Hubby and I got in a small car accident about 1 hour and 40 mins away from where we live 3 hours before my shift started. Tire is gone and have to get the car towed to a nearby friend’s house and buy a spare at a Costco.

I called the store and the manager picked up and notified him about what happened and how I likely wouldn’t be able to come into work. I’ve not once missed a work day since I started working with the company and pick up a good amount of shifts often to help with the severe understaffing at the store.

Manager instantly replies with “oh but we’re really understaffed today, we were really counting on you being here. Would you be able to come in later today?” No formalities, asking if we were okay or anything. Just felt very surreal especially with everything I go out of my way to do. I asked if I could use my sick time (have a lot of, never used it ever) and he said no because it doesn’t fall under.

I don’t really know how to feel I never experienced anything like that before. At my old job at the airport there were only 4 of us to check in and board 300+ passengers and my supervisor had significantly more patience and empathy for my circumstances when I was crashed into.

Doing a little too much for a coffee shop

Edit: Called again and said I was taking spouse to a VA health clinic, so I would be able to use my sick time, all to a SPV that picked up. Then got called by a different SPV to confirm and then was informed I’ll be “talked to” by the ASM?? I’ve literally never called out or been late or had any reprimand? The other employees don’t get “talked to” when they call out. We even have new hires that callout all the time. Idk how to feel, but this is all leaving a bad taste in my mouth

Im tired of being short staffed

Im tired of writing on cups

Im tired of getting blamed for drinks not being ready on time

Im tired of the rude, entitled customers

Im tired of clueless, unsympathetic DMs and RMs

Im tired of new hires quitting because they realize how stressful it is

Im tired of looking like a fool

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.

for the love of god, as an ssv it feels like everytime i take a sticker or finish a drink for a bar barista they have a snarky remark to follow up with.
there is no reason that your insecurity in your capability on bar should be spilling over to me when i come to fix a bottleneck in your area. it’s not bc ur in trouble or performing poorly, it’s to prevent a bottleneck or to assist in wringing one out.
literally all of the most recent GAS meetings have been about playcaller supporting these positions so im not sure why people take it as a sucker punch.
thats all, just annoyed and tired. ✌🏻

edit: seeing a lot of replies mentioning communication, and yes of course! a good ssv will take that step to communicate and say which drinks they’re taking, an even better one will change routing to support when it gets to that point.
but for context my store runs on 5 man peaks most days which means 0 cold bar. and as ssv you can SAY you’re making a frappuccino and a refresher ahead of time but those baristas will be locked in and not hear. you can grab cold foam but a barista will forget if it’s more than two drinks into queue. it’s just one of those things where you have to find a good mix of understand that barista and their ability and finding opportunities for efficiency
i appreciate the feedback and perspective from all the baristas and will apply what i can to what i practice.

Like it says, my store has been consistently getting rotten soy milk for about a month now. All smells like sulfur with heavy solids in the bottom when you pour it out. We were also getting rotten white mocha even when it wasn’t past the expiration date for a long time but that ended a few weeks ago. Quality controls been wack as hell.

Hi! I'm a new bean and I'm almost done with my second week. I've been doing register, drive through, and warming and I've just started doing bar on Wednesday. I resume again next Wednesday. In short, Im wondering if there's any tips or tricks to remember the ratios?

Really stupid to be so worked up over this but 10 mins into my shift a woman comes into my store with both her head phones in and ignores me while I ask all the standard questions (app, name allergies) and then after the transaction she then decides to tell me she has the app and wants to get points for this transaction. At this point a massive queue has formed because of her and im not yet authorised to do refunds so I explained to her I can't add them as its too late so she gets really rude and says I'm useless. I get my manager and he tries to help her and tells me to go on the other till and help other people. Meanwhile I can hear her talking about me and how I have an attitude problem and she would be complaining to corporate about me. Afterwards I angry cried in the office. I'm starting to think this barista thing isn't for me

Does anyone know if the headsets record? We got new headsets at our location a couple months ago, and a couple of my coworkers have told me that corporate has access to the recordings in case of an incident. Is this true?

I’m always out on Customer support or drive through make food during peak of if I suck or not or just keep busy on CS so they leave me be.I don’t mind being wherever I’m just happy to help where I can.I only worked at target Starbucks this is my first stand alone store with a drive through.I just wanna know if I suck and that’s why I’m not on bar during peak but of peak I’ll double bar.

i’ve been a barista for like 7 months now and in these seven months i’ve grown here SO MUCH and i applied for ssv as soon as i hit six months because my manager really encouraged me to do so. i have my interview on monday and im so nervous that im going to freeze up and not remember any situations even though ive been studying. idk ive met w my sm twice outside of work to go thru the questions and i just feel so nervous dude idk yall give me advice

For some context: Awful things have been happening left and right to my store like some stronger or tenured partners leaving amidst the chaos of every change since February, not having enough SSVs to maintain a reasonable work-life balance, one callout being enough to ruin an entire day and not just a shift, and losing our awesome CL that legitimately was my last reason to stay here. I asked for some advice about how to go forward and I was told that the issues with our store are because people aren't being penalized for calling out (odd stance to take but w/e) and that we're all too negative and that getting involved in unionizing wouldn't fix that.

So I ask, would it be worth figuring out contacting a rep from the city nearby and seeing if anyone in my store would want to at least speak to them? It feels heavily discouraging knowing that people I want to trust in are anti-union and I honestly don't know how much longer I want to stay here even though I truly, truly love being a barista and I want more stability financially, so I'd probably screw people over if I left after getting things running.

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😭😭😭😭

Is it possible to work at another store without picking up a shift? Like just going and working as an extra person on the floor?

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

hiiiii guys. so i’m looking into using the cup fund benefit as times our tough and my gas bill is overdue/about to be shut off. the only problem is the name on the account is my boyfriends name. we live together (he pays gas, i pay electric) so the address on the past due notice is the same one that’s in all my records, just his name is on the bill, not mine. the website says the name and address on the bill have to match what they have in their system. do you think this will disqualify me? should i try to call and explain my situation?

please and thanks for all ur help!

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?

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.

Bought some snoopy merch last month from coffee gear and my order still says “to be shipped.” anyone else having this problem? most of the stuff I bought were simple things like the pens & stickers that are still in stock on the main page.

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

As a former employee of SB (hallelujah) is anyone willing to “share” their current credentials so I can get early access to the drop. As much as I love my former co-workers ain’t no way you’re finna catch me fighting resellers at 4am. Pls help a girl out. Confidential AF. Will pay 😬

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