"Hey, I appreciate the reminder but it would be great if you could leave the direction and reminders up to our shifts! We're a team and everyone has specific roles to play. We have awesome shifts who don't need barista help to keep things running smoothly!"


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maybe they are working on career progression? idk lol that is annoying af but try to give the benefit of the doubt haha

As a previous shift, I WISH my old team would advocate for themselves for stuff like this. They would complain on and on about how so and so would call out and never communicates, or said they’d be covering such and such and flaked. I’d then go on to tell them to express their concerns with their team members because that tends to be more effective in building habits than your higher up telling you what to do. Most partners have told me the habits that stuck to them the most were one’s instilled by other partners - not trainers, not shifts, but other partners. And if you think callout procedure is common sense, Starbucks’ infamous phrase is “common sense is not so common, so clear is kind”. You won’t believe how many tenured partners want to act brand new and not communicate at all.
Besides that, callouts are tricky - they lower moral and just suck for the team. I believe in taking mental health days and even if you just need to take a last minute day to run errands and get your life together because it was rough last week, I believe you should take it. I didn’t question why someone called out - me knowing isn’t my business and frankly won’t change the fact that they’re not there lol. In the end I was just a shift, if I don’t have coverage, I don’t have coverage; I couldn’t write anyone up, only recommend warnings; and I still got paid the same doing the same thing I always do. But as a barista, it really sucks when partners don’t get coverage, or don’t even try to communicate that they’ll be out because THEN the shifts plan’s change, and then baristas have to stay later, double up on roles and tasks, and basically the weight of the callout falls on the barista team, because even IF the shift finds coverage last minute, they offload a bunch of work onto baristas to get off the floor to problem solve. That’s if your manger isn’t helping that is.
All in all, I totally get the wanting to check neurotic people because it’s “just coffee”, but the same company culture that allows a barista to coach their own district manager when they fail miserably on the floor, is the same culture which makes your coworker send that message. They could also be trying to reach 1 person but aren’t trying to put them on the spot, so they’re just saying it “in general”. And it might actually help them become a shift 🤷
If the language they are communicating in feels especially toxic, I would recommend advocating for a more peaceful rephrasing of their message.

If they’re trying to promote I’d connect with them and show them *other* ways that are more beneficial (and less annoying lol) for their growth