What would always piss me off is when I'm in the middle of a sequence, the sticker prints and I'm halfway through the drink and someone else grabs the sticker and starts the drink... then we're all confused when there's a random extra latte sitting on the counter but nowhere for it to go...because dingbat there took my sticker and started making my drink.

Or when the guy on window would step on my bar rather than connecting with the customer. I'd coach him and tell him to go back to the window he'd be like 'oh I'm just trying to help our drive times.' Ya know what would help our drive times? Getting the FUCK out of my way.

I hate when people touch my bar without asking. And it always seems like I get left with the crappy drinks that no one wants to make when someone "helps." Like right now I'm on my ten and I have a green bean on cafe bar and she keeps grabbing stickers when she doesn't have her own drinks, and I'm trying to think of how to tell her not to touch my bar in a nice way when I go back, lol. Like I'll give you drinks if I want help. But I feel bad because she's just out of training and trying to help. Ugh.

doesn’t usually bother me, if we are slow then why not have two people making drinks to get the customers away from us faster. only if the cafe bar starts pulling stickers when i see that they have drinks of their own to make is when it’s like…dude get off my bar

THIS. I’m newer (a few months), so partners will take drinks from me on drive bar even when our times are not bad. In the past month or two I’ve gotten pretty strong at sequencing and have even gotten praise for my speed, so it bugs me when other partners still snag drinks from under me when we’re clearly not in a rush. I work best under my own system. I’ll be missing a drink that’s at the window because someone took the sticker and then forgot to finish the drink, meanwhile I’m ahead for the next 2 cars but have to pause to finish the drink that I would’ve just made in the sequencing order. And then my flow gets off track for the next drinks. It’s usually the seasoned partners who take my stickers bc they just see the 320 in me, but then partners *newer than me* see them do it and start to do the same thing when they’re not busy on window 😭
Bar is my favorite position, but it gets very annoying when this happens.

Y’all, if you’re slow what does it matter? Drinks are being done and you’re partners are helping each other. I can understand it being annoying don’t get me wrong, but why would you deny help if someone can? It’s not always an option so why not take advantage of spreading the work out between people? Communication is always key but like it ain’t that deep imo

SSV here. ASM in training. Recently, our DM explained that DT times need to be treated as if we are in peak during the entire day. So if there’s a cafe/mobile bar with no drinks, their slide position is to double up on DT bar to get the drinks out even faster to produce more customers in DT in a half hour period. I know it’s annoying. When I’m DT bar, I usually have a headset and make drinks as they are being ordered, before the sticker even prints.

Same. For that very reason I ask first if I can take drinks. I know they want to be helpful or if they're bored they want to find something to do but it messes with my sequencing

Or pulling stickers when you already have a line of cups on bar. I'm very strategic when stickering, I don't like more then 4 cups on my bar. Then someone will just come over and sticker like a dozen cups. Its near impossible not to knock some of them over. We don't have a lot of counter space, it feels too cluttered and will slow me down.

I personally think if there's confusion happening whenever someone works with you on bar you are unreasonably hard to work with on bar. It should be easy for someone to jump in and grab a sticker and make it to cut down the line a bit. wouldn't you rather have less work?

We have an unspoken rule at our store that if you pull it you make it. There was a big problem of people pulling stickers and walking away because they were too new or didn’t want to make it.

The comments saying “get out of my way” are hella toxic. You aren’t great, trust me. Drop the ego and let your other partners help make drinks too. You ain’t shit.

I always try to be mindful when helping because I get put in the same situation as you. When you help someone on bar it should be either as their cold bar or starting a hot bar drink when they are on cold bar. No in between.

i’m the same way. it’s also mostly because people tend not to make cleaning up after themselves a priority. on top of that, the standard is to make two drinks at a time. i’ll be working 3/4 drinks and people are still coming over and trying to pull stickers. even worse is when they pull stickers and place them out of order so we end up slowing down anyway. tbh i’m blaming this on overeager partners and bad trainers who don’t teach partners when and how to effectively help. 9/10 the only reason i’m slow is because i’m running out of stuff and instead of helping me stock, everyone is reaching for the sticker machine. it’s so irritating. and i’ve stopped saying anything because i’m tired of people looking at me like a bitter barista because people are trying to be helpful in the least helpful way possible.

i don't get how this bothers y'all lol. bro my store is busy as shit i'd rather them be making drinks then sitting there doing jack shit. it pisses me off more when people in drive just stand there doing nothing, HELP ME OUT MF DONT JUST STAND THERE. (i have been here for 11 months and i'm the fastest at bar and i STILL want the help, TAKE MY FUCKING STICKERS PLEASE)

I think the best thing to help this situation is see it as help rather than “touching your bar.” Communicate your work style and communicate if/when you want/need and don’t want/need help to avoid people feeling like they are worthless and start to dislike you. We are all here to support each other fundamentally. Drive times imo do not matter at the surface level, so when people come from DT to make a drink, is infuriating when you’re soloing or sequencing and your flow is great. But again, just communicate.

I work a cafe only store and it pisses me off too, there's a few partners that leave their duties as support/register to grab stickers while we are slow and make drinks and it's infuriating. You just want to help? Brew the damn coffee for once or maybe stock things I'm low on.

See I am a new green bean been a barista for about three weeks and I don’t get a lot of bar time and I work afternoon to closing and when they put me on primary I don’t get a lot of drinks so I’m dying for practice and so I always ask the drive bar if I can help them and take the next one but by the looks of the comments I never knew a lot of people seem to hate that. Thank you for posting I will try to be more mindful from now on

I dont see the big deal. Unless you havent pulled any stickers and people are just coming randomly and pulling random stickers, they're just trying to help.

there’s this partner that literally takes my stickers from me when i’m on drive bar on their own whim. the thing is i actually don’t mind, i only mind when it’s them. only them because when they are on drive bar i start taking there stickers per request of the shift that i help them and this partner goes off on me. LIKE WHY TAKE MY STICKERS WHEN U DONT LIKE UR OWN STICKERS BEING TAKEN

we have an unspoken rule between the main people on bar that if we don’t have any stickers on our bar, whether that be cafe or mobile, we always check in and ask the other barista if they’d like some help on drinks, or if they could pass us a sticker. if someone’s on cafe and have nothing to do and it’s slow, they’ll usually ask if the other barista needs anything restocked or if they’d like to have some part of the drink made in advance (cold foam, pour milk into the pitchers, or get a frapp ready for them, etc.). but it gets on my nerves when someone on bar starts pulling out stickers from mobile, and when they see it’s a complicated drink, they won’t even say anything to me, they’ll just put it off to the side and never make it. then when a customer comes in to pick up their drink, we’re over here trying to find it, and then see that it was never made and was put off to the side.

I had a barista upset with a fellow partner for this as well at my store. Me being new, I always ask if they'd like help or what I can do for them. I'm aware I'm not the fastest yet. I usually end up grabbing new sanitizers and sanitizer cloths and just wait for them to have a moment where they move away that I can change those and stock milks, check the stock on whipped cream, see if they need oven support. Some peoples brains process things differently, if someone took an order/sticker/drink our of my sequencing without my knowledge it would really mess with my flow tbh with you, just with how my brain happens to work.. it would just not be great, I would spend way too much time trying to process the lost drink/sticker or w.e etc than it would take me to make a whole drink.

Just out of curiosity, have any of you who find it annoying or bothersome actually talked to your partners about it nicely before?

At my store, we're pretty open with each other about things that bother us. Some of us are a bit rude about it but we always try to set clear boundaries like saying: "no, please don't get me out of my rhythm" or "actually, can you just sticker the cups for me" or "I'm okay right now, I appreciate your concern" and we try to do what our partners communicate to us.

For me, I'm only two months in, as soon as I get overwhelmed, I immediately ask for help and my partners do what I've asked for help with. It's usually the frapps, prepping the milk and froast 😭

I really hope you guys are able to receive support at your store with this particular instance.

Ikr it is so rude. You got it, you would rather them stock for you so you can stay planted, and they can stay planted at their position. I’m right there with you!

I was also annoyed by this. I know exactly what you are talking about. The thing is, you're all getting paid the same, if not a very little difference. Less work for the same pay isn't a bad thing in my book. I look at it as a partner finding something to do and being efficient. Two people working on drinks is faster than just one. Honestly, who cares if they take tickets. They're just taking responsibility off of you.

i don’t pull anyone’s stickers unless they ask me to. i hateeee when people randomly pull stickers without telling me , it throws me off so bad

This is literally me! I hate it so anytime I'm on cafe/mobile I tell the partner on drive bar to let me know if they need help and that they can pull shots on my mastrena if they need to. After that I start to wipe out my fridge, restock my area, etc. Why is that so hard for some partners? Thanks for trying to help but I don't really need it >\_<

when i transferred to my new store i made one thing clear: do *not* touch my stickers unless you ask or i ask for help. it will 110% slow me down and now everyone’s mad. i don’t care if i’m 45 minutes behind, *don’t touch the damn sticker machine*

my old store i had a shift who would stack 20-30 cups, if not more, despite the fact it made my anxiety go skyrocketing so high i would completely shut down. i love her dearly as a friend but as a shift, i wanted to throat punch her. we had 6 lattes get thrown out today because cafe bar kept snatching my stickers the second they printed, and would ignore me when i told them i was already making that drink (i was drive bar w a headset). i threatened to pour hot water on their head if they touched my bar again and they stopped (i’d never pour water of any temp on them, but spray them with whip? that i will do). another barista peeve i have is when people pull shots/steam milk on my bar (or steal my freshly made batch of cold foam for my drink and don’t make more for me) without asking first. i could write a novel on the shit my coworkers do that piss me off

I use to do that tbh. The best thing to do is just keep telling them that you don't need help and that it messes up your sequencing

I can't stand this. And I hate it more when I go make a frappuccino and come back only to see a bunch of tickets pulled. Like I get that they're trying to help but all they're doing is annoying me. Or when they pull out a bunch of tickets trying to find a cold bar drink. Now I'm just extra stressed because I see how many tickets I have to do.

You really should just tell your fellow partners that this bugs you. Or to ask before they take stickers. Communication is really important

My partners know not to step in my realm when I’m on bar…if you take a ticket without communicating with me, I’ll stop what I’m doing and will stare at you until you put my drink back and start over properly🤨

My biggest problem is when they pull stickers and don’t finish or even start the drink and just leave the cup somewhere, and then get mad that you don’t finish it 😂

In all honest, I ALWAYS ASK first if it’s slow. Cause if you’re on cafe bar and drive bar needs help, I would ask them if they need my help, and then we would coordinate. Like cafe bar be on cold bar and drive bar be on hot bar

I feel like 95% of problems that arise barista to barista is from lack of communication. First of all respect the position! Do your position to the fullest and if you truly have nothing else to do and think someone else needs help fricken ask them! And then talk to them about where there at and what help they actually want/need. If they don't want help who cares? Why are you forcing yourself on someone else's position?!

If it's just that they are stubborn and territorial on bar and they are behind but won't take help well the ssv will notice and talk with them or change the play. If you are not on bar and we're not asked to help then do the position you were assigned to.

I also personally appreciate a bar clean up the most when I'm on bar and can't stop to clean. And to not have to ask for something to be restocked. If there is free time those should be the first ways in which you try to support bar.

I personally don't even mind if people help me make drinks even if it's slow. But at least communicate with me and don't pull my sticker, get distracted or disinterested and set the cup down somewhere and not tell me then I have to stop my sequencing when there is a missing drink.

The opposite annoys me more. Like if cafe/mobile bar is slow, but DT is getting slammed, and the bar 2 partner just stands around instead of helping DT bar catch up. That crap annoys the hell out of me.

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I’m at a DT only store which means we are TINY cold bar and both espresso bars are all right next to each other on the same counter I can barely stand when it’s super busy and people hop on bc there’s no room but when people hop on for no good reason I get so heated, I love covering at cafes where it’s a little more spread out