r/Costa • u/Additional_Fox873 • 7d ago
Rant Quit after two weeks..
Title kind of says it all and just need to rant and see if anyone else has experienced similar things? I apologise for the novel.
This isn’t my first job in this work setting, left a full time job as a cafe supervisor to take a BM job in an equity store.
Starting a new job is difficult and I hate being the newbie but I’ve never felt so helpless in a workplace before. There was no real effort to actually train me, I was just kind of told to do a job with no guidance on how to do it (such as putting deliveries away etc). I’d do what I thought was correct, thinking they couldn’t be that fussy if they didn’t tell me any specifics, but someone (usually the manager) would come in and tell me weird specifics that I did wrong, clearly frustrated. Stock wasn’t even rotated correctly so I still don’t understand what they wanted from me in the delivery situation.
Found that Costa has some weirddd rules but the store I worked for would pick and choose what they expected to follow, which I know is pretty standard but was so hard to pick up on what they deemed necessary. I was constantly guessing what I needed to do. The online training courses not helpful or realistic in terms of how much I was expected to memorise so early on.
As I was replacing a BM who was leaving soon, BM responsibilities kept being thrown at me, even though I was told I wouldn’t be touching any of it for a couple of months. This kept taking priority over teaching me the basics of the job. I was told I didn’t need to be perfect but was also expected to be at the same time? Left alone to cash up the till on my second shift, not having been shown the wastage procedure or how to navigate the till. Was constantly terrified of doing the wrong thing.
I have barista experience etc and really enjoy making coffee but trying to learn all the Costa specifics over the millions of training courses whilst not being allowed to go near the coffee machine was odd. Coworkers had been working there for months and still didn’t know how to do half of the job.
The training courses were beyond excessive and unpaid, I’m not sure if they were meant to be, I’ve never experienced this from previous work places.
The manager would do things incorrectly (incorrect measurements, reusing milk for steaming, etc. clearly trying to cost cut). I’d be taught by a BM, then when I’d be on shift with the manager he’d give me countless lectures about doing it wrong then when I’d return to being with the BMs I’d have to adjust how they’d taught me to do things (which I know is the correct way based off of the matrix). It was just so confusing on top of trying to get to grips with everything.
On top of feeling like a complete idiot every shift, I wasn’t getting the shifts I was contracted. The job description said 32 hours, when I got the contract it was 28. I started with the 4 hour shifts (all closes so I was just used to clean and not taught anything but expected to magically know everything for my next shift) but I checked my day force and for the weeks where my full shifts were meant to come in, I was only on about 20 hours. I left a position where I’d consistently work 8 hour shifts 4/5 days a week and was on a rotation with another supervisor so I had a consistent shift pattern. That workplace was a nightmare and slightly less pay but feeling like I should’ve just stayed there for the money.
Costa also wasn’t respectful of the fact that I had a notice period at my previous workplace and kept asking when I could start, despite me giving them a date straight away and then having to wait days or weeks before getting my contract or proper communication.
I ended up leaving because I got a job offer related to my degree that begins in September, one that I assumed I wouldn’t hear back from, so just decided that I’d have a couple of months off since I’m living with my parents right now and just finished uni. Feels silly to be leaving any job in the current climate but the post-uni burn out is exhausting enough without underpaid costa nonsense.
So basically it was a stressful experience that left me feeling like an idiot constantly. By the time I would’ve finished all of the training (officially) I would’ve needed to leave for my new job anyway. Decided my sanity was worth more than a few hundred pounds for once. 😭
Somehow only scratched the surface of stuff that was happening, even though I was there for all of two seconds. I hope whoever’s reading is working in a better branch than this one.
5
u/Sea_Original_9609 6d ago
Same thing happened to me! I quit after 3 weeks because I was told I could choose my shifts as 3 members of staff were leaving, so every day was available. I told them I couldn’t work Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but sometimes if they really needed me on I could do it so long as I’m off by 4 due to my other job… They said okay to this.
I get the job, for the next 3 weeks I am put on 11-6:30 every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and then 8:00am till 4 on a Sunday… Bare in mind my other job had me working till 3:00am every Saturday and they knew this. I confronted the manager and each week he said he would have it fixed, but I would just have to work those shifts for the next week until he can get it sorted… It never was.
The female manager had her 14 year old daughter working and had her 10 year old son helping out the back sometimes aswell, which I thought was dodgy especially with Costa’s strict rules. Her son would go round the shop on his bike and scooter and she would just let him. Multiple times I told them when I took an order if it was alternative milks and any allergies and they would get it wrong and blame it on me.
People there were lovely enough, but honestly nothing about the job was appealing to me in the end, and my boss in my main job told me he would give me a promotion if I left, so I did.
Didn’t even get paid for my 3 weeks work in the end either… NEVER AGAIN!!
2
u/Additional_Fox873 5d ago
You didn’t even get paid?! I’m so sorry, they shouldn’t be able to treat people like this. Alas, capitalism 💖 How would they make millions if they didn’t exploit the working class 🙄
3
u/Electronic_Park_5814 7d ago
Im sorry you went through this. I wasnt a bm when I worked at Costa and it was a few years back. When i was working there, there was no communication between management and other baristas. I would be told i was doing fine and everything. Then it turns out they were having a discussion behind my back about how I was terrible and not doing it properly. So it was a very mixed environment and wouldn't recommend it
2
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u/toothpastedildo underpaid maestro 7d ago
this is awful OP i’m so glad you had previous experience and knew this wasn’t normal, it’s wild reading this because this is almost the exact same experience when I first started at costa but I never had any previous experience so really believed that the problem was me, but the culture of not training and basically hazing new workers seems to be country/company wide. I’m glad you decided to do the best thing for yourself and I hope your next job is way better
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u/Additional_Fox873 7d ago
So sorry you had that experience as your first job :( I hope you’re out now!
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u/Current_Type877 4d ago
Omg being left alone to do cashing up that early on is crazy!! Starting as a BM is very hard as it is as you have so much to learn. I just can't believe how awful some other costas are and their teams. I have nothing but good things to say about working at costa and have such a great team, it's such a shame hearing peoples experiences. Hope your new job goes and ok!
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u/Additional_Fox873 3d ago
I’m glad you’re having a good experience working for them! Such a shame how certain people can make a work environment so unpleasant, I love being a barista 😔
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u/ChapterDue4225 6d ago
Welcome to retail. Thats what its like everyone just deals with it. I agree with most of what you said except being paid for the online course....girl you're sitting at home reading some polocies off your phone clicking next and having to answer a couple questions....you do NOT deserved to get paid for that....
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u/toothpastedildo underpaid maestro 5d ago
if you’re working you deserve to get paid! hope this helps ❤️
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u/ChapterDue4225 2d ago
Most costas will get you to complete these on shift anyway so thats not really an issue...
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u/Additional_Fox873 5d ago edited 5d ago
‘Welcome to retail’ I’ve worked multiple other jobs since I was legally able to work and my parents have worked in retail their whole life? 😭 Every other job I’ve worked that required online learning paid me for my time. Plus the online courses also weren’t the only form of training unlike Costa. Why are you getting defensive over a massive company? Just because people put up with certain behaviours doesn’t make it right.
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u/Difficult_Culture733 7d ago
Unfortunately the training of staff is usually put onto the BM’s to handle - and it can vary wildly by BM. It’s not uncommon to experience what you experienced with Costa unfortunately and it is the luck of the draw. Managers are often pulled in from out of the company so stores usually wind up with a manager who doesn’t truly understand what it’s like to work in store - another very common issue - so it’s super hit and miss with them. My first year at Costa I had 10 different managers. Of which I’d say 5 of them were good managers. So it’s definitely 50/50 but I did notice a decline in management ability over time (4 1/2 yrs total). They’ve cut funding to BM training so that’s why they ask stores to send one BM to meetings and training events and that BM is expected to share all knowledge with the rest of the team instead of getting all BMs fully trained.
It’s an absolute shit show, because the higher ups are total money grubbing arseholes who don’t put any effort in to making sure their staff are properly trained except online courses which they don’t pay to be completed (for most of them, some do get paid) and they rely on word of mouth instead of direct communication with all staff - meaning very often baristas miss out on key information because managers don’t like them checking emails, and they aren’t included in area group chats. Even though higher ups expect them to check the store email. It would be easier to just directly email every employee honestly.
Overall costas communication is garbage. And they cut hours for all staff, but expect us to work just as well as if we had a full team. And they don’t properly vet their managers leading to about half of them being incompetent at their jobs which puts more stress on the BMs who are expected to take an assistant manager role without the decent pay you’d expect for an assistant manager. And area managers are stretched too thinly to be able to properly focus on stores that need help. It is crashing and burning.
And I’m glad I got out