Well..the dcr isn't a hard schedule for breaks/lunches. It auto populates the breaks and won't allow the sm to change it after the fact.

You don’t need to see the DCR to hold your playcallers accountable for running your breaks at reasonable times. The DCR is not a hard schedule for when the breaks are, but it DOES determine what breaks you get. (If it’s on the dcr you’re required to get that break)

If they try to run your 30 really early, ask if you could take a 10 and get your 30 later for more of a break, or if there’s a reason you need to take your 30 this early into your shift. They might not be realizing how early it is, or they might have 6 30s to run and need to get a couple done before peak. If you’re getting off in an hour or two and haven’t gotten your last 10, ask them about if it’s coming soon. If they are trying to give you a second 10 right after your 1st, remind them you just had a break - maybe someone else is ready for one before you go

it seems like your store (and SM) has issues with communication and transparency, especially with not letting baristas look at the DCR and why. when i was a shift, we usually used the DCR breaks as guidelines and to cross off whenever they were done but 90% of the time made our own lists of break times to account for peak, dropping from like 6 to 3 person plays and making sure 30s were covered, or any other weird stuff. whenever there was something weird, like taking a ten early or doing a different order for tens and thirties, we talked to the barista about it to explain why and if it was cool, it just felt like the normal thing to do with colleagues. we also usually didn’t give tens in the last half hour of the person’s shift and would try to give it early/when a new person came in rather than give it late, but if a break was given in the last half hour then that means we had a baaaaad day lol. sorry your SM is wack as hell, she’s acting like the DCR is some sacred text when she should focus on fostering better communication about how breaks work to your store…

If I’m working with a certain shift I’ll check the DCR periodically. I have to or else I won’t get my breaks, period. He’ll straight up cross off someone’s 10 that isn’t even on the clock yet (and he hasn’t run 10s so it isn’t a case of marking the wrong person by accident). So when they come in for their 5.75, they won’t get their break until 4 hours in (if he gives it at all) because they’ll be like “hey I know it’s busy but I’m starving and need to pee….”.

That, or he’ll try to send me on my lunch 1.5 hours into my 8hr shift. And then gets pissy because I don’t want my *actual* break so early. 90% of the time it’s not even a staffing issue, he’ll put the DCR somewhere and not look at it for *hours*. He’s on thin ice with my SM for other reasons, but the whole not giving partners their breaks thing is certainly not helping.

(But you’d bet all of his breaks are timed perfectly even if we’re slammed and short staffed. He may even take an extra ten here and there!)

as a barista i always look at the dcr. i like to see who’s working at what time and stuff like that. my store’s pretty good with breaks, everyone gets theirs in a timely manner so no one has anything to hide really

Some managers I’ve had at previous stores didn’t want baristas looking ahead at DCR’s for later in the week so they won’t see who they’re working with and call out or switch shifts because is it. Yeah they can do that using the schedule but the DCR paints a better picture.

As for breaks, us SSV’s at my store try to be reasonable with spacing out breaks and my SM is good at allowing it for the most part but there are times when they get a little funky. If you are consistently getting breaks way too early or late or close together talk to your SM! If it’s once in a while, you might have to take it when it happens there is usually a good reason for it (usually a call out).

In my store, the general rule is every two hours you get a break, give or take. When I have 6 half hour breaks to give out, usually at least one person is gonna get the short end of the stick.

I actually stopped writing my break times down, because I do find it slightly annoying when I’m asked, “when’s my ten?” Obviously there are reasonable situations when that question is valid, but if your 1 hour into you shift and have nothing pressing going on, I don’t want to hear it honestly.

Unsure if that sounds harsh, hahaha I promise I’m nice to my partners

I’m a barista now but when I was a closing SSV, my rule of thumb was to start 10s 2 hours into partners shifts and half’s 4 hours into shifts. This went for the partners that were pre-closing/closing with me, since all of our shifts started at the same time. Last 10s were usually done around 2 hours before closing, sometimes I didn’t give myself one if we were really behind and still had a lot to do. The other partners would try to get me to take my last 10, but if I was on a roll of getting things done I wasn’t interested lol

This usually worked out pretty well, except people who couldn’t read the room and would be wanting their breaks when it just wasn’t a good time, or when I’d ask a barista to go on their break because they literally needed to so that we had time for everyone else’s breaks and they refused to go…it’s like I know you want to help but we’ve got two more breaks to do and this is pushing back everything

Breaks aren’t always easy for SSVs to figure out and I always appreciated baristas who were understanding and patient about it. It’s like breaks are one of many things going on, but I also tried to be as understanding and flexible as possible with what partners wanted. The main issue at my store has been partners looking at the DCR for the rest of the week and calling out for shifts because it’s not with people they “like”

The DCR just gives a rough estimate..you’re store manager making it out to be a big deal is why you guys believe your breaks are suppose to happen at certain times. Your SM is weird

The only reason I give 30s before a ten is for the openers so that I don’t have to give a lunch during peak. I understand it’s not fun, but it’s an agreement my store has to not run lunches during peak so not short us a person on the floor for so long ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Running breaks whenever the dcr tells you to is signs that the shift doesn’t know how to properly run the floor. I take it as a suggestion and rough estimate and I look at how long the shift is and how many breaks you have and then split it into even chunks.

I can’t tell if you worked a 7 or 8 hour day, but usually your breaks should be 2 hours apart, and it should go ten lunch ten, the amount of breaks depending on how many hours you’re working. There is also usually a thirty minute variance and things like peak and close lunches can further effect that variance.
So you came in, worked 1.5hr, took a lunch, worked 2 hr, had a ten, worked 30 min, had a ten, and worked the rest of your shift which was anywhere from 2.5-3.5 hr. That is ridiculous. I would talk to your dm about this because granted, there have definitely been situations where I’ve had to run things like this, for example, red cup day, but even that wasn’t as bad as this because if there were 5 people on the same shift with the same break times I usually just asked who preferred earlier and who preferred later breaks and ran my cycle in that order, but their breaks were still usually two hours apart