Hi! I am a middle school teacher working at Starbucks for the infertility coverage! I've been doing it since January 2020. At first, it was really stressful trying to balance both jobs, but now it's just routine. The worst part is the hour drive I have to make to my closest store. I love that I can just leave and not think about Starbucks until my next shift. My manager has hired several more teachers after me because of our people skills.

hi, i’m a starbucks barista. i’m also in school to become a teacher lol. starbucks is very fast paced and arguably stressful. it takes a while to learn everything and there will be days when you’ve been moving back and forth nonstop with so many different sounds in your ears and you’re about to lose it but then you remember you haven’t taken a real breath in so long. i’m not saying that it is a hard job, because it isn’t. in my opinion, it is stressful because of the long lines and nonstop orders that come through. if this seems like something you’re capable of doing, then go for it, but i’m not sure if this is the right second job

One thing that could potentially be a problem is that just because you are looking to work at Starbucks full time doesn’t mean Starbucks gives you full time hours. This week I have 38 hours but last week i only had 26. Also most people who get the most hours either work at other stores to help out or work all the crazy hours/days.

If you’re a middle school teacher, then you can definitely handle being a barista. I wouldn’t teach middle school again for millions of dollars.

I worked for Starbucks for over 10 years…if barista is your goal to replace teaching don’t fool yourself. Even working your way up to manager isn’t without its trials and tribulations but even then getting a promotion isn’t for sure even if your are deserving of it

Hi! Former kinder teacher here! I left my school and started at Starbs for the fertility benefits and for a break from the classroom. It’s been amazing. Work stays at work. Hours are better. I’m not crying 24/7. Definitely worth it!

I used to teach middle school and I hated it. I decided to leave and go back to grad school, and started working at Starbucks to have the flexibility to do my masters and still earn some money.

After working there, I’ve pretty much decided that teaching isn’t for me and I might be with Starbucks for the long haul. The pay isn’t as good (and I *never* thought I would say I miss teacher pay) but I’m so much less stressed and I could see myself working my way up the ladder. It’s not a perfect company, there are *huge* problems with it and I believe we should unionize, but I genuinely like my job.

One thing is that full time is not necessarily 40 hours. The pay is A LOT less than teaching. You are considered eligible for insurance at 20 hours weekly. But just a head's up at how few hours you might get.

My manager was a teacher and switched to become a SBUX manager bc she says that it’s more pay and less work... and we’re arguably the busiest store in the district haha

I quit teaching to work at Starbucks :) I was a teacher (SpEd) for 5 years. I’m infinitely happier at Starbucks. I *want* to go to work. Edit to add: I’ve also learned really quickly, which I attribute to my constant multitasking as a teacher. And was voted partner of the quarter after only two months there, which felt absolutely incredible to be recognized for my hard work, very unlike how I felt for 5 years of teaching.

Second edit: also here for the fertility benefits!

I used to teach preschool, I left when covid started. To be honest, I prefer teaching. At least preschoolers have an excuse to throw temper tantrums and I can tell them I’m not putting up with it. Adults know better and we can’t say anything to them because money. And it’s all over, over-priced sugar.

It is nice to work your shift and be done with it. My store is high volume and fast paced (drive thru) and we’re known to have nasty customers. I couldn’t get insurance during open enrollment so I’m screwed at the moment. Pretty sure I’m losing money. The job is repetitive and draining and I’m pretty tired of dealing with nasty customer attitudes. I’m planning on making my exit soon as it’s not fulfilling and not helping much financially so I’m not getting much out of it. It’s clear the company doesn’t give a shit about customer connections, it’s about money. We get pressured to do café drinks and mobiles but there’s no limit to either one and you end up getting ~25 drinks in 5 minutes and a lot of pissed off customers that don’t understand other people exist in the world.

This is just my personal experience! If this is what you decide to do, I hope it works out!! Some people love working at Starbucks, I don’t. My store is known to have exceptionally rude customers, our SM has created monsters and they think they can treat us however they want and there’s no real consequences. He apologized to a customer that threw a drink, on behalf of the baristas. When we get borrowed partners they’re shocked by the way we get spoken to and how many customers act this way. I’m done with it. I’m not a human punching bag and I can’t wait to walk away from this job.

I’m not a teacher although I have worked in the past for many years as an in school behavior therapist and also a para. I would you do probably already have more experience working with more demanding customers based on working with middle schoolers and their parents. And one nice thing is you don’t have to bring your job home with you. It is great that Starbucks offers the health benefits at 20 hours a week, but currently I work full time 35-40 hours a week as an in home caregiver for a disabled boy and try for 20 hours at Starbucks and I’m definitely stressed out.

I also joined Starbucks for the infertility coverage, but no longer work there. I had a very degrading & dehumanizing experience working at a very, very, very busy cafe & I was super stressed. I was super stressed at 16 hours a week after I declined to participate in benefits bc I was pulling out my hair w 22-25 Hours each week. The amount of multitasking we’re expected to do & on top of that encounter class antagonism from customers. There is no way fertility treatments would have worked. It depends how busy the cafe you’re applying to is & if they have a drive thru. It’s all about keeping those drive thru times low. They also upped the eligibility to 22 or 25 hours each week. Plus, if you get sick or miss shifts you have to make them up. I have since left after coming to the conclusion that it’s not worth it & I would rather go into debt w fertility treatments than work at Starbucks w infertility coverage. There also is a private Facebook group of Starbucks baristas who are there for infertility coverage.

I subbed before working at Bux. It is stressful, but the customer goes away. The kid in your class doesn't.

There is routine. Thousands of monies went into researching how to make the store run smooth. Everyone has a position that feeds another position. If there is full staff, store runs like a well-oiled machine.

Something to also keep in mind is that there are both cafe and drive thru store options. Cafe is going to be slightly less crazy than the drive thru stores (*although it really does depend on location*). You won't have to stress over being timed in the cafe store, but they push customer connections more there. Drive thru can get a little crazy, but personally I almost prefer it just because there's usually a constant stream of things to do

All I know is, one of our partners used to work part time with us and full time at a school, but this fall she went to full time with us and didn’t return to the school. Starting pay can be horrible depending on your area but we are supposed to be moving to start at $15/hour next year.

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It will be a year before you’re eligible for benefits. Keep that in mind.

You will never ever be full time.

You won’t get real benefits.

You will never make it to dm even in your wildest dreams.

If you are young go teach in a different country.

If your older teach at your local university extension program

If you hate teaching figure out what you love then figure out how to make money from it