Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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Getting closer and closer to calling a quits (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by lat3spr1ng
299 here, been with the siren since March and Ive loved a lot of my experiences with sbux and the skills it’s helped me build. I realized recently that I love the art of making coffee as a whole. I hate to even think about leaving because I love my team and they love me back, but I’m getting fed up.
I tried to set boundaries with my manager (who returned from his 6 month coffee break about a month ago now) and had multiple conversations with him about my availability, and it seemed like he understood but I checked the next schedule he made and I’m scheduled 2 days out of the 5 I said I could work. I know that he’s not drawing me out so I quit, because my shift leads and other coworkers love me and I work really hard, but what the hell? shifts are understaffed as is and all I said is that I wouldn’t open or work past 3pm anymore and needed 2 set days off for medical appointments, but now I’m getting 11 hours a week as an adult who’s been with the store for 6 months?
That plus even some weekdays have become a nightmare and I’ve been having some serious mental health problems both from being there when it’s slammed and understaffed, and not being scheduled because I’m starting to get anxiety about not being able to pay bills.
I love starbucks, I love my team, but I need to live. shifts with this manager are hell. they’re understaffed and then scrambling to find coverage when we have half our green beans call out whenever they’re scheduled. they could really use me, but I think my manager’s finally lost me with this one.
Is there any hope with talking to my DM? or does it seem like I should just start job hunting again?
I tried to set boundaries with my manager (who returned from his 6 month coffee break about a month ago now) and had multiple conversations with him about my availability, and it seemed like he understood but I checked the next schedule he made and I’m scheduled 2 days out of the 5 I said I could work. I know that he’s not drawing me out so I quit, because my shift leads and other coworkers love me and I work really hard, but what the hell? shifts are understaffed as is and all I said is that I wouldn’t open or work past 3pm anymore and needed 2 set days off for medical appointments, but now I’m getting 11 hours a week as an adult who’s been with the store for 6 months?
That plus even some weekdays have become a nightmare and I’ve been having some serious mental health problems both from being there when it’s slammed and understaffed, and not being scheduled because I’m starting to get anxiety about not being able to pay bills.
I love starbucks, I love my team, but I need to live. shifts with this manager are hell. they’re understaffed and then scrambling to find coverage when we have half our green beans call out whenever they’re scheduled. they could really use me, but I think my manager’s finally lost me with this one.
Is there any hope with talking to my DM? or does it seem like I should just start job hunting again?
RyusuiJL 10 points 1y ago
I don't mean to be an asshole here, and I'm sure you have good reasons, but your availability seems pretty limited. I mean, if I'm understanding it correctly, it seems as if you're only available for essentially one or two shift potentials on each day of 5 out of 7 days. I don't know your store's hours, staffing needs, or partner availability. Ours are 0500-1800, and without opening but not going past 3, there's only maybe 2 shifts each day that fit between those times.
Consider the following:
How many other partners are at your store? How many of them have been there longer than you? Several, most, or even all of them could have availability restrictions like you put forth. Your SM could be building the schedules giving preference to the most senior partner and then filling in shift gaps from top down. If you're the most or one of the most recent hire at only 6 months, that means you'll be the last/one of the last to give shifts to. So with what I outlined above, plus your limited availability, that doesn't leave a lot of spots to put you in.
Again, this is complete speculation. Have you tried asking your SM directly as to why you don't have many shifts?
Consider the following:
How many other partners are at your store? How many of them have been there longer than you? Several, most, or even all of them could have availability restrictions like you put forth. Your SM could be building the schedules giving preference to the most senior partner and then filling in shift gaps from top down. If you're the most or one of the most recent hire at only 6 months, that means you'll be the last/one of the last to give shifts to. So with what I outlined above, plus your limited availability, that doesn't leave a lot of spots to put you in.
Again, this is complete speculation. Have you tried asking your SM directly as to why you don't have many shifts?
lat3spr1ng [OP] 3 points 1y ago
my availability isn’t limited in comparison. we open at 4:30 and my availability gives an 8 hour window of availability and I work part time. many of the partners at my store are high school and college age so aren’t available during my window of time, and I’ve been with my store longer than about over half of our partners now. weekends are open in my availability when many partners have taken them off. I said in my post we are consistently understaffed, so obviously there are not enough partners at my store.
I worked a 9-5 last saturday and will work another 9-5 this week with just barely enough hours for benefits, and there’s a strong chance that the boundary I set with my manager about that also had a part to play.
I worked a 9-5 last saturday and will work another 9-5 this week with just barely enough hours for benefits, and there’s a strong chance that the boundary I set with my manager about that also had a part to play.
RyusuiJL 3 points 1y ago
Okay, that gives a better insight. Thank you. But given those new facts, I can still imagine that scheduling could possibly be a difficulty. If you're, at only six months, the most senior out of more than half of you, I imagine several of the others are not strong baristas yet and still need proper support around them to assist. So that adds another factor to consider when making the schedules. So for example, having to both fill in the opening and closing shifts while making sure there is overlap of experienced partners next to the unexperienced.
I'm not trying to back the choices behind your scheduling by what could possibly be a bad SM. Just to give one possible explanation from an outside perspective.
Either way, I hope a good conversation with your SM can help remedy your situation or at the very least give some reasoning.
I'm not trying to back the choices behind your scheduling by what could possibly be a bad SM. Just to give one possible explanation from an outside perspective.
Either way, I hope a good conversation with your SM can help remedy your situation or at the very least give some reasoning.
lat3spr1ng [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I appreciate it!
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