Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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New shift supervisor (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by CharmingCut7104
I was recently hired on as a shift supervisor. My first day is in about 2-ish weeks. Does anybody have any tips or advice to calm my anxiety a bit? I haven't held a shift lead type position in a few years, it's my first time working in a coffee shop and I've worked in restaurants but never anywhere with a drive thru so I'm a bit nervous. Any advice is much appreciated!
rocksrock43 9 points 11m ago
Hi! First of all, the fact that you’re looking for advice already tells me you want to support your team which is the biggest thing. I was a closing shift, so most of my advice will pertain to that!
1) Take your breaks! Running yourself into the ground will only make you more tired and stressed and in turn will affect your floor. It’s okay to take a second.
2) Drive thru is pretty easy to get the hang of, so I’m sure you’ll pick it up quickly! A lot of starbucks stores are pushy about keeping drive thru times low and connecting with customers. The best way to keep things flowing is to have a skilled bar partner on the drive thru bar so they can keep up with the influx of drinks. Usually backups in drive happen while waiting for drinks or food, so those are the areas to focus on first. You might have to have someone jump in to take orders if the person at the window can’t keep up too.
3) For closes, time management is HUGE! The task cards don’t work well for me, so instead i take some receipt paper and write out every single task that needs to be done. Then I assign them to partners or myself and give an estimated timeline (ex: “Partner A, you’re my closer so I’m going to have you focus on bar cleaning first. Can you try to finish by 7-7:30? I’m going to do toddies after the pull, and while I’m doing that, Partner B can you work on backups in between orders? I already made a list, you should be able to finish it by 6:30.” )
4) Please be patient with yourself while learning and accept feedback from other shifts/partners! I asked a few partners how they thought I could improve or how I could support them more and its more helpful to hear from them than to do whatever I think. And if you get corrections from other shifts, it’s just because they want to help you succeed and learn.
5) This also ties into time management, but especially at night: prioritize shift tasks. There are some things that partners cannot do and the sooner you get those things done, the more you can help and support the floor. We have a shift currently who always stays an hour after close to finish stuff because she focuses on doing barista tasks first and runs out of time. It’s natural to want to help baristas, but you have to learn where you can and can’t and it takes some practice.
Best of luck, you’ll do great!
1) Take your breaks! Running yourself into the ground will only make you more tired and stressed and in turn will affect your floor. It’s okay to take a second.
2) Drive thru is pretty easy to get the hang of, so I’m sure you’ll pick it up quickly! A lot of starbucks stores are pushy about keeping drive thru times low and connecting with customers. The best way to keep things flowing is to have a skilled bar partner on the drive thru bar so they can keep up with the influx of drinks. Usually backups in drive happen while waiting for drinks or food, so those are the areas to focus on first. You might have to have someone jump in to take orders if the person at the window can’t keep up too.
3) For closes, time management is HUGE! The task cards don’t work well for me, so instead i take some receipt paper and write out every single task that needs to be done. Then I assign them to partners or myself and give an estimated timeline (ex: “Partner A, you’re my closer so I’m going to have you focus on bar cleaning first. Can you try to finish by 7-7:30? I’m going to do toddies after the pull, and while I’m doing that, Partner B can you work on backups in between orders? I already made a list, you should be able to finish it by 6:30.” )
4) Please be patient with yourself while learning and accept feedback from other shifts/partners! I asked a few partners how they thought I could improve or how I could support them more and its more helpful to hear from them than to do whatever I think. And if you get corrections from other shifts, it’s just because they want to help you succeed and learn.
5) This also ties into time management, but especially at night: prioritize shift tasks. There are some things that partners cannot do and the sooner you get those things done, the more you can help and support the floor. We have a shift currently who always stays an hour after close to finish stuff because she focuses on doing barista tasks first and runs out of time. It’s natural to want to help baristas, but you have to learn where you can and can’t and it takes some practice.
Best of luck, you’ll do great!
[deleted] 1 points 11m ago
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