Why are people regularly crying on their first shifts at your store?

i'm going to be honest with you, as stressful as the first few shifts were I've never heard of anyone having such bad training shifts that they ended up crying - I'm a barista trainer and I'm CONSTANTLY on my green beans asses about whether or not they're comfortable or feeling good about whatever they're doing. I'm really sorry that you've had to experience this, and if you or any of your newbies were under my wing I would make sure that your first shifts were not cry-worthy :( sending love and positivity your way friend

My second day I was alone for 30 mins not knowing what is going on or how open and found out the two coworkers who where supposed to be there no called no showed. And my location is in a grocery store. I had a panic attack and cried on the phone. I calmed down and talked to the food manager about it since my manager was out for surgery. HE ASKED IF I KNEW HOW TO OPEN SO I COULD SERVE PEOPLE UNTIL THE NEXT SHIFT PERSON COULD COME IN. I said no and that it was my second day ONCE AGAIN. Then proceeded to ask of I want to bag to fill MY 6HRS OF TRAINING INSTEAD????? I love my coworkers now but I keep getting fcked over by the store who licenses this SB. We just hired 6 people at 13$ hr and me and my one coworker who started like a week after me are still making 12$ hr and we have been there over 7 months.

I'd like to third the "What on earth is happening at y'all's stores" sentiment. There is no culture of trauma learning or crying during first shifts (or at all?) at my store or any of the stores i work at as a borrowed partner? at our trainers meeting less than a month ago, our SM made a point to ask us all what we do if we notice a partner (new old or training!) getting overwhelmed and worked up and how to make it right? So no you're right, that isn't normal and shouldn't be normal

I haven't personally had this issue, my store has mostly really supportive people, and even though my trainer kinda sucked I'm used to being frustrating to teach.

However, my partner works at a different store thats under a different DM, and they have talked about this being a pretty regular experience. It's also paired with a lot of people who aren't green beans just being incredibly not helpful or even present and management who doesn't care or encourages it (how do you go through 3 SMs in 6 months?)
It seems like its a store or district level culture thing.
The fact that its an issue at all is unbelievably fucked up though.

As is the running theme of discussion lately, a lot of issues are at various levels of management and trickle down to us. Someone wittier might make a joke about trickle down economics but I'll just remind everyone that the best way to make things better is to unionize.

No this is a thing at my store too. One of my trainers literally told me not to cry as I was about to and said she cried and so did others when they first started. Most people were nothing but rude when I started with the exception of maybe 2 people. No other partners in the store even introduced themselves. Even a barista I worked with (not a shift) would leave me on bar even though she was supposed to be helping because I needed the practice? Okay so they'd jump in if needed but why is that their call to make. Its not. I couldn't stand the "training" I got. Also definitely loved getting yelled at over mic everytime I was LEARNING on DTO to the point where I couldn't even hear the customer talking anymore. They also officially assigned me to a shift on window when I had never been trained and I got yelled at for all the things I did wrong. Training can definitely be better

I'm a trainer and I've never had a barista cry in shift because of work. Then again I've got some prebux trauma so I always stay super close to them even when training is technically over as an extra level of support.

i’m shocked by people saying they Didn’t cry their first shifts. i went home every day my first week out of training and cried and put in job apps to try and get out. none stuck and i’m still here and pretty good at my job but like,,, that seems to be a pretty consistent outcome of my store

Mentioned trauma learning in the "partner pulse" I just filled out during my half. Rough day, guys.

my store’s new hires have been quitting after only a couple of weeks so there’s that

The “sink or swim” method isn’t as effective as they think it is

lol i went through this bc my store was being run sooo horribly , constantly understaffed and i didn’t even have a trainer with me for most of the time, i just had to learn on my own. it’s terrible but with newer management (and mainly just myself because my management is also shit still) i’ve been encouraging baristas to ask questions and tell me when they feel worn out or uncomfortable. it sucks i went through it and i don’t want anyone else to.

i’m sorry what? i think this speaks more about your store specifically than a thing with starbucks…

I didn't cry on my first shifts but I definitely had a lot of nightmares about work. Also a few panic attacks

i’ve been an ssv for 14 months and there have been 3 more since then….. i have witnessed none of them crying during their first shift. so i’m going to join in on say wtf is happening at your store that’s wild.

omg i cried like 2 or 3 times my first month or two, as well 😍

When I became a shift I cried during so many shifts

I’m a trainer and the fact that your store has so many people having such a miserable experience is kind of depressing :( I’m sorry your experience has been that way! I promise we don’t all train like that!

I’m gonna be honest I cried a lot during the beginning and sometimes till this day, but it wasn’t because of my trainer or anything…. It would be other baristas and shifts that would coach me on something that they learned differently and tell me I’m doing wrong or something and it would stress me out to the point I cried so yeah

I’ve definitely heard of it, the attitude that if you weren’t “tough enough” or getting the hang of the job quick enough, you were a drag on the entire team. I was a shift and a trainer, I strived to give people what they needed and how into order to succeed.

Whenever I saw people on my shifts giving newbies that vibe I would quickly step in. Just because we wear green, khaki, and black (the dress was stricter back in the day) doesn’t mean we’re an army, lol.

I’m on my second week at sbux and I already put on the floor without someone to train me. It’s stressful, but only because I see things that need to be done and I literally can only stand there. I thrive in the fast paced environment because I’m neurdirvergent (what a shocker), but my SM apparently doesn’t give a shit if I train properly or not. She called me in after a few days of work to replace someone else when they were very short staffed and I was nothing but an inconvenience to everyone because I didn’t know anything 🥹

Yeah that sounds like a You (store) issue. Definitely don't see that at my store. Lol sorry

People cry cause they are not used to the demands of work, or they just had it...

I personally don't like to be there when a partner cries... but it happens... hopefully they will be on next shift and e deal with the customers craziness and move on.... hagd! 😊

Don't take work or work issues home with you.

when i was training one of my shifts got visibly frustrating with me getting stressed about solo-ing dto/window,, i tried to approach him about it and how i didn’t appreciate the attitude and his words were “i want you to struggle… that’s how you’ll learn” 🙃 all that to say we have a decent relationship now but i was truly speechless hearing that someone above me WANTED me to struggle to “learn” lol

I've only cried once and that was working a holiday rush with 2 people so I working drive, food and cafe all by myself while my other coworker managed all 3 bars by herself.
That being said, I completely understand where you're coming from and it's extremely unprofessional the way SBUX _actually_ handles training. From what I gathered most places practice trauma training.
Day one I was thrown on DTW, "This is how you check people out, it's simple. I'll check up on you soon"...I was there for my entire shift and they forgot about me so I didn't get a break either. I didn't actually sit down to the computer training until a week after I've been on the floor. Also there wasn't much communication between SSV, so I'd get delegated tasks I hadn't been trained on thus leading to their frustration.
If you're in a heavily populated area, or at an isolated location, I can completely understand people crying especially if they've never worked in such a fast paced environment before.

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I really feel like this depends on the store you get hired at. For example, my store has been cutting labor (like everyone else) but we are also the only store in a 1 mile radius in the middle of the suburbs, so we are constantly busy. We’ve been making people solo drive, and having hot bar baristas also make their own cold bar drinks even when it’s really too busy to not have a cold bar just because we don’t have the people. Like we get so many mobile orders it’s insane, and working on hot and cold bar at the same time is mad stressful because you have to run around everywhere to make drinks and even restock while the whole lobby is full of impatient customers. And people get stressed out and annoyed at my store because of it, so people end up having miniature mental breakdowns all the time at mine. I think overall the company needs to take a look at the numbers and which stores are more populated before cutting labor down to ungodly numbers.