What are your pet peeves, either with the customers, or with your fellow baristas?
I have a whole list of them, but my main ones mostly focus on the partners.
1. At my store, apparently it's become the new /trend/ to put any caramel pouches that still have caramel sauce still in them after you've filled all of the caramel bottles into a venti iced cup. I understand that you don't want to waste it, but every single time I find that damned up, there's a layer of caramel sauce that's leaked to the bottom of the cup, creating a sticky mess.
2. PULL THE **** DT STICKERS. A few partners usually just look at the sticker, and then start making the drink, and then another partner, IE me, pulls that sticker and starts to make it. Then when I put that drink down, I hear "Oh, I already made it" which leads me into an very lengthy dialogue about how pulling the sticker reduces confusion, waste, and all that. It truly makes me livid, especially on labor day weekend, because the DT was backed up because /someone/ didn't pull any of her stickers, leading me to make drinks that didn't need to be made.
3. I'm not sure if all stores have this, but in my store we have this rinsing fountain that is used to clean our pitchers. People just.. leave them on the rinse, with the mindset "I'll clean it when I'm done", no you're not. You never do.
4. Shortcuts. Some of them I understand, like multiple frappuccinos in one blender, not standard, but useful. Others.. like not wiping off the milk from the steam wand, especially if it's a soy drink annoys me.
5. COMMUNICATION. Everyone that works for the Bux knows that communication is key to success, but you have to verbally communicate it to your fellow barista. If you have a 13 minute wait time in DT, and you need help, don't wait until someone goes over to see your wait time to go "HOLY ****".
6. Listen to me! Do not, and I mean /do not/ decide that I need help on bar if I really do not need the help, and you have something else to focus on. If I say "Hey, can you clean your mess so I don't have to?" could you at least /try/? Just, over all, just.. listen to requests...
7. If you're near the oven and it goes off, stop being lazy, take the thing out of the oven, and at least try to put it in a bag. It takes 2 seconds. Don't just open it and walk away, wtf?
8. Empty whips. If a whip cream is empty.. do not put it back in the fridge, why would you do that?
Sorry, my little pet peeves led into rants, but these things really set me off. Especially today... horrible.