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Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind

Full History - 2022 - 11 - 12 - ID#yt7m5j
10
Why I Quit Starbucks (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by whipele
TW: mentions of sa/harassment

Trenta size rant. Sorry if this is all a jumbled mess, I just needed to get this out.
My experience working at Starbucks. I was a barista and trainer at Starbucks for a little over two years. I was hired at 16, by a manager who made very obvious sexual comments to the minors in the workplace. When I spoke up about it, it was turned down. Finally after many underage girls in the workplace spoke up, he was terminated. Our next store manager, let’s call her Julia. She came into our store and completely changed everything. She would watch the security on her days off, and one time saw me not shake a refresher, and CAME IN on her day off to write me up. During this time, we had a shift lead who would endlessly harass me. She would often vape in the store, and still wrote me up for vaping. Keep in mind I was outside, but I wasn’t “15 feet away from the store” so I got a write up.
Some background; I use they/them pronouns, and I do not use my legal name. I do not mind if my pronouns are mistaken, but when someone goes out of their way to deadname me, thats where I draw the line. Julia said in front of everyone, “I didn’t know your real name was *****, do you want us to call you that?” I was using my preferred name before I started at Starbucks, and nobody there knew my deadname until Julia said that. I filed a complaint to ethics and nothing was done. Soon after ethics told me nothing could be done, I quit.
6 months later, I began working at that store again, I was rehired under someone, lets call him Jack. He was very sweet in my interview, and I had much higher hopes for the store. After hearing from my coworkers, and about a week in, it was clear this store was a shitshow still. He would schedule me open-close at least once a week, and when I was out with covid he asked for me to come in still. (I am a very high risk patient and was in the hospital on breathing tubes when he asked for me to still come in).
Jack would work mornings and schedule 8-9 people during the time he was working, but left the closers with a shift mangers and one, sometimes two, baristas. Overall it was an awful experience.
More background: I’m korean, and I very much look korean. Although I was adopted, and dont carry much of the culture with me. Jack would make comments about my eyes, and once said how he “likes young asian women”. Again, I reported to ethics, and nothing came about.
Moving on to the reason I quit the second time. One of my coworkers had SA’d two of my friends, lets call him Max. He started dating someone else in the workplace I was very close with. I reached out to her and warned her, and checked in to see if she was okay. Soon after Max sent me death threats, threatened to get me fired from Starbucks, said he would “make sure” I never said anything. I immediately contacted ethics, and they were helpful at first, but then finally decided that I was at fault. I was told that I shouldn’t have reached out to my FRIEND who I was worried about. I never brought the conflict into the workplace until Max threatened my safety and my employment.
A week after I quit because the harassment in the workplace threw me back into a extremely depressive state.

Now I work at a little family owned coffee shop that
1: pays better
2: actually treats me like a human.
Hot-Temperature-4629 1 points 8m ago
Dude, fuck Starbucks, don't go back.
justhere333 1 points 8m ago
I’m happy you’re in a better place now <3
[deleted] 1 points 8m ago
[removed]
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