Nah, that bugs me too. I don't mind if they help in a useful way, like pour the milk for me or top up the beans. Some people at my store will put the syrup in the cup though, and I've thrown it over the counter before because I picked up the cup and did not expect the syrup to be in it. Or they walk round me/behind me without saying, so I bump into them

Dude I have the opposite problem at my store. I will ask for help like 3-4 times before someone finally comes, they do one drink and then leave me again to just chat in the back room. And I have a super busy store

nah, i hate it. i get planted on solo bar a lot and people who leave POS/Warming to start pulling tickets and making drinks really frustrate me. when i need help, i welcome people jumping on!! but if i’m just chilling then you’re disrupting my flow

I 100% relate to this. Frustrates me every time I’m on bar. A lot of people at my store have developed a habit of taking drinks to make instead of talking to the customer when they’re on window. I dislike window and understand the awkwardness of making small talk, but they’ve got to find *something* else to do other than mess with my bar.

We’re not swamped, I can control my own bar. They’re not really helping.

My favorite thing is when people come to help from a different station (like warming, AND without me asking) and then leave the cup with a sticker on it not even started (and they of course don’t tell me) because something popped up on their station 🤩

Yessss it makes me so frustrated!! I just say “I’m actually okay on bar right now. I could really use ice, lids.. tho”

I work at one with a drive thru, and it's only this one barista that does it, but while I'm finishing up another drink and knowing damn good and well what I'm doing for the next she will just jump I'm and start doing her own thing, and then it messes me up and like wtf? Stay in your lane. Besides, I thought we couldn't move from our 'planted' positions anyway

We have a small store too. Omg one time i was on bar and we have 2 espresso machines and i had a drink pulling shots on the one machine and another drink pulling shots on the other machine. Well one of my coworkers had come in for her shift and clocked in and made a beeline straight over to bar. At that moment i was finishing up the 1 drink and so she came over and stood directly in front of the other drink that still had the shots pulling. So i just finished up the 1 drink and i told her "hey did u ask *shift supervisor* where they want u at rite now?" And she said "oh shee in the back, ill ask her wen she comes back out front" and so i said "ok i dont need any help rite now as i only have that 1 drink but ill definitely let u kno if i do" and she said "i just wana finish the drink".........and then she put the milk and ice in the venti latte and walked away. Like did she really have to pour milk and put ice in 1 drink to satisfy herself? Cuz the way she said it was like "i just wana finish the drink" ...like why? While i stand there n watch u like a fool since u just clocked in and invaded my station first thing? Like how else am i supposed to communicate that to her? I asked her to ask the shift where the shift wanted her stationed at and she refused. Then i told her i dont need help and that i will let her kno if i do. How much more clearer can i be?

no it’s so annoying for me. unless i’m drowning in drinks or ask for help, i hate having other people on the bar with me. it’s not so bad if we’re primarily getting cold bar drinks, but if we’re mainly getting hot bar drinks and someone who cant sequence inserts themselves on the only other espresso machine, it drives me nuts.

I hate it too. Like I know the person has good intentions but it just does not help. I just hate it. it takes me a while to get into my sequencing routine and any small thing can ruin it for me. Like I understand we are trying to get people in and out as fast we can but I’m doing as fast I can and I promise you, I will get it out. The amount of times I turn around and someone is finishing something that I was going to do .5 seconds after them. So I understand how you feel !!

"Please don't do that, however I could really use some ice, thanks so much"

I absolutely hate this it happens to many times but only with people that don’t know how to keep it clean and be fast I’ve been on bar every shift because I close and I don’t want to clean bar all day so I kick everyone off even my shift and they understand why but I hate when that happens

this. i try to make it very clear to my partners that you do not touch my bar without asking me. no stickers, no shots, no drinks, no nothing without asking. i hate it when people do it, it feels disrespectful and like an assumption of incompetence. i've gotten a lot better, but to me it's more about being respectful of boundaries than it is about myself yk?

I’d like to think I’m pretty fast when it comes to bar. Not to brag or anything, I’m just as efficient as 2 of any of my coworkers, so it bugs me too when someone comes in to mess up my flow.

i work at two stores through out the year (i’m a college student). at my home store it’s way bigger and busier so i don’t mind. at my college store it’s smaller and way less busy so i do mind 🤷🏻‍♀️

Even if I have a small row of drinks I get a lil ticked off if someone hops on without asking. Normally my mind is already pulling out the recipe and visualizing how I’m going to sequence all of them, so when someone plucks a drink out of the row it totally throws me off

Drives me absolutely crazy. Gets me out of sequence. If I'm a bar and see the other bar has a lot I will ALWAYS ask them if they'd like help or not. Especially if I see they keep getting a lot of Frappuccino or refresher with an espresso drink mixed in.

This only bugs me when we are really slow and someone come up and takes one of my two drinks, like go do something actually helpful if you have time instead of stealing my stickers.

Respectfully I have this problem. I promise it’s all with good intent bc I know how fast things can go south. I also tend to gravitate towards bar which sucks and I have even been told to go away when being in my baristas area when they have it under control. I say u just tell them hey man I appreciate the help but I have it under control and once I get overwhelmed I will not hesitate to call you!

Drives me nuts. I had the next like 2 cars on the counter already for drive so I wasnt behind. The CS partner asks if I need any help. I tell them no I’m good. Finishing icing a drink. Turn around and she is on my bar. Like wtf? I’m not behind. I said no. And I had a bar support partner who I was to call if I got busy and it wasn’t her. Same partner does it every single time. I don’t know how to make her stop.

If I’m on CS or cafe bar (cause we have drive bar and cafe bar) I will ALWAYS ask if they need help. Like “you need any help?”/ “you good”/ “do you need me to make any frappes/ refreshers?”

eh, sometimes it depends. if we’re extremely busy, i’ll ask whoever is on bar before helping them and if they say no, i leave them be. but personally, i hate when someone just comes in and messes with my system, pace— whatever you wanna call it.

I appreciate when they pull and put stickers on the cup. Although one of our newer partners did that and brought me the wrong cups like 3 times. Such as a venti ice cup when it’s a hot drink or putting a Trenta sticker on a tall cup. That was a little disrupting, but nothing that can’t be fixed. But yeah I like when they do that and bonus points for adding milk, syrups. But they give me space and that’s a huge help when they aren’t literally next to me

and ı dont mean in like a non helpful way, ı mean if they come just do one thing and then leave the place a mess. sometimes ı dont even have room on bar anymore bc of what they do

I used to feel this way on my first 2 years but eventually I learned to micromanage them so either tell your shift to move them or you if they don’t listen or if you know they won’t do that just guide them don’t allow them to think for themselves it’s your bar and you know exactly what needs to get done tell them exactly what needs to be restocked tell them exactly what milk u need next tell them exactly where to wipe with what and how fast don’t let them breath because it’s either you run them down with tasks or they take over your bubble with no air for yourself… either way the shift should recognize this and tell that extra person to go do assessment or deep cleaning stuff anything extra samples they always say there is always something to do in a store and I agree there is no reason why you should have 2 baristas making a latte or 2 people in the back of the house when there SOOO much to do

I would have the problem of being on drive bar and people pulling my stickers and making my drinks without me asking. All it did was confuse me and the person on DTO/DTR. I always followed the rule of don’t touch the bar or stickers without permission.

No literally me It’s not a control issue, I have everything set a specific way in my head and how I want it done and when people interfere with my drinks that aren’t on bar, it messes my whole entire sequence. My coworkers and shifts know that I don’t need help on drive thru bar unless I ask for it

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Its probably because theres nothing else to do... why are you such a jerk?? Lol I literally never say anything when someone joins me on bar i welcome them. It doesnt kill to be nice.