I have read many comments on this site and many are basically the same in that they are written by people (me included) who have problems with many aspects of their "Starbucks Experience" and only know how to "whine" about them (as if we could ever do anything about them outside of quitting). Outside of flexible hours, which can work favorably for many, full benefits for 20 hrs a week (which may change based on what anyone can perceive as Starbucks comes to the reality of good, quality competition, high prices, and financial squeezes (all those store opening take financial resources that must be repaid--their debt is substantial)), a genuine enjoyment of the customers/atmosphere (my only reason, as a retiree for working there), which changes with managers and bad experiences (I just took off robe and walked out--manager was a incompetent and I was not enjoying myself anymore), and the confidence that you can stick it out long enough to become "management", you cannot be working there as a barista for the glory of a high power job as you rake in all of $7-8 bucks per hour making espresso and cleaning toilets. If you truly believe that all your hardwork fits any of the profiles listed above--good for you; if not get out, get a degree or learn a trade and get a real job--you are being taken advantage (they even "stole" your money in California) of by a large multi-national company whose sole reason for existing is profits (it may not have always been that way as Howie laments)and not the barista, even though their timely newsletters that sing koombaya keep coming.
Stop Whining and Face Facts
(40 posts) (9 voices)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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Challenged, motivated, well paid, happy employees don't steal from the company they work for.... Starbuck's baristas are none of these.. just saying.....
Posted 4 years ago # -
As a current employee; I gotta say that Starbucks in NO WAY has kept up with the current economic downturn in any way. All employees are getting the same wage, if not being laid off from their store closings. 7-8 bucks an hour seems competitive until you realize that most companies try to at least adjust for inflation and standard of living.
and trust me; if i could get a better job anywhere, even for a penny an hour more: i'd be there first thing tomorrow and say goodbye to that freakin green apron.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Chaos: I truly feel sorry for you if you cannot get a better job anywhere else. I do not know how old you are or your particular circumstances, but unless you really need their medical benefits and can only work part-time, you are "going nowhere". You are at the whim and fancy of incompetent selfish managers if you think you will be the next Starbucks DM (and with the retrenchment that is highly unlikely). A trade school, a community college (with a menaingful degree), a specialized training institute, a 4-year college with a meaningful degree (not political science or psych)--this is the way to find a "better job anywhere". I wish you well.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Thank you for keeping it real, fivestarservice. From talking to other partners, I've learned that many feel as if they're stuck @ da bux. The economy is sick, govt financial aid has been cut (at least in cali-thanx 2 governator), and there are few jobs available that can match sbux benefits. I graduated from college with honors, and I'm still having difficulties.
Posted 4 years ago # -
DARKROAST: What kind of degree did you come out of college with? It is sad that you spend all that time and get nowhere. I would assume the degree was not engineering, business, or some sort of hands-on type experience--a degree, honors or not, means diddle squat these days unless it is a precursor to an advanced degree or is in a field where, at the Bach level, it can be beneficial--such as engineering.
Posted 4 years ago # -
My degree is in advertising, plus I went to trade school to study/train in apparel production. I used to be happy when I first started w/ sbux, because my the previous jobs in my field left a bitter taste. I worked in fashion-nuff said. I feel like I just went full circle.
Posted 4 years ago # -
In my case it was this or deal with the same crap only on overnight shifts working in hotels to get the "practical experience" to back up my degree to qualify me to teach in my choosen area (hospitality). And a starting position in a hotel (non-US market here) pays worse than the 'bux!
The board is a safe place to vent the stuff that drives me nuts without having to get into "he said/she said" backstabbing **** that would happen if I said any of this stuff to the people I work with.
Posted 4 years ago # -
It sure sounds like recent repliers have come full circle on their career choices and ending up at SBUX as their seemingly final destination is sad and worrisome. You guys gotta get real and find yourselves before you wake up and find it is too late. FarFlung:Hospitality does not sound like it was a really good career choice--what is there really to know that a good hands-on work your way up experience cannot get you. Did you really think you would be the next Mr. Hilton with your degree. When things get rough, the rough get going. If you have a degree in hospitality you must have liked something about it and using the excuse that hard work (overnight shifts) was too much is not a good excuse at all. You will begin to make excuses for almost all your future employment opportunities. Certainly SBUX, at this time, is no career choice; it could happen but it is very unlikely and not what I would consider a successful career. DARKROAST: As for advertising and apparel production, a "bitter taste" is similar to FarFlung's reasoning. Excuses like "bitter taste" are not good enough and are a poor excuse. SBUX is also a poor excuse for scoping out a future.
I wish you both well but you both really need to look in the mirror and get to know yourselves before you see gray hair and an old man or woman.Posted 4 years ago # -
Believe me when I say that most employees @ the bux don't want to be slinging coffee for the rest of their lives; it's just the fact that we're underappreciated, overworked, and underpaid i think. I've been trying to pay back my college loans for a year and have made no progress simply because i have to keep gas in my car, food in my stomach and pay rent (just like everyone else) try doing that on $8 an hour (with 40 hours a week it only comes out to $16,640 a year; well below poverty level. Even with my additional part time job of $7 an hour for 20 hrs a week (that's 60 hrs worth of work for a week, no vacation, no nothing)) it only comes out to $23,920 a year.
yeah...with that kind of pay and my time being consumed by, oh, i dunno, TRYING TO LIVE... it's kinda hard to get anything going.
Posted 4 years ago # -
FarFlung, I was a tech-sector burn out and tried a few different things, the most recent being SB which I thought would be fun and engaging. As I saw it was more like joining the Borg, and that "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile", I became curious as in "Are they serious?". In fact, they were serious. Then my stubborn streak kicked in - 'I will NOT be assimilated', which I knew meant I had a short life at SB, but oh well. Long story short, going back to the tech sector after a nice break, and with a new perspective. Got the call today, will be able to give notice on my next shift! I was always very nice to SB employees in the past, but now I really know what you go through...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Hey 5star.....THANX. :)
Posted 4 years ago # -
Givemedrip - snap another ex-tech sector person here. To be honest I'd rather go and deal with the floor cleaning manager and the snotty cows with their funny coffees than work help desk again!
The goal is to get to the point I can go and lecture at university. Having tutored in both the business school and hospo, the kids in hospo are so much better behaved and the people you have to work with are much less up themselves so it is also a no-brainer. Not to mention that tourism and the hospitality component are one of the largest sectors of our economy (non-US here.)
Posted 4 years ago # -
As I said before, I truly feel sorry for several of you repliers to this blog. Maybe when I got out of college with a degree in chemical engineering in 1962 things were just simpler and easier. Y'all seem to be floundering with nowhere to go; unfortunately it is up to you to find a way to get out from the "flounder' and find the caviar---I believe y'all believe you will not find the caviar at the BUX. I wish I had an answer--y'all seem to be nice people just caught in a bad time in this country. Me--I'm retired now in Charleston,SC, told the SBUX manager to take her job and shove it and now do whatever I want in this southern paradise on my pension, my social security, and my investments (excluding the options I have on SBUX stock). I can only hope that all of you will look back when you are old and gray and only laugh at your respective current predicaments.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Thanks 5star, I hope so too. Best wishes in SC, enjoy.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Oh addendum - I get better paid than the people at the equivilent level at a hotel ($13.50 here versus $11 at a hotel and in theory if I can pick up supervisor shifts I can get another $3 an hour!)
All jobs have stuff that drives you nuts and really if you are working for someone else you there will always be kool-aid and corporate politics. This place allows me to rant about teh stupid so i can go do my job tomorrow in an appropriately professional manner!
Posted 4 years ago # -
Dear Farflung:
Halle-luuuuuuuuuujah to ihatestarbuckscom., for without it I'd be liable to slapabitch!Posted 4 years ago # -
Rant we must so that we can be happy little caffeine monkeys tomorrow. At one point today I looked into the trashcan, noticing all the banana peels. I said that it looked like we had a monkey farm. Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction, isn't it? I wish I could write a sign informing customers that bananas don't come in "sugar-free" IT'S A FSCKING FRESH REAL BANANA, you low-calorie artificial cow!
Posted 4 years ago # -
Oh my **** goodness, tell me about it. I had a customer who was 1step away from an eating disorder ask me to make the orange mango vivanno as low fat as possible. Wtf?!
Posted 4 years ago # -
I had this pleasure of having a customer (whom I infer suffered from an eating disorder) SCREAM at the top of her lungs at me when I told her that a sugar-free vanilla nonfat latte was called a "skinny vanilla." She informed me how INSENSITIVE I was, that I probably couldn't UNDERSTAND what THAT WORD does to people!
I politely thanked her for telling me this, since of course I was the one who had thought it up. I mean, I may only look like an apron wearing latte serving lowly employee of a megacorporation, but actually, I run the joint. That one cent at after the $2 on a grande drip? My idea. Discontinuing that syrup you loved? MY idea. And yes, I named sugarfree non-fat lattes "skinnies," just to make you angry.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Finally! I found the person in charge. myvelouria, I knew it was you making all these decisions. The rude customers at my store think it is me, now I can send them to you. Thanks! ;-)
Posted 4 years ago # -
FarFlung: You seem to be getting very excited about $14 per hour; that is worrisome. You did indicate that the possibility of lecturing at a university is a possible goal; I assume you have advanced degrees--just the plain old Bachelor degree is not a sure ticket to university tenure of any kind. I hope you have a long range plan that will allow you to achieve some sort of success--$14 an hour is NOT success, and, if the university scene is your thing, in today's world, a Bachelor degree is NOT success, it is a minimum requirement in most fields.
To all of you, I sense a lack of focus and commitment to anything that will put you on a track to some sort of career success; you tend to complain among yourselves about SBUX but it was your choice and you kind of sound resigned to it. Depending on where y'all live I would put impending success at anywhere from $50K and above as a starting salary. Rethink your goals and desires; I assume y'all are fairly young--do it now before time marches by.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Well said. My gray hairs are multiplying faster than rabbits as I waste away here. I feel, like many others, that I put time & effort into this job and just got stuck there. Playing the climb the company ladder game here has simply worn me out and made me BITTER and complacent.
I really hope that all of us here will find our way out of Howie's labyrinth and discover our own shangri-la.
Best of luck, everyone!
If we made it through this hellacious job, we can make it ANYWHERE!Posted 4 years ago # -
Not excited merely pointing out I'd be taking more nonsense for less money in the hotel industry than at the 'Bux. I have management experience in other fields but the school I want to teach at will only hire staff who have direct hospitality management experience. Getting what I need at Starbucks will take 2 -3 years as opposed to the 5 years + for hotel.
Oh and to get beyond "teaching assistant" here takes a PhD and very few positions are tentured. That said the school of hospitality at my choosen university is growing faster than the business school at this moment and has fewer competitors.
Ranting on the board is about maintaining sanity. This job is no better no worse than any other customer service job and sometimes you just have to blow off some steam about the things that happen when people have to deal with people!
Posted 4 years ago # -
You're right, Fivestarservice. I should just clean the damn toilets and shut up...until I leave this lame-**** job. But it's so much more fun to rant about this company and its wacky customers than it is to be all stoic about it. I'm usually a pretty patient person and customers here are really starting to get under my skin. I'm a pretty independent person, so when someone wants me to add five packets of splenda to thier drink because they're too damn lazy, it pisses me off. and then they don't tip. I need to get the hell out of this job before I have an aneurysm.
Posted 4 years ago # -
FarFlung: If you wanted a hospitality positiom in the hotel field coming out of school, you should have already been aware of the necessity to start at a level that would require sacrifice and midnight smiles. You have to stick to your game plan and not switch because of your perceived adversity--real or not. You will find almost all positions, even in the university setting, will have their share of crap; if you want to get ahead you have to stick to your guns, accept the bad realities, and just show them how competent you are. Switching from the hotel position to making coffee and expecting that to make you a hospitality star sounds like it is asking a lot. Working for SBUX, unless it is for parttime scheduled hours or benefits or even the thin chance that you will be the next "Howie", is menial labor at best (sorry if I offend anyone).
Posted 4 years ago # -
Those kind of customers remind me of those people who throw their trash on the floor, because someone else gets paid to pick it up.
Posted 4 years ago # -
5Star - oh the game plan got changed when the university restrructured half way through my degree and changed all the available positions and entry requirements. The no night shift thing is a doctors orders deal, my body will not cope. And actually I can get where I want to from here. It just takes some hard work and some lateral thinking.
The money actually isn't the issue. Success is the look on the new trainee's face when she realises she just mastered a task she was struggling with, a student coming and telling me they raised their grade after I tutored them. I had a $55K a year job, it was destroying my soul and I don't care if I die penniless. I am *not* stuck anywhere unless I chose to be!
Posted 4 years ago # -
i worked there 3 years and recently got fired for eating a brownie by last wage was 9.10 and hr and i was due for a raised/revieww back in may and never got it...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Ignore my previous post-it was meant for another blog topic!
Posted 4 years ago #
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