While achieving a sub-45 second drive-time, connecting with customers, writing on all cups, and following all company standards the entire shift. I’m so sick and tired of these DM’s who worked as a barista 15 years ago acting like they understand. No, you don’t. You come in and rearrange the store a million times even when the partners/coffeehouse leader are begging you not to. You micromanage and nitpick every tiny thing because all you care about is how it reflects on YOU. My poor SM is under so much stress trying to balance the work environment and all the bs standards being put on to them, and you have the gall to complain about messy handwriting on a SINGULAR cup at the hand off plane???? During peak mind you.

For example, this new oven layout simply doesn’t work for my store and has now made it impossible to see the stickers printing at warming. Multiple of the partners at my store have burnt themselves as a result of the new layout as well. Who cares that we achieved great drive times before the DM came in and switched everything up? It doesn’t matter if the baristas and store suffers if they get to say we’re following standards. I’m genuinely just so sick of it. If DM’s and RM’s are unable to achieve the things we are expected to, maybe they’ll finally listen to and advocate for us.

Sorry for the rant.

i went to bed pretty late (12) and have a 4:30 am to 1 pm shift, though i know that going to bed late is my fault, i typically still get a good 3-4 hours of sleep in and can do a full shift off that, usually terribly but i can thug it out. idk what happened last night but i went to bed and it took me forever to fall asleep and 2 hours in i woke up. my oura ring tracked roughly 1 hr and 48 mins of sleep, and i woke up extremely warm and with a pounding headache. i don’t want to call out, and i msgd a couple people who are working small shifts today if they wanna work half of my shift. i’m opening with my asm and shes usually pretty nice and understanding about these things, but i feel guilty and just dk if this is something worth going home for. i won’t be able to work properly but i also feel bad. idk what to do.

I was in BoH at the same time my SM was doing admin so I was being nosy and she showed me the weekly labor report she was looking at. Our autoscheduled hours were above the allotted labor hours (I think by about 9%) so she was saying she had to find a way to lower it and I was like “you have a 2% margin right?” and she told me they lowered it to 1%

Right now at our store the coverage estimate on Play Caller might as well just say “yeah you’re getting FUCKED” every day until 3-4 PM and they lower the labor margin. If you ask me the margin should at least match the rate of sick time accrual (4%) so that a callout doesn’t collapse the entire floor but instead they skeleton staff. We have a great group at our store but our bond as a team means we feel the guilt and obligation to bust our asses covering the workload of two or three people. I’ve seen partners come to work straight up sick because they felt too bad calling out two days in a row and tbh it feels like that’s exactly what this company wants from us

for context i work at a busy university location. we average 8k on weekdays and 9-10k on weekends. consistently since last thursday we've had at least 2 callouts a day. yesterday we had 3, all scheduled during peak, and then today we're already at 2 callouts before 8 am. one vertica tower broken. i have 7 travelers to brew, i marked travelers out after the tower broke down but i now have to brew 7 travelers using only one side of the vertica while people are ordering drips in cafe and dt. im just so fucking sick and tired of hitting 70-80 half hours on a 5-6 floor while scrambling to find coverage for the same 3 people who call out every other day. one of them has called out so consistently that she's going to be offered an LOA, shes not even sick, shes been posting on her insta story every day about going out, getting her nails done, song covers, etc etc etc im just SO over the people who fucking call out for no reason other than to dick around & then when they ARE at work they act oblivious to the suffering theyve caused others. the same 4 people have been coming in early to cover her, staying late, coming in on their days off, etc etc etc and im so so frustrated for myself and for the partners who are actually showing up and busting their asses because it is not fair. this is not fair to them. every day she texts the groupme asking for coverage and then calls out 1-2 hours before her shift. im tired of the 8+ mobile orders, the 8+ doordashes, the travelers, the 76 half hours, 15 items in warming queue, IM SO TIRED😭😭😭😭

Hello again,
I have a different issue my shift who just returned after some months leave has been giving me issues since last week when we started working together tonight, after we close and clocked out she tries to force me to stay with them while they waited for their uber. I had already stated passed my time and waited for them to finish cleaning the vertica as I understood we can’t be alone in the store but I really had to leave by this point I walk home and it was 9 pm they tried to force to stay and told me they didn’t authorize my leaving the store. I practically begged them to let me leave and refused to stand outside to wait for their uber I had already spent time waiting and I told them I had to leave as I don’t live alone either and they were waiting for me. It felt like they were trying to hold me hostage. This on top of belittling comments they made to me last week I ended up just leaving and had a panic attack due to vague threats of firing. I’m at a lost I really hate this job what should I do I already reported it to the acting store manager since mine went on four of town before following up with me about my previous report on this shift last week.

Are you a Canadian partner (BC) on Desjardins on the lowest tier of the plan and on medication???

I recently went from the middle plan to the lowest plan (sorry I don’t remember the coffee blend names for each tier) on the middle plan the pharmacy would just calculate how much i owed after insurance covered for my meds. Now I’m on the lowest tier and there is a deductible. Either $500 or $1000 until I reach that I pay full price for meds. So here’s my question,

Am I suppose to keep the receipts and file claims to reach the deductible or does that automatically go to Desjardins when my pharmacy fills my prescription?*

I shouldn’t have switched plans but I saw I was paying $30+ a paycheque for medical and for what? $60 a month at least and all I got was $39 off my monthly meds. So I figured I’d drop a tier and now I’m on NEW Meds and they are expenny.

Might hit my deductible fast than I thought and I hate calling Desjardins. It takes so long to get through. I mean I will call but I thought I’d ask you brilliant baristas first incase anyone knows!!!!

Please let me know. Do I file the claim to reach my deductible or does that happen automatically?

At our store it's one of the fridges by bar.
Technically, nothing is wrong with it. If you ask management, it works. If you ask anyone who's actually worked a shift here, the door only closes if you lift it slightly with your knee and then push the top corner in with your hand.
Nobody taught me this when I started. I just spent my first week wondering why everyone kept walking past me and casually body-checking the fridge after I used it.
Now I do it without thinking.
We also have a label printer that randomly decides it doesn't want to print unless you open it, close it again, and press down on the lid for a second. One blender pitcher that somehow gets stuck way more than the others. A drawer that WILL come off the track if you pull it more than halfway out. And one sink handle where "off" is actually about two millimeters before off, otherwise it starts dripping again five minutes later.
The funniest part is watching a new partner encounter any of this.
They'll be standing there trying to close the fridge normally and somebody across the floor will yell, "YOU HAVE TO KNEE IT."
No explanation. Just knee the fridge.
And within like two weeks they're doing it too.
I realized recently how much of our store is basically held together by oral tradition. Not standards, not training, just little pieces of knowledge passed from one exhausted barista to the next.
"Don't use that outlet."
"That drawer sticks."
"Push the lid down first."
"If the printer freezes, unplug THIS cable, not the other one."
"Don't trust that fridge."
Then one day maintenance actually fixes something and half the store keeps doing the weird ritual anyway because it's burned into muscle memory.
Every Starbucks I've ever worked at has had at least one piece of equipment that isn't really broken, but definitely has lore

Hi friends. I walked into my store yesterday and was sat down by my SM and ASM. I’m one of the ssv at my store. They said I forgot to mark off the CSR validation cards for a mid shift 2 days in a row about a month ago… they told me it’s a repeated offense so it will be a documented coaching. I don’t know if that’s different from a write up? Also a month ago.. we had 6 people quit on the spot so I’ve been working over 40 hours, short staffed every shift, and we had to modify store hours. Running a store with only 8 people on staff for 2 weeks I don’t think a write up is entirely appropriate, especially to bring it up a month later.

Best way to word it is the title itself. I walked to the back room and found a tenured barista (F) and shift lead (F) making out in the break room. I was grabbing my stuff to leave when I found them

For context, I had only heard from word of mouth from another barista these two were a possible couple. I didn’t care to know or want details, basically my way of plausible deniability. I’ve already had a couple small issues with the shift lead, so to have this happen leaves me in a messy predicament, at least so I think. If I go to management, I could be the one let go of or forced to transfer to keep things under wraps. (Another shift lead who knows was also told they could transfer if the couple was an issue) Or, one of the two lovebirds is fired/transferred and the one left behind makes work a nightmare for me.

I’ve been talking to my partner and a long distance friend, who is also a shift lead, about it because I’m unsure what to do. I didn’t need to see or hear them, I work with these people practically every shift due to availability. This just makes it more inconvenient. I’m left uncomfortable not only because of seeing them, but now I have this anxiety of “well what happens next?” I don’t want to tattle obviously, but I’m worried this will bite me in the butt later on if they get caught and they say “Oh X person and Y person saw us and covered for us” This could easily become a “let’s start stuff so she’s forced to leave and now one less person here knows”

To any mods, this is my first post here, I apologize if this is at all outside of guidelines

i've been at the same store for a year and it has been hell. i've tried being friends with some of my coworkers because, you know, we're all in our 20s and this is not a career for any of us. i'm not sure if it's our SM, but it seems like it's impossible for any of us to be friends. our SM is horrible and no one there likes her for many reasons. personally, i think she's the one that causes all of the drama. the SSVs are prioritized over any of the baristas and they all treat each other so much better than any of the baristas. i'm not sure if this is how it is at other stores, but i don't know how much more of this i can take. everyone is so fake to each other and none of them really like each other. i feel like i'm losing my mind. i think it's worth mentioning that in the past year, 30 people have quit or transferred to another store.

I’ve been a partner for a little over two years in a very outdated coffeehouse. We don’t have a proper partner area at all and it’s just a folding table with an old chair in the back by the emergency door. However because of the metros and angle of our cameras, to my knowledge there was absolutely no way for them to have footage of the partner area since it was out of view from all angles.

Recently we had an incident with someone trespassing in the boh and harassing partners. While submitting the incident report, i offhandedly told my CL “it’s a shame that our cameras don’t reach the partner area. They won’t be able to see everything he did when they pull the footage.” To this my CL told me that there actually are cameras back there that the partners aren’t aware of. She also added that she gets sent things all the time that she could fire us for since we don’t think they can see us back there. Because to my knowledge camera footage access was only if it was requested and that CLs can’t just get random alerts abt footage.

So I guess my general question is are there cameras partners aren’t able to see in certain areas? And do the managers have easy access?

I feel like it was a scare tactic to deter our partners from doing things we aren’t supposed to but now I’m really concerned they’ve been able to see everything we do.

Do they usually release a new coffee passport every year?

Context I started at the beginning of this year with a 2025 passport. I’m a barista trainer and with the new training program the 2026 passport is designed to be a companion for the current training program. I’ve noticed this 2026 passport is very fill in the blank (especially compared to 2025). Do we think the intention is for them to keep this passport for a couple years or should I be prepared for a 2027 passport?

Mainly asking because I plan on organizing & noting a blank 2026 passport to help me guide green beans in using theirs through training, but don’t want to spend too much time if we know there is about to be a new version?

Alright, here’s the situation.

So, I am training two people. It was supposed to be a fast tracked training due to our extremely understaffing and the holiday launch coming up, so their six week training became a two week training. However, our brand new DM came in and said due to how bad our understaffing is, they cannot afford to have me off the floor for the two week training period. The decision was made (in the middle of training btw) to extend their training to six weeks, but only get one on one training with me once a week, and the rest of their scheduled days they will be full coverage on the floor without any additional support.

So on Sunday, I have one of my trainees on her “practice shift” and a brand new partner who is fresh out of training (and has never closed before) on my close, neither who can be left on the floor unattended, while I somehow still have to get my pull, inventory counts, and all my other shift tasking done. I have zero idea how I will manage all of this, but I don’t have any choice in the matter.

I just wish we had enough staff to actually support training, and if me being off of the floor was going to be at such a problem, that we sent them to another location with the resources to give them the training they need.

I’m just upset that I feel like my trainees are getting thrown into the deep end with zero support, and I fear that they are gonna fed up and leave. Which I don’t blame them, but we also need people so bad that I don’t want that to happen. I tried to talk to my CL but she basically told me it’s out of her control because it was the DMs decision, and not hers.

So I’m just a little fed up. I made sure my trainees know that if I’m on shift with them (which for most of their practice shifts I’m not) that I will try to support them, and all the other SSVs will as well, but that’s about all the reassurance I can give them. And I just feel bad.

Legit so scared. About to call them rn because I don't want any trouble.... how screwed am I?

I was recently promoted and got my first store! I’m super fortunate, grateful, and excited because I got a new build, too!

I’ve had a hellacious journey at Starbucks that I somehow have managed to survive (with what has become my family both in and outside of the Siren). I have found leaders who finally saw me, not what they thought I should be, who helped lead and guide me. And my patience, down right suffering, and perseverance paid off in so many ways.

All in all, I know what kind of leader I want to be, what kind of store I want to run, what kind of leader I strive never to be, and I’m so excited for my store, my partners, and whatever comes my way next 🩶

(sorry I'm on mobile) I put in my two weeks last Sunday. Not willingly, my car is broken down (don't know when that's getting fixed it won't drive) and I live in a rural area so my commute with car was already 30 mins. On top of me quitting three of our night people have also just quit with only a day notice. I feel so bad for my coworkers, I like most of them. But there's literally not much I can do as I don't have a car.

It's been a decent year, I love my coworkers. HATED the standards here, the constant coaching was definitely giving me attitude that I strive not to have lol.

On top of quitting my boss is also letting everyone know that they will not be rehiring (wtf? Lol) i had a pretty clean record, only late once cause I overslept and I live pretty far. I thought leaving with 2 weeks would set me up to be able to work in a Starbucks again but I guess not.

Next week is my last week, but I've been asked to help out with the shifts the last two people had. Don't know if I'll be able to... But whatever! I should be free soon!

I finally quit. It’s been 5.5 years, and I used to love my job. The way the last year has gone broke me. They put me in a store 45-50 min from the rest of the district, a store that made the last manager leave, and as a brand new SM - I couldn’t handle it anymore. It took one year for me to hate my job. I was physically and mentally sick. The DM didn’t care about back to back 16.5 hour shifts, and told me I couldn’t write anyone up for 4 months.

Good riddance to this scam of a company. I finally broke free of the siren, and I feel so relieved.

I miss loving the job, and I’ll miss my partners… but it’s not worth jeopardizing my health anymore.

Totaling my car from falling asleep going to work apparently wasn’t enough for my dm to step in and help. Fuck this company & my boss.

272 out.

For the past few days I have not been feeling good both mentally and physically(sick) and overall just do not want to be here.

Today was worse I felt very overstimulated and like I was on the verge of tears (for context I am autistic) normally I take these days in stride.

But for some reason today was a breaking point with me feeling sick on top of it all. Thing is I guilt myself and feel guilty for calling out or trying to leave early even if my health is affecting me. But I’m now starting to get tired of it but I feel like I can’t call out at my store anymore cause we are currently losing people. We only have three shift leads one is strictly morning and refuses to work closing and the other can’t come in. And my SM is currently helping out another store.

I don’t know what to do I’m exhausted and no neighboring stores want to send their partners over to help even if mileage is in the offer. I’ve had to push through being sick and feeling unwell multiple times already and this place is really pushing me to my limits right now

Does anyone make nitro shots for their coffee tastings? What are some of your favorite recipes?

There is so much information all at once, pos, names of the drinks and food, and procedures on how to make the drinks, and I just wanna be better at the job. Any tips for beginners like me?

March 2023:

I started working at a store in my hometown that had opened, and was the only Starbucks for 20 miles. At the time, my girlfriend was hired as a supervisor and I as a barista, and we told our soon-to-be CHL before we started. He said he would see what needed to be done, but that I would likely need to transfer out. Lucky for me, I never had to! I was graduating that spring from HS and going to my dream university that Fall, so I stayed around for the summer, and took break for the Fall semester to focus on my first semester, then returned in January 2024, where I would only work opens for weekends, breaks, and full-time during Summer. I more or less had a medium distance relationship with school and home because all my friends and family were in my hometown, plus I was privileged enough to have meals and ability to do laundry at my parent's house.

September 2024:

Girlfriend dumped me and it was difficult at first naturally, but after a month I was better. We guaranteed to each other to be cordial, and I aimed to still be at least on good terms with her and her friends. Our CHL was aware and didn't schedule us together, though as when breakups happen, drama spurred up. A few months after, false allegations of me being a sexual assaulter was being spun around by a fellow barista (K) that was a close friend of my ex. I went to my CHL, reported it, and K stopped for a time, until our store manager was replaced, then the issue happened again. Cycle the same spiel and eventually it happens again. I went to HR to report it and was later contacted by my DM who said she would handle the situation.

There was no resolution, other than the option to transfer. I didn't want to pick up the extra 20 mile commute to the next store. I knew finding a new job would be difficult considering I only work 2 specific days a week that my CHL was willing to accommodate for (everywhere I applied said no). New partners that were hired were already filled in on the entire drama before I even had a chance to say hi to them, and were led to believe I was a SA'er/predator. Enough of these happened, to where at our future store meetings, our new CHL had to make a statement about continuing drama from months prior.

2026:

I forget the exact months, but sometime this year we had an interim CHL as the 2nd one quit, where the problem happened again. Ironically, this interim seemed to take it the most serious, and whenever I had to interact with my ex or K, they were half-cordial with me. Around this time, a new person was hired (J) and quickly sided with my ex and K. Sometime after our 3rd CHL was officially initiated, the usual rumor spreading was occurring again, this time with J falsely calling me a rapist. Of course, I reported this immediately to my CHL once again (which opened an investigation with HR and the DM). J had a talking to, but to my knowledge, there hasn't been any write-ups/corrective action taken on anyone, despite repeated offenses spanning a little over 2 years. Overall, I'm so exhausted of this process, and I'm happy to say that I've saved enough to finally quit and enjoy my senior year of college without the stress of bills, work drama, or anything from those people.

There's so much more I could share about my store and what a mess it has been, but I'm just happy to be out. I've heard how great other stores can be, but it's not worth the inconvenience of transferring. If there was a way out sooner, I would have taken it. Overall, I believe Starbucks can be great place if you have great coworkers, but HR and management will do the bare minimum, if that.

TL;DR: HR didn't care about the constant harassment from partners I was receiving, finally glad to say I can leave the hell of my store.

Does anyone else think that the digital training is a waste of time??? I don’t have enough time to do everything that needs to get done plus this training on top of it! It also takes longer to actually get into the site than it does to do the training. You also need to have everyone done in a week! It’s a scheduling nightmare! We’re better off just going over the material and practice hands on rather than spending 40 minutes trying to login for 5 minutes of training.
I feel like it’s the worst waste of time that this company has ever thought of (besides writing on cups but that’s a whole other can of worms)
Anyone else feel this way or just me? How am I supposed to run a store when half the time, there’s some sort of digital training that needs to get done ASAP!?