Am I being too sensitive? Tall rant(self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by Living_Award_2519
I’ve been working at my store for about 3 1/2 months and I feel like my SM, one of the shifts and some co-workers dislike me. I can be messy and a bit of a fuck up sometimes. I can make some pretty big messes and struggle with DTO/DTW. I was on DTO with a new trainee learning to do window and I kept messing things up because so much happened at once and it felt as if my brain short-circuited. Next thing I know, all I see is my SM come close to check on who was in my position and she just walked away scoffing,”Who else would it be? 🙄 *exasperated and shaking her head* to another partner. I was hurt and it made me uncomfortable and self conscious for the rest of the shift. I’m thinking of transferring stores or straight up quitting cus I can’t handle my sensitivity issues whenever I screw up and feel as if the entire crew dislikes me. Is this something worth getting worked up over or should I stay and wait it out? Sometimes I just have really off days, but I notice that the attitude at work can be a little toxic. I love the job a lot; bar is so much fun and I love working with most of my partners, but I’m afraid the negativity from other partners might negatively impact my mental health.
krym32zamoon10 points1y ago
Try and see about that transfer. You shouldn't be made to feel that way at all. Especially from the SM. That's very unprofessional of them and not ok.
Living_Award_2519 [OP]3 points1y ago
I wanted to add that she is pretty young—she might be one of the youngest SMs at 25 in the district/city. So she is still lacking in some emotional maturity, but I still think there should be room to accommodate for partners, especially on a professional level.
krym32zamoon1 points1y ago
She clearly has plenty of learning to do but still no excuse. I'd message the DM about her. Saying someone really should say something cause her unprofessional work manner is not in lines with the ideals of the company and she is creating unnecessary stress and could make it so people, like yourself, leave the company and that's clearly not what they'd want. 25 is old enough plus tough shit, she's in an SM, she gets paid as one, so she /needs/ to act as one.
Normal_Human_45672 points1y ago
Second this. And I want to add that anything making your mental health suffer over a long period of time is not worth it. If it had just been the one incident, I might say see where it goes, but it sounds like this has been going on for a while.
jazzysoranio3 points1y ago
1. Don’t get worked up about it. 2. Not getting worked up about it isn’t actually that easy. Sometimes you just can’t control how you feel about something. 3. If you can’t change how you feel about it tell the manager that what they did was hurtful. 4. If you feel like telling your manager something like that isn’t going to go over well, don’t do it. Transfer stores instead. 5. When they ask why, now they’re the ones who brought it up so you don’t have to. Now you can tell them that they make you uncomfortable and the way they treat you is not okay. 6. After that, either they will continue with your transfer, or they will change how they treat you. It’s one or the other. 7. If that doesn’t work, quit. Starbucks is a food service job. We’re not paramedics. We’re not scientists. We’re not diplomats. Sometimes we forget just how NOT actually that important our jobs are. I don’t mean to be negative, but sometimes we get so stressed out because we feel like the weight of the whole world is bearing down on us at Starbucks. We get so worked up as if national security is riding on us. It’s not. It’s just coffee. I only allow myself to stress out however much they pay me to. If they get paid twice as much as I do, then they can stress out twice as much as I do. The only reason we feel so pressured and stressed out (OVER COFFEE!!) is because the company is counting on us feeling that way in order for them to make a profit. They only make money if each and every one of us stresses ourselves out and pushes ourselves past the limit to perform above expectations. There’s no prize for going above and beyond. There’s no reward. The company creates that stressful environment to keep us feeling like it’s the end of the world if we don’t make 35-second drive-thru times and high customer connection scores. They’re banking on us feeling like it’s super important that we serve 10 customers a minute. When we feel that pressure and weight we’re even more motivated than if we’re happy, healthy, and enjoy work. They get more work out of us when we’re stressed. We’ve strayed so far away from ten years ago when the company mantra was “take care of your baristas first, and they will take care of your customers for you.” Our district manager used to tell my store manager that all the time. Damn, things have changed so much since then.
Living_Award_2519 [OP]2 points1y ago
Yes exactly! I second everything you just said. However, the only reason I got so worked up about this situation in particular was because I didn’t expect that kind of behavior out of her. I actually spoke to her today about it, and she seemed shocked at the way that she had spoken to me. I know it’s just a general attitude to be at peace with the fact that we’ll be treated like shit all the time, but in this case where I felt that I could change the situation and look at things differently, I did. And it seemed to work out 🤔 Of course I’m not naive, still going to be on my guard. Simply trimming the fat, which in this case is any unneeded negative energy.
Living_Award_2519 [OP]3 points1y ago
I meant she is pretty young*
Living_Award_2519 [OP]2 points1y ago
Update!: Spoke with her today and she seemed shocked at what I said; whether it be me bringing it up, or those words coming out of her mouth. I basically told her that if there was anything I needed to improve on or if she had any pointers that she could pull me aside or coach me at any point in time. I didn’t confront her or try to make her feel guilty (regardless she still did), but I phrased it so that were on the same page in the fact that communication was important. Even came up with a safe word for when things were too hectic and one of us was being out of line: Bananas. Everyone has a different relationship with their SM, I’m going to keep mine as mature and concise, in regards to professional communication, as possible. If it had gone another way I would have absolutely tried to transfer. Thanks for all the love on this post guys! I came looking for some validation in how I was feeling and I appreciate you all! 💖
FfierceLaw2 points1y ago
You are still new yourself, doesn't matter if everyone else is newer than you. SM should give you the time/space/grace to continue to improve. SM should be encouraging you with little coaches here and there. This is a bad SM. We should start to count how many of the sad stories on here are because of an incompetent SM. Where are our SMs on this sub?
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