Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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DM requesting all district stores remove Pride flags that have been hanging for over a decade. (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by bejones1
Our district just got a new district manager that started a couple months ago. Her first order of business was to request that all of our stores remove our progress flags hanging in the windows and it within the stores. Her reason behind it was that it is no longer pride month, and we are not allowed to celebrate one month more than another. She also mentioned that Starbucks is a neutral company when it comes to anything political. As if…
One of the reasons I started working here was because we had a pride flag in the window. I always knew that Starbucks was a safe place to go, and be myself.
I’m looking for suggestions in the best way to approach the situation. My store manager is also upset by this, but doesn’t want to risk losing her job to fight back against the district. Nearly every store in our district has a progress flag hanging somewhere visible from outside or inside.
Any thoughts or encouragement would be welcome and helpful.
One of the reasons I started working here was because we had a pride flag in the window. I always knew that Starbucks was a safe place to go, and be myself.
I’m looking for suggestions in the best way to approach the situation. My store manager is also upset by this, but doesn’t want to risk losing her job to fight back against the district. Nearly every store in our district has a progress flag hanging somewhere visible from outside or inside.
Any thoughts or encouragement would be welcome and helpful.
Flowerfuls 149 points 10m ago
Our dm asked us to remove it too but. We haven’t lol. It’s just a battle of willpower at this point lmao
C10ckw0rks 62 points 10m ago
Our old SM told us we couldn’t wear the pride shirts after pride and my first response was “I don’t stop being gay on the 1st of the next month. So no.” My secondary argument was it was technically a company uniform .”
Flowerfuls 2 points 10m ago
Ours has writing on it and they made all the stores do their own mottos so we use the excuse it has our store motto on it 🫡 so it’s just been us at a standstill with the dm.
Necessary_Low939 38 points 10m ago
Sounds like a “if it bothers you so much, you remove it then” type of battle 👀
bejones1 [OP] 2 points 10m ago
So if our DM comes in and removes it herself, we just put it back up?
Necessary_Low939 3 points 10m ago
Trust me. If a dm ask u to remove it, they most likely won’t remove it themselves.
Nraveles11 106 points 10m ago
That’s literally against company policy. I think you can go to HR for this as this is definitely not just a “oh you can’t show that” thing there is definitely a reason they wanna take it down. That’s complete bullshit
queenrara 50 points 10m ago
What company policy is being broken?
queenrara 28 points 10m ago
Getting down voted for asking a sincere question 👌🏼 lol
Nraveles11 26 points 10m ago
Pretty sure the whole reasoning isn’t “company decoration policy” but a good big dose of homophobia/discrimination. “You can’t celebrate one month more than the others” when the pride flag isn’t even for the month it’s just an overall thing.
It’s against the companies policy of a welcoming environment and DM’s acting accordingly to that. Doing this will create a hostile environment with the DM and stores and shows a power trip more than actually doing anything productive.
It’s against the companies policy of a welcoming environment and DM’s acting accordingly to that. Doing this will create a hostile environment with the DM and stores and shows a power trip more than actually doing anything productive.
Tolkienside 93 points 10m ago
The existence of a certain group of human beings is not "political." I hate that term so much; it's used to invalidate so many things that should never be invalidated.
queenrara 71 points 10m ago
This is definitely not a unique direction given to your district. Not sure where you are located but we were also told to take our flags down.
PauseAccording20 55 points 10m ago
This was direction for my store too, we can’t decorate for anything. Pride, Halloween, any holidays or for example black history month, etc etc. Corporate wants us all to look neutral so the experience is the same at every location which I think is BS
Intelligent-Hunt-906 17 points 10m ago
So true my manager says we can decorate the out of sight customer areas like huh??? the storage area?!
uwumoment 6 points 10m ago
we can decorate but we had to take the flags down
Apprehensive_Flow219 65 points 10m ago
same thing happened at our store and customers have already been directed to our dm to file complaints. we theorized that it’s part union busting. starbucks can’t say, “no union posts” so they said “no non starbucks issued posts.” 🤷🏼♀️
Big_Gur164 29 points 10m ago
Idk about yall but our pride flag is still hanging strong at my store. Will update if the hammer drops down but until then
bookworm59 22 points 10m ago
888-728-9411. You can report anonymously.
bejones1 [OP] 3 points 10m ago
Will do. I’ll be handing out this number to the rest of the partners in our store.
Euphoric_Collar565 21 points 10m ago
My old store went all out for pride. It made everyone very happy and smiley. I wish more stores would have made the effort my old store did. Bc it was like amazing and beautiful. And at my new store we hung up rainbow streamers but it wasn’t anything that said love is love or supporting the community and I mentioned something about it. And they were like whatever and right now our store is decorated for fall like all out. ( I love it but like did we rlly use our store credit card at hobby lobby. Idk maybe I’m just a hater lol
catpants243 2 points 10m ago
My manager at my old store got a giant rainbow balloon, streamers, signs, we got to wear cute headbands with rainbows. It was really fun. Everyone kept asking if it was someone's birthday 😂
nickintheback08 15 points 10m ago
Someone who views pride as political is telling you exactly where they stand
jazzysoranio 14 points 10m ago
Hand out their business card to every customer who you know will complain about it. I MAY OR MAY NOT have given free drinks to some of my favorite customers and said “please send a complaint email to this person” about a different issue in our store once. 🤭. One of the customer even came back the next week to tell me they sent that email. 😂
ninjadott 14 points 10m ago
Have your store manager post on workplace in the pride network about how to go about handling a DM asking to take down the flags when there are partners there that are a part of the community. We are allowed to show support for partner networks in store
Buttafly_360 11 points 10m ago
Literally OP, my DM said the same thing to my SM and he's hurt u know bcuz he's part of the LGBTQ+ community and it really upsetted him and she also told us to remove our Starbucks Aprons that were hanging on the wall for decor and other flags and stuff and we like why??? Its not bothering anybody..didnt know it was an issue smh I also thought it was juss my store being told this but urs too OP.
Superb-Coast-780 11 points 10m ago
We were told 1-2 years ago that only Starbucks provided decorations were allowed even for holiday. So this tracks. Especially since pride month is over.
uwumoment 2 points 10m ago
is it just my store then that has to use the product card to buy decorations from michaels or target?
Superb-Coast-780 2 points 10m ago
I guess so. That sounds like an SM making that decision and not Starbucks though.
ThatBichAlex 3 points 10m ago
How is having gay pride a political issue? How is having any pride in any part of your identity a POLITICAL ISSUE???
GinasteraBabe 3 points 10m ago
I was actually talking with one of my partners about a similar situation and their home store (they're a borrowed partner). The regional manager told them they had to take down the store pride flag, unless they hung up a Confederate flag too because we're supposed to b welcoming to all people??? The Confederate flag is the exact opposite of welcoming and accepting of all people
Malachite_Migranes 3 points 10m ago
The flags send a message that this is a safe space for all. Removing them now would also send a message that certain customers are no longer welcome. Starbucks, as a third place, should feel welcome, friendly, and accepting. That is what these flags support.
Miserable_Leek_8697 3 points 10m ago
Are we gonna forget that starbucks literally had a pro trans commercial? Not political my ass
Praxlyn 3 points 10m ago
i hope y’all don’t remove it, and she comes herself and does it and a customer records her. i hate the fucking idea that a group of people literally just being alive is political it’s such bullshit
catpants243 2 points 10m ago
We had to wipe all signs of pride the day it ended. My gay coworker said "this feels really homophobic" while wiping away the rainbows we had drawn.
I'm sorry, human acceptance is not political, nor should it be looked at that way.
I'm sorry, human acceptance is not political, nor should it be looked at that way.
PlantVader 2 points 10m ago
We got a bad review about ours from a group of old men that come in in the early morning.
idonthinksoannie 2 points 10m ago
Go above the DM. Your RD and local partner resources manager contact should be posted in back of house. This isn't okay
WingsofFlight 1 points 10m ago
This is stupid. In that case, no Christmas decorations or anything to December. Yeah like that will happen.
But no really, this doesn't sit well with me at all.
But no really, this doesn't sit well with me at all.
Gameb0i6 1 points 10m ago
Fuck your DM. We had a trans flag and a pride flag but my SM took it down shortly after June. We still have the “Love is Love” pic though.
FearlessSentence9667 1 points 10m ago
this was a direction for our store, we had to take down any pride flags than progress pride flag and then were told to take the progress one down after fall launch, it hasn’t come down yet but i’m expecting it to before our next scheduled dm visit
haydensidun 1 points 10m ago
Tell your DM that if he wants those Pride flags taken down, he should have to come to the store and take them down himself
SNES182 0 points 10m ago
Yeah. Id report her. Pride is one of the things the bux actually seems to care about.
uwumoment 0 points 10m ago
it’s literally what starbucks stands for, or at least pretends to stand for
Ok_Complaint6074 -2 points 10m ago
A flag coming down doesn’t mean their values and beliefs disappear.
sun_scarlet 7 points 10m ago
if they actually held those values, they would fly the flag year round. Pride flags aren't decorations for one month, they are symbols to show support for the community and that it is a safe space for LGBTQ people. But Starbucks only cares about gay people when it's profitable, like most other capitalist entities. The fact that the dm called the existence and support of gay people "political" is proof of that. Being gay isn't political, it's a natural human experience and supporting the LGBTQ community is simply supporting human rights.
bejones1 [OP] 3 points 10m ago
Our store have flown our Pride flag from over a decade. It’s been there since I moved to the area.
Jewicer 1 points 10m ago
what does it mean?
BluejayHefty202 -1 points 10m ago
Report to corporate for gender discrimination they really don't need a lawsuit right now
[deleted] -12 points 10m ago
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[deleted] 1 points 10m ago
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