Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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is it normal for shifts to not know a lot? (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by lovey12120
my store recently got a new shift and she was on bar as she wasn’t the shift that day but she had no idea what she was doing.
i was main bar that day and they placed her with me for support but she took over at hot bar, despite the fact that she took 5 minutes to make a single drink and had to stop me to ask for recipes, syrup ratios, and shot ratios. i thought that was weird because she is technically a shift.
i finished all the queued drinks at cold bar and thought it was weird i wasn’t getting any new drinks. when i turned around, there were stickers poking out from both the mobile and cafe machines, customers crowded around the handout area(looking angry🥲), a line out the door, and she was still working on the drink that i had left her with and all the drinks i queued for her were still crowded on the bar.
she was just taking forever to make a simple drink and of course kept forgetting to add stuff. i started panicking a little and decided to help her before i pulled any more stickers and finally we got through what i had queued about 5-10 minutes prior.
i started to queue drinks again, pulling the stickers and sorting them between hot and cold bar. we go through the same thing except a huge line of drinks are queued for hot bar and she’s just standing next to me watching me do cold bar and asking me questions. like girl, it’s a rush, not a time to watch me make frappuccinos😭😭
she finally goes on her ten and my SM comes over to help me on bar and we got through all incoming orders easy peasy. but then she comes back and we get another rush and she says “looks like it’s busy… i’m just going to step back.” ma’am i’m sorry WHAT??? so my shift who is in the middle of CS tasks has to drop what she’s doing to help me and both my SM and the shift are like “wtf she can’t do that” and she’s just walking around the store at this point doing nothing.
it was one of my most stressful shifts and i felt like i was going to pass out from high blood pressure lol. i have never been so drained. i just don’t understand, is it normal for shifts to not know bar too well?? cause previous shifts i’ve had have admitted they don’t do to well on bar since they’re rarely on it but they can’t be THIS bad right???
EDIT: I forgot to mention that eventually, my SM asked me to train/teach her when it was slow so like let her do drinks and i just stand there and help her out
i was main bar that day and they placed her with me for support but she took over at hot bar, despite the fact that she took 5 minutes to make a single drink and had to stop me to ask for recipes, syrup ratios, and shot ratios. i thought that was weird because she is technically a shift.
i finished all the queued drinks at cold bar and thought it was weird i wasn’t getting any new drinks. when i turned around, there were stickers poking out from both the mobile and cafe machines, customers crowded around the handout area(looking angry🥲), a line out the door, and she was still working on the drink that i had left her with and all the drinks i queued for her were still crowded on the bar.
she was just taking forever to make a simple drink and of course kept forgetting to add stuff. i started panicking a little and decided to help her before i pulled any more stickers and finally we got through what i had queued about 5-10 minutes prior.
i started to queue drinks again, pulling the stickers and sorting them between hot and cold bar. we go through the same thing except a huge line of drinks are queued for hot bar and she’s just standing next to me watching me do cold bar and asking me questions. like girl, it’s a rush, not a time to watch me make frappuccinos😭😭
she finally goes on her ten and my SM comes over to help me on bar and we got through all incoming orders easy peasy. but then she comes back and we get another rush and she says “looks like it’s busy… i’m just going to step back.” ma’am i’m sorry WHAT??? so my shift who is in the middle of CS tasks has to drop what she’s doing to help me and both my SM and the shift are like “wtf she can’t do that” and she’s just walking around the store at this point doing nothing.
it was one of my most stressful shifts and i felt like i was going to pass out from high blood pressure lol. i have never been so drained. i just don’t understand, is it normal for shifts to not know bar too well?? cause previous shifts i’ve had have admitted they don’t do to well on bar since they’re rarely on it but they can’t be THIS bad right???
EDIT: I forgot to mention that eventually, my SM asked me to train/teach her when it was slow so like let her do drinks and i just stand there and help her out
mania2k18 12 points 1y ago
some shifts are outside hires, so they've never actually worked at starbucks as a barista. she's a green bean w/ supervisor experience at another company probably
lovey12120 [OP] 5 points 1y ago
that makes so much more sense but if that is the case, then why put her at bar at such a busy time😭😭😭 it was just super frustrating because they put a barista who’s been working there for a while now at reg and her with me at bar with no additional support to cover her mistakes or someone to at least help her. they didn’t even ask me to help her make drinks until after the rush. and also when i was training, they made a point of not training me at bar until after peak hours or when it was slow. but idk i just work here lol
jklmnopedy 1 points 1y ago
From what I've seen in my time here, Starbucks' shift in focus from quality/actual coffee/arguably reasonable expectations to fast food/short-staffing/under-training has created a business model wherein managers are forced to hire underqualified candidates due to high turnover and store needs. The result is the kind of shift you had this morning. I'm sorry it was so stressful. It can be difficult to deal with, especially if you're someone who has a strong work ethic, cares, and/or has anxiety (hello 👋😄). But it's not impossible.
Personally, I've found it helpful to remind myself to:
1. Take a breath
2. Regain perspective (i.e."It's just coffee," "nobody's life is on the line here, it's not as important as Starbucks gaslights us into believing"
and maybe most importantly,
3. As one person, I can do only so many things at once
- for me, this means I'm not going to leave all my energy on the floor; I'm not going to run myself ragged bc sbux refuses to spend the money on adequate staffing, generally or during training, when they definitely can afford it; and I'm certainly not going to risk my physical or mental health to earn sbux upper echelon another vacation home when none of the partners in the ground can afford to live
I still struggle to put this into practice, but as I continue to remind myself, the less sensitive I'm becoming to the stress, a little bit at a time 🤷♀️.
Personally, I've found it helpful to remind myself to:
1. Take a breath
2. Regain perspective (i.e."It's just coffee," "nobody's life is on the line here, it's not as important as Starbucks gaslights us into believing"
and maybe most importantly,
3. As one person, I can do only so many things at once
- for me, this means I'm not going to leave all my energy on the floor; I'm not going to run myself ragged bc sbux refuses to spend the money on adequate staffing, generally or during training, when they definitely can afford it; and I'm certainly not going to risk my physical or mental health to earn sbux upper echelon another vacation home when none of the partners in the ground can afford to live
I still struggle to put this into practice, but as I continue to remind myself, the less sensitive I'm becoming to the stress, a little bit at a time 🤷♀️.
Affectionate_Fart 1 points 1y ago
Can agree. Have had Dunkin’ girls come over to the green(er) side (lol) and it took them a minute to situate.
mushroom-16 5 points 1y ago
I’ve had several shifts in my time at Starbucks be hired for that position because they had supervisor/ managerial experience, or simply because they had a really good interview. But I totally understand the frustration with it though, kinda makes no sense to me on why they do it but 🤷🏻♀️
Boring_Peace_675 1 points 1y ago
Damn, can relate.
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