Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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Crying myself to sleep (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by The_tired_barista
I just… let me explain the background: the store was left a fucking mess. Back ups were nonexistent, bars were a huge mess, no milks in fridges, cups weren’t stocked, no whips, caramel drizzles, no vsc, no lemonade, and the list goes on. Messes everywhere to the point there wasn’t a dry spot on the counter. The store was just a huge mess and mid just left us with the mess. I was sent to take over bar and the person just went “here. They’re the same” referring to the two drinks and left. Okay. Thanks for the details and transition. There were a total of 5 venti iced cups in the caddy. The sani was disgusting so I couldn’t grab a rag to quickly wipe the counters.
We had a total of 3 people from 7-10:30, the precloser wasn’t able to preclose. We couldn’t start cleaning until we closed. Im sorry but tonight was ABSOLUTELY inexcusable. Am and mid both have a person on cs whos whole job is to make backups, restock and help bars.
When the last mid left at 7, my bad partner and I had no idea who was going to take over solo dt and who was going to continue to bar. I, I’m not a shift, was running breaks to make sure everyone had one, yet bc of how bad it was, I didn’t get a 10, and my other closing barista, not shift, only got their 30 and a 10.
By the end of the night, all 3 of us expressed interest in quitting bc of how bad it is at my store. Am and mid keep getting away with leaving messes and shit and I’m sick and tired of it. I’m barely making it through the day and our SM doesn’t fucking care and keeps pinning all of the stores problems on pm for not setting am up correctly. I’m sorry but I’m already staying over an hour late to work. I’m not going to completely do ams job for them.
We had a total of 3 people from 7-10:30, the precloser wasn’t able to preclose. We couldn’t start cleaning until we closed. Im sorry but tonight was ABSOLUTELY inexcusable. Am and mid both have a person on cs whos whole job is to make backups, restock and help bars.
When the last mid left at 7, my bad partner and I had no idea who was going to take over solo dt and who was going to continue to bar. I, I’m not a shift, was running breaks to make sure everyone had one, yet bc of how bad it was, I didn’t get a 10, and my other closing barista, not shift, only got their 30 and a 10.
By the end of the night, all 3 of us expressed interest in quitting bc of how bad it is at my store. Am and mid keep getting away with leaving messes and shit and I’m sick and tired of it. I’m barely making it through the day and our SM doesn’t fucking care and keeps pinning all of the stores problems on pm for not setting am up correctly. I’m sorry but I’m already staying over an hour late to work. I’m not going to completely do ams job for them.
annaxzhen 8 points 1y ago
I can’t even begin to tell you how much this mirrors my store. A few weeks ago it was me and the shift supervisor closing the store after we were slammed. We had only two closers and work wasn’t done, despite having the people to do it during the mid shift. We’re on a strict schedule to be out by a certain time due to the hour cuts so at 20:30, we had to leave. I came in the next day and looked at the DRB to see that the opener had written an extremely rude note saying how dirty the store was and how difficult the morning was. I was livid. One- it was not dirty. The only thing that needed to be done was putting dishes back. Two- this girl is worthless and does nothing during her shifts, and she had the nerve to say the store wasn’t up to her standards? She refuses to work closes and obviously doesn’t see the work unbalance between morning and night shifts. Night shifts do EVERYTHING! I was so pissed off and I completely second that it’s getting ridiculous. I’m sending you (plus other baristas) lots of good vibes!!
Sammiche 4 points 1y ago
I thought you were from my store for a second there.
We got absolutely EVISCERATED tonight, and AM/mids didn't have it any better than we did.
We've been getting our asses handed to us on closing shift, and it hasn't gotten much better since the holidays. Since we consistently have to stay 30 minutes or more beyond when we're supposed to be out of there by, there's been a looooooot of discussion. And there's always SOMETHING we've missed.
And that doesn't even take into account that our shift OTW times are ABYSMAL. Which we're also getting our asses kicked over.
I'm not going to lie; a lot of the problem is us. We're totally the third stringers in our store. We've got one who's showing AMAZING promise...soooo SM wants her on AMs. Which would suck. As for the rest of us? Ehhhhhhhhhh. Maybe we're just burned out, I dunno. Maybe we're not being motivated properly. Maybe we just suck. I honestly don't even know WHAT the fark.
But it really does feel like the other shifts just... If they can't get it done? Totally okay to leave it for closers to handle. Even though closing shift is a skeleton crew. "Eh, business is slower. They should be able to handle it. It's not like they're busy or anything."
Ugh.
Anyway, kind of sucks being a closer. I'm exhausted. I'm often tempted to try to get switched to mids or even AMs, but I've always been a night owl and I don't have any afternoon family or school obligations to worry about, so I know that closing shift is the right shift for me. Just wish it didn't suck so hard these days.
We got absolutely EVISCERATED tonight, and AM/mids didn't have it any better than we did.
We've been getting our asses handed to us on closing shift, and it hasn't gotten much better since the holidays. Since we consistently have to stay 30 minutes or more beyond when we're supposed to be out of there by, there's been a looooooot of discussion. And there's always SOMETHING we've missed.
And that doesn't even take into account that our shift OTW times are ABYSMAL. Which we're also getting our asses kicked over.
I'm not going to lie; a lot of the problem is us. We're totally the third stringers in our store. We've got one who's showing AMAZING promise...soooo SM wants her on AMs. Which would suck. As for the rest of us? Ehhhhhhhhhh. Maybe we're just burned out, I dunno. Maybe we're not being motivated properly. Maybe we just suck. I honestly don't even know WHAT the fark.
But it really does feel like the other shifts just... If they can't get it done? Totally okay to leave it for closers to handle. Even though closing shift is a skeleton crew. "Eh, business is slower. They should be able to handle it. It's not like they're busy or anything."
Ugh.
Anyway, kind of sucks being a closer. I'm exhausted. I'm often tempted to try to get switched to mids or even AMs, but I've always been a night owl and I don't have any afternoon family or school obligations to worry about, so I know that closing shift is the right shift for me. Just wish it didn't suck so hard these days.
The_tired_barista [OP] 2 points 1y ago
Thank you! They just don’t care sometimes and it makes our lives so much worse. They don’t understand we are severely understaffed for what we need to do and think the store magically gets cleaned. I will continue to stand by a previous statement I made and say every am and mid person needs to close at least 1 weekend a month.
We stay 30 minutes to hours late, recently clocked out bc that’s worse than us staying clocked in (lost probably 2 hours of pay by now). My shifts suck balls and don’t know how to shift, they only care about their shift, which like cool but we need to set up for success.
I completely understand being exhausted and wanting to change shifts.
Like you, I work nights solely bc I’m a night owl and mornings are killer, plus I’m trying to avoid someone who cussed me out on floor.
We stay 30 minutes to hours late, recently clocked out bc that’s worse than us staying clocked in (lost probably 2 hours of pay by now). My shifts suck balls and don’t know how to shift, they only care about their shift, which like cool but we need to set up for success.
I completely understand being exhausted and wanting to change shifts.
Like you, I work nights solely bc I’m a night owl and mornings are killer, plus I’m trying to avoid someone who cussed me out on floor.
Sammiche 3 points 1y ago
I think everyone should work one of each shift, because it really is an eye opener.
To be fair to opening shift, they've got like NO TIME AT ALL to get everything ready before the avalanche begins. There's no "we just opened, so maybe we'll get ten minutes more to get everything totally put together before people start coming". NOPE. CUSTOMERS WERE WAITING AT THE DRIVE-THRU MENU SINCE TEN MINUTES BEFORE. So yeah. Not having things ready will completely cripple them. And they're a skeleton crew for that first hour or two too.
Maybe the biggest problem is a lack of understanding and an "us vs them" attitude. I've heard "IF YOU GUYS DON'T X THEN WE'RE JUST NOT GONNA DO Y" and that's just... Not helpful.
To be fair to opening shift, they've got like NO TIME AT ALL to get everything ready before the avalanche begins. There's no "we just opened, so maybe we'll get ten minutes more to get everything totally put together before people start coming". NOPE. CUSTOMERS WERE WAITING AT THE DRIVE-THRU MENU SINCE TEN MINUTES BEFORE. So yeah. Not having things ready will completely cripple them. And they're a skeleton crew for that first hour or two too.
Maybe the biggest problem is a lack of understanding and an "us vs them" attitude. I've heard "IF YOU GUYS DON'T X THEN WE'RE JUST NOT GONNA DO Y" and that's just... Not helpful.
uwumoment 2 points 1y ago
I used to be morning shift and always stayed extra time to do dishes, make all backups, clean, and make sure everything was ready for mids and nights. now that i’ve changed to nights, i can tell i’m one of the only people who set up for the rest of the day, because there were a few days where we were exactly the same as you described and i was thrown onto bar and forced to clean up after other peoples messes. it irritates me, hopefully i can bring it up after my store remodels bc maybe we will actually have meetings with our sm.
side note, do any of you guys ever have meetings with your sm or asm? like as a whole store/group? i’ve never had a meeting probably since i got hired, or i went in on a day off to quickly talk to my sm.
side note, do any of you guys ever have meetings with your sm or asm? like as a whole store/group? i’ve never had a meeting probably since i got hired, or i went in on a day off to quickly talk to my sm.
The_tired_barista [OP] 3 points 1y ago
My SM has “office hours” every Tuesday morning but then doesn’t actually hold them. Like you have to tell them like 2 weeks in advance you want office hours to talk. We were supposed to have a huge store meeting at some point but that was like 4 or 5 months ago and it never happened. My SM also refuses to talk to us when she’s on floor about anything.
The people who went from day to night crew understands the struggle that nights go through when days don’t help. It’s just so frustrating bc they have a CS person all day until night crew comes in and the cs person doesn’t do their dang job. I get budget cuts and all but still, people need to do their dang jobs so we can do ours and get off at a frickin reasonable time.
The people who went from day to night crew understands the struggle that nights go through when days don’t help. It’s just so frustrating bc they have a CS person all day until night crew comes in and the cs person doesn’t do their dang job. I get budget cuts and all but still, people need to do their dang jobs so we can do ours and get off at a frickin reasonable time.
uwumoment 1 points 1y ago
we are remodeling and it is finished in a week. my sm and asm have said they wanted to do a meeting or something of the sort so we can see the store and talk in a group setting, im scheduled for 3 hours non coverage, i can’t tell if this is literally just labor cuts or a meeting we are doing.
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