I wasn’t originally with my store when covid started but I have seen how it has caused a lot of previous partners to quit. I believe it is a good reason because I have had a lot of family members die, ended up in the hospital, and get news of how they only have a few months left and this is all in the last month and it has taken a major toll on me and my store has asked me if I need time off I haven’t really taken any but I believe it’s very important especially with all the stress everyone is under with understaffing and the covid part 3 or whatever number we’re on now. The answer is stickers I bought a huge pack of cool stickers and I would give them out with a piece of candy when someone looked stressed or they were kicking ass. My sm actually started that with giving us gold stars but I just updated it a little. Another thing is treats bringing little treats that everyone can enjoy helps it can be little squish toys from the dollar spot at target or it can be fruit snacks. I also have gone hard for every holiday I found a way to be a food safe Christmas tree and for Valentine’s Day everyone gets a treat bag. My store went from being 1 point below being first in our district to we are now closed and all at the store in the town over so our connection score is gone but I don’t believe we should focus on it because it broke my team’s heart when we went from almost first to almost last to no score. We really love our regulars who brighten our day but we really wanted to reach as many people as possible to spread happiness and good vibes but it’s just unrealistic to make everyone happy while saving our sanity. I think another question you should ask is how the barista feel and if they think they will continue at Starbucks or if they have thought about quitting. I have thought about quitting and it becomes a very frequent thought now because I just can’t mentally do this anymore and I feel awful about it but I’m the person that my store counts on to be happy and keep us a float and I just can’t and Starbucks doesn’t pay my bills and I work a second job that I have been leaning towards because I can make the money I need and I’m not expected to hold everything together. I love that you are doing this and I believe your going to get an A and they may not put a gold star but ⭐️ here’s one from me

hello, 225**** here. i left the company in 2018 but came back in 2020 when covid started due to me losing my job due to covid. i have struggled a lot with my mental health since. i mean, it wasn’t great before. the moving back home and returning to a job i worked in high school really hurt and set me back. at the end of 2020, i ended up being “fired” bc i stopped showing up, though it was widely known that i was struggling with my mental health and wasn’t myself anymore. i had cut off friends i had known for years that also worked at starbucks and they had mentioned to the manager they were concerned about me even though it wasn’t necessarily effecting my work. a few months after i left, i attempted suicide. almost died really and spent 6 weeks in the hospital recovering and my dad had informed the people he thought were my close friends, even though in reality i hadn’t talked to them in months. i spent months recovering for this and eventually decided i was ready to work again. i was rehired at a store near my house with help from one of my starbucks friends. she (a manager herself now) explained to the manager of the store i was going to what had happened and why i was fired. he hired me and has been extremely understanding. the first few months were really rough and i had to take weeks out at a time bc both my physical and mental health weren’t good and my manager was completely understanding. when my coworkers asked where i had been, i was very open about that it was for my mental health and everyone responded with how great it was that i knew when to take that break. i am very lucky to work at an amazing store now where my coworkers and manager are all very friendly. we support each other during and out of work. covid really threw my life in a loop and i am just now adjusting to my new life and all the changes that come with covid. i think pushing customer connections is still important as many people work from home and still don’t have a lot of interactions with others. it is a balancing act though with keeping employees safe and their own well-being cared for. hope some of this is helpful!

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Personally, I've seen a huge decline in not only my own mental health but also other partners mental health since the pandemic. We as a company I believe got arguably busier than we were before all of this started. Its been a shit show (excuse my language) to say the least. I do also feel like customers have become....not meaner but definitely less patient with us since all of this started. I think the companies focus as a whole has shifted too. When all of this started and even before it all started I feel like a lot of the focus was how do we keep our partners safe and happy and now to how do we keep our customers coming in. I think its incredibly deplorable that starbucks has found a way to benefit from the pandemic instead of really focusing on how to keep us safe. Masks mandates aren't enforced because it's "inconvenient to the customer" despite that getting COVID is inconvenient to us. We've fully opened Cafe in all stores, bathrooms are fully open to customers and it just seems like a lot in favor of customers instead of us. I think a lot of us are feeling incredibly unappreciated and unvalued to the company right now and it's taking its toll on a lot of people. So many of my coworkers have quit that have been here before all of this started because they couldn't take it anymore. Morale has definitely taken a hit, there is a lot of negativity that I'm seeing in stores now that I hadn't seen prior to this and I'm a 5 year partner. As for some of your other questions, I absolutely believe that calling out due to mental health should be acceptable, we're only human and everyone has a limit. We all absolutely have to take time to get ourselves right before we focus on other people. When my coworkers and friends struggle with mental health I encourage them to call out and take a couple of days to themselves. These customers and this store will still be here. I also encourage them to seek out therapy if it's bad enough. As for customer connection scores, no, I think its absolutely ridiculous to focus on that right now. It's again shows partners that we aren't valued over the customer and it's incredibly stressful trying to balance that and explain to everyone why we're out of everything all of the time on top of watching DT times and getting perfect connections out the door when people are already upset/annoyed/angry that we don't have the products they want anyway. Hope this helped.