Has your manager ever... « I Hate Starbucks

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Has your manager ever...

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Started 10 months ago by CafeLoveRoast17
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CafeLoveRoast17

Member
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made a really stupid rule or made one of their own and tried to pass it off as a 'Starbucks Rule'?

My manager is very bad, so bad that we have the DM involved but one thing that I've noticed lately is that she makes rules of her own and then tries to pass it off as a Starbucks rule or makes absolute rules without any notice.

A few that I DON'T agree with are:

1. Telling us Starbucks needs us to organize our milks in our bar and CBS refrigerators a certain way: non fat on the top shelve and two whole milks and rest 2% on the bottom. It doesn't make any sense to constantly have to bend over for 2% and whole milk. We used to have all three on both shelves but since 'Starbucks' wants it this way, we have to. (It screams BS)

2. We have to hand off the drink on the 'hand off table', never on the shelf near it even if the person is waiting and about to reach over and take it from you. I think it's rude to just ignore the person and walk a few feet over and put it down. Supposedly we are supposed to 'connect' with them at the table ONLY.

3. Absolutely NO sharing tills. My manager told me that you can get fired on the spot if you share a till because it's considered stealing. I don't think she's lying or anything but that seems ridiculous to me that you can get fired on the spot for that. And I feel bad for shift supervisors that have to count out all that money every night.

4. This one is that **** me off today and so far I'm only one of two that thinks it's stupid. We always used to be able to have a drink and maybe a snack from the case while we were working and most of us except for maybe one person did it discretely in the corner mostly out of sight. But now my manager said no more because I guess customers were complaining which I understand, that is if she's not lying about this. But I don't see why she can't go to partners and make sure they aren't abusing the rule. It doesn't seem that hard, pretty reasonable if you ask me.

Edited to add: 5. My manager said that we have to brew all four coffees all night long. Now I don't really mind it but one of my favorite shifts always got rid of pikes at a certain time and then an hour later decaf would be gone. But from reading the posts here it seems like it's not true that all Starbucks are doing this, and seems to just be a rule that my manager tries to enforce.

Does anyone else have any stories?

Posted 10 months ago #

Magical rainbow ponies
notpikespeak

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Internets:285

The first two are pretty stupid but the last two are understandable. My store isn't too strict on sharing tills because most of us don't really do it, but some stores, especially those that are having problems with tills being off, are very strict. I've worked in other stores where till sharing is absolutely not allowed and some stores where you'll be fired on the spot for it. When my store has had problems with tills being off, it gets very strict for a little while until the problem is resolved.

As for the last one, no food or beverages are ever supposed to be on the floor. If QASA ever saw it, you'd fail the audit. When customers see it, it looks really bad. It's safest to just keep food and water in the back.

Posted 10 months ago #
CafeLoveRoast17

Member
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Well our store is very small, we don't have a 'back' only a downstairs and upstairs we have a corner and a wall which is pretty hidden where our ice and walk in is.

Posted 10 months ago #

Register
Dry Sharpie

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1. Anything goes for the big fridge. Some days, you'll find all of the breakfast, RTD/E, cream cheese and milks, all crammed into whatever nook and cranny is available.

The most important thing for the fridge is "rotating" the products. This is to make sure the older milks, etc. get used first, while the newer stuff are saved until they become tomorrow's old items.

And it's nice to have an organized system. I agree with the notion that your SM has. If you don't like your SM, go passive-aggressive and put the 2% and whole milk in a more accessible location.

2. If the customer is in front of you, obviously don't walk away from them and place their drink elsewhere. But your SM is trying to instill some conformity in customer service. Most likely, everyone's crowding around the espresso machine counter and cutting off the customer traffic flow. That's a possibility. Use your discretion.

3. Absolutely no sharing tills. If someone's till comes up $20 short, guess whose fault it is? The person who is using that till. "But so and so was sharing my till!" Okay, now both of you deserve a written corrective action. No sharing tills! If you have one, use your own! If you don't, ringing up customers is not your problem!

4. Eating and drinking on the floor has three issues: It is unprofessional. Imagine trying to order a drink, but the barista is on the side munching on some food. You'd also find it rude if the barista was distracted with eating/drinking, while talking with their mouth full. If you're hot, I understand.
Issue two is Ecosure. Food allergen cross-contamination, exposed food/drinks attracts pests, etc.
Issue three is the potential for abuse. A partner who has food/drink on the side, will immediately start noshing the moment the customers disappear. Everyone's eating and drinking, instead of working.

Posted 10 months ago #
CafeLoveRoast17

Member
Internets:342

@ Dry Sharpie,

1. I do rotate it back whenever I'm on bar and she always changes it. I just don't see the sense in making it a rule especially because it's no non important. The person on bar should decide what they think is best.

About number for the operative word was NOT abusing it and being discrete and since all except for ONE partner that she refuses to correct her behavior for whatever reason, knows how to handle it. My manager hasn't even tried to make her more professional. She also texts right at the register.

Posted 10 months ago #
greenthingy

Member
Internets:31

i don't know about the first one, but the rest are all true. your manager has exaggerated the consequences but these are, in fact, starbucks standards.

Posted 10 months ago #
CafeLoveRoast17

Member
Internets:342

No one has answered my question lol....

Posted 10 months ago #

Magical rainbow ponies
baristolad

Member
Internets:139

I'm pretty sure they're some variation of the actual standards. Those're mostly how it is at my store, except some shifts are looser than others. For us milks are the caraffe/whip, lactaid, and whole ones on the top shelf, nonfat on the second, and 2% on the bottom. RTD&E bin's on the other side of the top shelf, day before sandwiches are on the second, partner lunch box is on the bottom. It's organized and efficient and everything is smoother than I imagine it would be if things were all over the place like you prefer. We only hand off drinks on the shelf if the hand off plateau is full, sticky, etc, or if it's someone's food or brewed coffee, and they're at till or in the loo. We try to discourage sharing tills. If there is an instarush and someone's already got a till, but they're on break or busy, and it's logged in and everything, we'll use it for the first transaction and sign into our own after. Seeerious lectures if you're just too lazy to assign your own, though. Food's daily/often et on the floor, but drinks all to the back. We do our best to hide it, though, behind the pastry case and out of view. We also have newspapers up there. Honestly, I'm sure it varies store to store/SM to SM, but most will have variations of your stated rules.

Posted 10 months ago #
Vaneera-rattay

Member
Internets:550

Everything is dependent on your SM and DM. They have ultimate control of your day-to-day operations. We only brew Pike after 2pm. Literally. If you want decaf, we will do a pour over. Otherwise, we don't have any blonde or bold. That's our area standard based on popularity (or unpopularity of certain coffees as it were). There are stupid rules everywhere and each store is unique in its own way.

Posted 10 months ago #
VentingSM

Member
Internets:16

I hate to rain on your parade here my fellow partner, but there is a lot of validity to the rules that you've posted above. Let me provide some context.

1. Starbucks does have company made schematics for all sized refrigerators in the store. Much like BR2, Frappuccino routine, IMS routine etc, this is to allow for a smooth transition and comfortable work environment for new and transferred in baristas. In a perfect world, I should be able to walk into any Starbucks and be able to automatically know where each type of milk is stored and where I can pull whip creams from etc. Additionally, DT stores have a schematic of all RTD&E items that are listed on our menu boards that is supposed to be posted on the refrigerator to prevent additional movement if there is an item requested. These are all posted on the portal.

2. This is correct. Per Starbucks policy and procedures you're never to hand a drink directly to customers with the exception being DT. The proximity of the customers face and the opportunity for the drink to fall, splash and spill on the customer is too high. The drink is supposed to be set down, you release grip from it, and the customer takes it. DT is the exception due to height distance and if I drink should fall, more often than not the distance between the fall and the height of most cars, no splashes would actually hit the customer. This is furthered by the fact that you hand drinks off outside the window rather than inside the car.

3. Cash handling violations are a big no no. Your SM is correct. If you share your till, nothing prevents me from walking up, tendering some fake transactions while you're hiding out in your little corner eating a donut and drinking water like a baby troll, and stealing a bunch of money. After you get "caught", you lose your job and have little to no chance getting a job working with money again.

4. It's already been mentioned above, but it's unprofessional, health code violation and a QASA violation.

5. True to certain extent. Depending on the market and surrounding stores, this could change over night. Some stores sell brewed coffee all day long. To give you an example, my previous store would need to brewed dark, medium and blonde at half batches all the way through the day. It was insane. However, we had a school down the road and we would constantly get hit-up for coffee. Now, thinking about the proximity of that store to some other stores, customers should have the opportunity to go into any store near mine and get the same type of service. These things can be market dependent, density of neighboring stores and what focus the SMs & DMs are placing on said market.

Posted 10 months ago #
CafeLoveRoast17

Member
Internets:342

I hate to be a **** but seriously, I already knew most of these things and no one really answered my question. I didn't need a lesson on Starbucks and I even mentioned that I understood why some were rules.

I think that its ridiculous to blindly accept things. Of course I've never purposely NOT done things just to spite my manager, with the exception of the placement of the milks because that to me is just plain ridiculous and my manager as yet to correct me. But I think as intelligent people, one can form their own opinion on things without just being told 'It's a rule therefore you must think it's great'. I'm not a drone and neither should anyone else be.

Posted 9 months ago #
IceandSlice

Member
Internets:64

Cafeloveroast my experience was that my manager decided to change what undershirt colours we can wear, I usually in the winter wear white under black sometimes grey if my white was dirty, grey was a big no no apparently and it could only be white or black under tops, me being a smart **** replies:I am wearing both white and black, grey is a shade not a colour......WRONG ANSWER LOL needless to say I wore my white under top always after that.

Posted 9 months ago #
coffeechick

Member
Internets:153

Your question: "Has your manager made a really stupid rule or made one of their own and tried to pass it off as a 'Starbucks Rule'?"

Your examples include 'rules' that do have backing by Starbucks as others have pointed out. Therefore, your examples do not answer your own question.

#edit
My example: my old SM told us Starbucks required all pre-close to start after 5pm.

Posted 9 months ago #
CafeLoveRoast17

Member
Internets:342

And if you read, I said that I understood them and knew that some of them were actual rules. It was a general, open ended question and I can't help if people inferred incorrectly. Again not trying to be rude.

Posted 9 months ago #
Human Soul Frappucino

Member
Internets:477

@IceandSlice Technically, the dress code is only same colored undershirts as shirts. So black undershirts with black shirts and white undershirts with white shirts only. I used to wear black/white until our SM printed out the dress code and made all of us sign it. It's stupid and nitpicky and I hate Starbucks.

Posted 9 months ago #
IceandSlice

Member
Internets:64

Ohhh yeah I had an SS do that to me today, only problem is here, I raised a stink here because we have uniform allowance laws which state that if a uniform is mandatory it must be paid for by the company which starbucks doesnt abide by, that my DM effectovely gave me personal permission to do it...my SS called him and he told her outright don't go there re:uniform....I hate starbucks....I love knowing my rights

Posted 9 months ago #
Human Soul Frappucino

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Hurrah, you've won a battle for your brethren!

Posted 9 months ago #
Bitter_Latte

Member
Internets:85

@cafelove

One of my SM had us walk out warmed up stuff from the oven to the customers in the lobby. Even during the morning rush when there was more than 10 items to warm...when there was coffee to brew....blah blah blah. When our next manager came in she put a stop to it.

One manager did not want us to put the milk carafes into the sanitize machine because the description sticker COULD fall off. No one would properly wash, rinse and sanitize the carafes in the right temp water and I found the whole thing disgusting.

Posted 9 months ago #
Señor Cardgage

Moderator
Internets:1,251

Iceandslice is doin' pretty good puttin' us on the scoreboard.

I'll walk stuff out if I have time. If they're getting their warmed food items (or just food items in general) on plates, I'll give them that preferential treatment as best I can if only because, like the shill I am, I still want to encourage sales. Regular customers and a cafe of customers sitting around and enjoying our amenities subtly increases sales- people see see other people sticking around and want to be part of that in-crowd, I guess. This job would be great if not for the customers, but sadly customers keep us in business. whatevz.

@Bitter_Latte but .. the three compartment sink is a thing of beauty, and light, and music. Oh wait, it's normally piled four feet high with dishes in all three compartments. lolololo

Posted 9 months ago #
Bitter_Latte

Member
Internets:85

Ugh! and with a dishwasher there is no reason for the piles of dishes!!! And yet IT HAPPENS!!!

Sorry...huge pet peeve of mine. grrr!

Posted 9 months ago #
hazellia_toffee

Member
Internets:78

This is giving me flashbacks to the store I worked at that never used its dishwasher (to be fair it was quite a trek from the store... but still). Boy were those carafes slimy. Boy did my hands mutate into pasty throbbing octopi-like blobs. The worst.

Posted 9 months ago #
Human Soul Frappucino

Member
Internets:477

The Hobart is technically a sanitizer, not a dish washer, which is why it still takes good old fashioned scrubbing to get all the dishes clean and grime-free. Also why if you put in a dirty dish with coffee grounds or crumbs it will evenly distribute the gunk among all the dishes in that load. I don't mind taking my time to make sure dishes are squeaky spotless because that's less time I have to deal with customers or making frappuccinos.

There really isn't a way around the huge pile of dishes unless the supervisors (both AM and PM) make it a priority to keep an eye on dirty dish levels and do them every few hours. If anything, the trick is to always have the wash sink filled with solution from the blue hose so that you can drop some dishes in and let the chemicals/hot water do the crud-loosening for you.

Posted 9 months ago #
stranger

Member
Internets:436

This is a little different, but: I had a manager who would change the recipes, then take away the recipe cards so we couldn't contradict him.

Posted 9 months ago #

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