I don’t know for sure because I’ve never promoted to ASM, but I believe that is kind of the point of this position. To determine whether or not you are capable of being an SM. I’ve heard from various sources that an ASM is a temporary position usually no more than for 6-8 months. Either they have promoted again to SM or they have stepped back down to ssv or barista.

Again, I don’t have personal experience with this, but have heard of others in my district that have done this. I do know that one of my store managers did successfully step down to shift about 8 months ago and he’s happy. He was an SM for 3 years at a slow cafe store (2k/day max) before his store was closed and he and most of his baristas were reassigned to my store ($5-8k/day) because we had so much transition at the time (but were obviously a more profitable DT store). He was a disaster at my store, lovely guy but we were too busy for him

always communicate with your district manager if they are a really coach not a boss they’ll understand and help you with a resolution best for your situation

off topic but would you willing to share your expirence with promoting?

to answer to your post my sm was a sm for 18 years and is great but almost quit 6 months ago since i was running our store iwth her as a shift ofc and she was so unimpressed my the politics going on in asm+ level like you mentioned especially with covid. so i understand i told her to hang in there i was there for support it gets easier as she described its frustrating but you learn how to play the game.