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Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind

Full History - 2022 - 11 - 08 - ID#ypijq6
22
higher management made me feel unsafe in my own store - venti rant (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by fynnellis
so context to this- i’ve been a shift lead since september and actually really enjoy my job. i put my baristas needs before most other things, and always try to do my best to accommodate for everyone, including customers. mostly because, yk… its my job. for the past month, i’ve ran every sunday shift and with the run up to christmas, the past sunday was really busy. we usually pull in 3k on weekdays, but we had a nearly 10k weekend which is super busy for us. most of the baristas in my team atm are in training for a new store, and this particular sunday team only had two people, myself and a previous costa barista, who had experienced a starbucks christmas weekend. with all of this to consider, including delivery tablets being on and a queue stretching past our kiosk of a store, i decided to close the lower portion of the cafe so that it could actually get deep-cleaned. we’ve had multiple managers complain about the state of our store, and its a been priority of mine to make sure every one of my closes is above standard to make it easier for the next day openers. the decision was also based off all of my team saying that they were stressed and felt as though they couldn’t cater to our have-in customers.i decided to put up a sign and get a move on in cleaning it, seeing as there were only two people sat in that portion of our cafe anyways. long story short, my district manager came in to the store with his WIFE and CHILD and decided to loudly berate me in front of all of the customers and staff. with me having a not very good mental state as is, and previous trauma and with men shouting at me, i went completely silent. he said i need to open it back up now and that it will be a discussion for tuesday (today). with that, he left and i proceeded to have a panic attack to my sm over the phone in the back office for an hour.
now, i understand from his perspective, i was making a decision that lost business. if he had a calm, honest conversation with me (but he probs didnt seeing as he wasnt working), i would have happily opened it back up. but he just pulled my arm, ripped up the sign i made to apologise to customers, and stormed off. maybe im being sensitive,but it honestly just made me believe im crap my job. i was just trying to help my team, and no customers complained whatsoever because there’s another section of cafe to sit in. a customer had to ask if i was okay, bc to them it looked like this random man just came and grabbed me, and also forced me to open our cafe.
just want to know if im completely dumb for feeling the way i do about this situation, because im one more incident like this away from handing in my notice. thank you.
piratedashel 26 points 8m ago
I would file an incident report ASAP. That’s not exhibiting the mission vision and values, for one (among a lot of other things wrong…) I was once told to deep clean the bathrooms so I had a partner cover them in bleach and let them soak on his lunch. Closed the bathrooms. Someone came in to change her clothes and lost her freaking mind. The DM told my manager to tell me to leave a bathroom open next time. If he had touched me at all, or screamed at me- I would’ve walked out.

This is serious stuff, and you need to get ahead of it by calling PCC and filing an incident report to protect yourself and your job. If you have witnesses in your fellow partners that describe this incident the same way you do, I would imagine that an investigation would be initiated once it’s reported. You didn’t do anything that would cost you your job.
piratedashel 15 points 8m ago
Please do this before you speak with him today, and make sure you are not talking to him alone. If you trust your SM, make sure they are with you. Not just for safety, I doubt you’re in physical danger, but for someone else to witness the exchange. If you’re anything like me, if I’m in a high stress situation or I’m getting yelled at, it triggers me and I forget details.
aeb01 6 points 8m ago
agreed, his behavior is 100% not ok
badbaristuh 5 points 8m ago
I’m sorry, he GRABBED you? Scum human being. I am so sorry. Take this to ethics please, and do not let anyone downplay the importance of an adult man in a supervisory position physically putting his hands on you out of aggression. That is fully misdemeanor assault.
piratedashel 5 points 8m ago
I also need an update asap lol
HamburgIar_ 4 points 8m ago
No freaking way is anyone allowed to put their hands on you. Starbucks mission and values are for EVERYONE including upper management and this guy needs to be held accountable. I would lose it if I were your SM.
smaidit 4 points 8m ago
call partner resources ASAP!!!! not okay at all omg
dirtychai0218 2 points 8m ago
don’t let his anger make you feel like you’re bad at your job. i’ve been an ssv for a while, and am considered one of the higher preforming ones in the district and i don’t think there’s a single person who has closed their cafe more than i have. i would always have to get my SMs permission, but no one else does it nearly as much as i have had to do this summer when we get SLAMMED.

you had the exact right idea in this situation, with your baristas as your priority. your DM sounds like an asshole. yes, you should have made sure you had permission, but if no one explicitly told you that was the procedure then it’s absolutely not your fault. don’t let this man’s power trip-fueled anger make you think less of yourself. keep up the good work :)
Helpful_Hour_2195 1 points 8m ago
You are not dumb for feeling that way, this was absolutely unacceptable! He assaulted you!! File a report!
jupiter_bug 1 points 8m ago
No one should be putting their hands on you. He violated your third place and the customers third place which is evident if the customers got worried about what they were seeing. I hope you are doing okay, and I hope something is done about his behaviour.
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