldn’t sleep which caused me to go into a full blown sleep deprived panic attack about how I was supposed to get to work. I decide to not go in, I call the store and let them know I quit. I acted fully on impulse, but my mental health had been in the toilet. I felt betrayed by this company, I thought, “why me?” Ive seen and heard partners talk so much more vulgar than I had, even since my question I had for my fellow baristas was from an advice standpoint. I realized after talking with PR, that yes I am the shift and I should not have been talking “inappropriately” with my baristas
It was just very hard to understand why others could say or do worse than that and have zero repercussions. It was also frustrating at the time because, my ex and I had been to the point in our break up where we’d even laugh and still joke together as friends. I broke up with her when she was on a leave of absence due to a medical reason, she was gone for a month. Yes when she came back it was a bit awkward, but we had been cool again after a month. I assumed no hard feelings would have been there? I also assumed that with her in a new relationship, after 4 months I could talk about my IUD from an advice standpoint without an issue?
A typical theme in this is me being naive and wrong about a lot lol. But, now my mental health has been subsequently worse if I could have even imagined. Every new work place I’ve tried has given me anxiety to the point where I don’t come back. I feel sad and beat down, Starbucks was my life and my family. I got along with everyone there, even my ex after awhile. I also planned on getting health insurance this fall with open enrollment, as where my parents don’t have any. I even got to the point of having to move back home to this toxic environment because I couldn’t pay rent anymore, which has made it even worse. I’m not trying to get pity, I guess I’m curious if there’s anything I can do? I can of course see if I’ve dug my own grave without an olive branch, because I do understand what all happened happened because of my own choices. It’s just frustrating as well. I called PR about a month ago to ask about my rehire status (since I didn’t give the downtown store a 2 weeks notice I thought for sure I was non rehirable) but the manager must have not listed me up as “job abandonment,” thankfully as they said I can be hired still, but none of the locations as where I’m from will hire me because of how I quit. I guess I’m just wondering at the end of the day if there’s anything I can do legally with Starbucks because of this? Or because of my faults too is it worth it? I’ve still been unemployed and scared since I lived so close to my home store.. I don’t know what to do.