Not because I hate closing. I’m a night owl, always have been, and I weirdly enjoy how mellow it can be most nights.

But it’s the SSV I’m closing with. They’ve turned into an impossible person to work with over the last few months. Hyper critical, poor time management, we almost always get out late and they usually blame *us baristas* for that.

Like, with other shifts, they give us more wiggle room with closing tasks. Not “supposed” to cup teas until 7pm, but it’s 6:30 and slow? Fuck it, cup those teas. It’s 9:30 and no one’s ordered a coffee for the last hour? Dump whatever’s in the carafe and clean it now. Shit like that that really makes a difference when you’re supposed to get out by 10:30.

But this person? This one single shift who has been told multiple times by our SM that us getting out late is not okay, that they’re the only one who has this problem on a regular basis? No wiggle room. None whatsoever. Just because it’s slow at 6:30 doesn’t mean I should cup teas, I gotta wait until 7 except we usually get a rush around then so I wouldn’t be able to get to that until 7:30 or later. Then everything is behind and we aren’t done until 10:50, 11pm and I am the asshole somehow for not working fast enough. I just wanna work my shift and go home on time so I can crash out and do this shit again tomorrow. Let me do things earlier than we’re supposed to because it’s fucking Friday night and we’re gonna get slammed every hour or so because a new movie premiered and we’re a stones throw from a theater.

On top of that, they can’t coach or delegate for shit. If I fuck up on reg and forget to tell a customer we’re out of oat milk or peach or whatever, they choose to absolutely ream me immediately after it happens. That’s awkward for me, for them, and especially the customers who are watching and hearing all of this go down in front of them. When we fall behind they either take it upon themselves to do it all (slowly because they are just one person) or throw their hands up and tell us baristas to “figure it out” while they go drop a till but somehow manage to get into a 45 minute conversation with a regular instead.

And just to add insult to injury, they talk mad amounts of shit about EVERYONE to me and a couple other baristas. They’ll bitch about whoever to me and then about me to someone else. But I have an attitude problem??? The fuck???

Tonight I’m closing with a girl who’s fairly new to closing, and all this shift could talk about yesterday was how terrible this was gonna be and how they’re really gonna need me to step up tonight and do more and blah blah blah. I kept emphasizing that she’s new and we all got start somewhere, but they insisted that this was gonna suck and was also somehow a personal slight against them by our SM. Which, idk man, but maybe instead of complaining you could make a plan or give us a hand or something??? But no, it’s all gonna be on me to basically be a barista trainer and mini SSV tonight.

I can’t wait until I can change my availability so I can get the fuck away from them. I’m not the only person to do this either. One of my coworkers is trying to transfer out and others are picking up more morning and mid shifts because in general, you end up working with shifts who aren’t mean, gossipy, pains in the ass.

Anyways, sorry for the wall of text and any errors, I’m both angry and on mobile, a terrible combination. Wish me luck tonight y’all.