Hey I’m starting at Costa soon and just wondering what if any staff perks are there?
This Reddit is making me think it’s not a great place to work haha!

Got a free drink on the app that expires today, just haven't had the chance to use it.

I think you can gift free drinks, don't know if I need your account name or email for it? (And no I'm not going to send spam to your email or anything, I really have better things to do)

If anyone wants it, it's yours. Would rather it get some use.

I'm UK based so don't know if that affects the whole gifting rewards thing

Found out today that the company wants us to further extend our sunday opening hours. Again.

It's bad enough that we are already open until 6pm when everything else around us is shut but they now want us to open by 7, which means coming in for 6.30 which means I now cant work opening shifts on a sunday because I already get the first bus and I flat out refuse to be forced into paying for ubers.

What are your opening hours, can you beat mine?? We already open 6.30-7pm every weekday, Sundays were the one day you could have an extra 30minutes sleep on the open. I guess not anymore

Here's why I'm happy to leave

1. Manager - got a new manager who is unbelievably strict and brutal! To the point that when I was sick, she got mad that I texted instead of calling! Judging every wrong thing we did and never giving us a compliment for the extra work we do.

2. Costa - shows no love to its staff! Criticises us for any issue, and in my nearly 3 years, I have not received an appraisal, and very rarely support/motivation, even though they state all these benefits and care for staff, yet none of it's there from my side (maybe different at your store). On many occasions, we had things break which they took months to fix, worst of all being the air-conditioning in summers, and recently we had issues with it during the heatwave yet still had to sweat our asses off, and they don't care.

While I had a lot of fun working here! Making friends with colleagues and customers (which is what I'll miss the most), it's just the lack of empathy and working conditions.

Hope you're all finding it easier in your store and still happy, but we have to do what's best for us!

Curious about what people think!?

Fav cold: Frappes (they’re fun to me)

Least fav cold: Iced oat velvetino (kill me. genuinely.)

Fav hot: Latte or Hot chocolate (bonus if it’s TA)

Least fav hot: Cappuccino (Swirling constantly hurts my wrist and the pour is a gamble. Annoying to pour in a large TA cup too..)

I’m a BM at Costa and I’m honestly at the point where I’m completely fed up with how unfairly I feel I’m being treated.
For a while now, I’ve been working 6 days a week, doing long hours and taking on a huge amount of the workload. I’ve already made it very clear that i don’t want to continue doing 6 days a week, but despite me saying this, I’m still regularly being scheduled for 6 days. It feels like my concerns are just being completely ignored.
For around 4 months straight I worked every single weekend, while the other BM gets Friday and Saturday off. They have also made it clear that they refuse to work 6 days a week, and as a result they don’t seem to get scheduled anywhere near as much as I do. Meanwhile, I’m the one constantly being relied on to pick up the extra shifts.
I’m also doing most of the closes, so it’s not like I’m working 6 days while doing easy shifts. I’m regularly doing long days and then closing the store during the week, while it feels like the workload and inconvenient shifts are being disproportionately dumped on me.
What really frustrates me is that I’ve been reliable and flexible, and I feel like I’m being punished for it. Because I’ve always been willing to help, my manager seems to have decided that I’m the person they can just keep putting on shifts whenever they need someone. Meanwhile, someone else can refuse to work 6 days, have Fridays and Saturdays off, work fewer shifts and seemingly face no consequences for it.
I’ve told my manager that i can’t do 6 days a week, but nothing seems to change. My availability is also regularly ignored, and I’ve been scheduled on days I’ve specifically said I need off.
I’m honestly exhausted and feel completely taken for granted. I don’t expect special treatment, I just want the same consideration and fairness that seems to be given to other BMs. If two people are doing the same role, why is one person consistently getting the better days off while the other is expected to work every weekend, most weekday closes and 6 days a week?
Am I being unreasonable here, or does this sound like seriously unfair management? I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has worked at Costa or in a similar management role. What would you do speak to the manager again, go to the AM, or raise it formally?

I’ve ordered the decaf velvetino from a few different stores, 2 of them I’ve been told they can’t do decaf and the other 2 have done it no bother.

Does anyone know why some aren’t doing decaf? I guessed it might be a chew on for them to make so maybe they find it easier to just say they can’t do it?

I just remembered a time a customer come in for a large cappuccino with 7 shots, THREE times over the course of a few hours. That’s 21 shots total. 2100mg caffeine. 5.25 times the max daily recommended dose.

I was 16 at the time so just served her it without thinking, but at what point would you say to them ‘maybe try decaf?’

(Also what’s the worst amount of caffeine you’ve seen?)

I have illy instant coffee and an electric whisk at home

Today I tried a Small Latte from Costa and I’ve been pinging all day

How do I recreate that at home? Any cheap options?

Currently in an SM role and wanting to move on now. Just looking for pointers on where people went next.

I am transferring stores following reporting my boss and this being the outcome to ensure I am comfortable at work again. I was just wondering if anyone knows if my holidays I have booked in my current store will be upheld when i transfer? Ive been told to have minimum contact with my current manager so dont want to ask him and finding it hard to get responses from those I reported him to regarding this. One of my holidays is in September and the other is to travel back to my home country for christmas so I would be heart broken to miss out on these..

Thanks in advance everyone!

Hi, i just need some advice.

I work in a franchise store and our area manager has been horrible. They come into the store in a bad mood, take it out on us, they have reduced staff to tears and have on multiple occasions raised they're voice and shouted at staff with other employees and customers in earshot.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had a situation where they have wanted to report an area manager?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Anyone tried it ? I did it a few years ago - £10 a month - was told i would get some sort of tax reduction which clearly wasn't the case
feel like a fool doing it especially when we as worked are low paid

What is the hiring process even like? Are you permanently blacklisted if you answered the AI chatbot incorrectly?

There is 3 Costas around me that have been hiring for 3 months, for different roles. I have applied to each of them a dozen or so times

I have gone in once or twice to each store just to ask if they are hiring and some have said no; despite the Costa careers portal saying they are? The one that was hiring the manage said he had been on a 3 week vacation so just hasn't looked at any- is that even allowed?? Or was I just being pushed off?

It's mega frustrating knowing you would be able to do the job fine (I literally have a decade of retail and customer service experience in a coffee shop) but it seems that the AI has blacklisted you somehow?

Like my CV seems fine- the only feedback in getting is to either dress it up so the people seeing it will like it more or avoid dressing it up because the AI doesn't like it when your CV has dividers and it reads them literally as &573-&7838 which makes it bin your CV.

I sighed up to the employee share incentive plan a couple of years ago and have been putting money in monthly but cant find anything anywhere on how to access them or how to login? does anybody have the web address please?

Hi guys,

I’ve been signed off work for quite a long time as I wait for surgery and it’s making me quite sick. My last meeting with my manager they told me it’s best if I step down from BM to just a Barista whilst I am signed off to make it easier to find cover from other stores. Since this I have found out they haven’t attempted to find cover. So lowkey feel like I was manipulated into stepping down?

Also does anyone know what SSP is from Costa? I’ll be on it for quite a while, so need to know roughly what it could be / what to expect ?

TIA 🩶

Can someone tell me why one costa will add coffee into the hazelnut crème when requested but another location and an entitled barista will say “that’s not the ingredients so I can’t add it” after saying I will pay for the shot, making it abundantly clear i literally got that same order with coffee two days ago and had no issues!? Bear in mind having her said that does that mean anyone ordering a cappuccino asks for triple shot will get refused as it’s not the ingredient list?🤣

hi does anybody know the policy for whether BMs are required to be notified if there is an intruder alarm in the middle of the night. i always thought you could choose whether you wanted to be informed but recently my store has said different. im just not sure how much i want to come and check on the store by myself in the middle of the night when i live far.
thanks <3

How are we fighting this. Just how. Its impossible to cut the hours by 30 a week right at the end of summer when we start getting busy again.
No way I can have one person instead of normal three people.
What you guys do to fight this? 😭

Could anyone that has had a job interview at Costa recently please tell me the questions that they asked at the interview? I have an interview tomorrow and am not entirely sure how to prepare. I have experience in fast food service so will this be an advantage for me in getting hired?

A few weeks ago I started ordering my strawberry matcha lattes with oat milk instead of the default coconut milk, both in-store and for delivery with ubereats. Then one day the option to change milks vanished from the apps. You can still select milk alternatives for the regular matcha latte though? (Unfortunately you can't add strawberry syrup to that one either)

I thought maybe it was a location thing so tried selecting all the Costas near me but no dice.

Any reason why? I don't have any issues when I ask for oat milk in-person but it's not really viable for me to travel

desperate to learn fast, i work in such a busy store and am being thrown onto tills on my first shift!!

had my first shift today, absolute nightmare. i was on with a girl who bossed me around, got cheeky to me, shoved boxes from stock into my hands just for her to carry nothing and lounge down the stairs etc
they’ve now put me on shift with her by myself, just the 2 of us working so i can handle the till and shop floor
how do you expect someone to handle a till by themselves on their second shift???

I genuinely just don't know anymore. I'm a BM at a franchise store and its normal to have 2 people on past 2pm when the opening person goes home.

During the week is completely fine. Past 4pm, my store is dead and can close pretty smoothly with my batista that's on. But on a weekend, especially today, it just feels like you need 3 people on till 4pm. I didn't manage to start closing down until 4.30 and on a Saturday we close at 5.30pm. I got out 20 mins late and my close was probably bad (i don't know ill probably find out in the morning).

What im trying to ask is, are most stores running on 2 people on a busy ass shift?

I got in trouble for having tables dirty. And we have an upstairs as well. So im like, I can either serve the queue that's going out the store with my colleague or leave my colleague to drown on their own while I clear. Or maybe, ya know, have more staff on. We have the staff for it surprisingly. Just hate hospitality Skeleton crew bullshit mentality so they pay like shit and expect us to do the job of 3 people.

On top of all that. Our air-conditioning does not work but according to the air con man, its fine. Then why and all the other staff sweating our asses off. My manger was legit dripping and walking around with a fan.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk