Okay, so unfortunately with my first ever full time job, that being Starbucks I can say that I’ve unfortunately have had perhaps one of the worst working experiences mainly due to incompetent and highly disrespectful managers I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with.
Because I won’t let this slide, allow me to provide my testimony and why you should avoid working for Starbucks.
Before I get started let me state one thing first, this Starbucks was dishonest to me right from the start. How do? Well during the interview I was supposed to be working the afternoon shift so I can acquire training then be moved to the morning shift once a 2 weeks of training was done. Well they went back on that and instead scheduled me for the morning shift as a ROOKIE, keep in mind the morning shift is the busiest shift at a Starbucks due to the high traffic of people coming in for breakfast. So I was barely even able to acquire any sort of meaningful training due to being put in a shift where rushes happen for the first 3 hours meaning no one was able to show me or properly teach me anything about the store such as how to work the register, know where certain foods and items are for customers etc. Even during the moments where I was taught basic procedures it was done in such a fast manner I was unable to even properly memorize or even practice what was taught to me.
Next the main issue I had with this Starbucks and it’s management is the managers themselves, they are perhaps one of the most condescending managers I’ve ever had the displeasure to work with. One a middle aged man, the other an old woman. The middle aged shift supervisor was constantly passive aggressive towards the employees, constantly speaking in a way that sounded brash, rude and overall aggressive if an employee did something wrong slightly or didn’t do specifically what he wanted them to do. The old woman was far too caught up in the “customers first” dogma over treating her own employees well, I’ve seen her snap and yell at the employees (including myself) when they attempted to bring conversation when it came to needing help or an issue she found with the employee. I was talked to from the managers twice before being fired (which in the end I was planning on not staying any longer as is). First time was regarding my performance to which I told them my issues were mainly the fact I still don’t know certain things that would allow me to catch with everyone once properly learned and that I needed assistance on certain task due to this. Their response was “stop making excuses we don’t babysit”. I’ve never heard such a audacious and asinine claim that essentially entails telling an employee who wants to improve should essentially learn everything by themselves with zero help. Even when I attempted to learn on my own, my managers would chastise me and say “you should be doing something else, not this”. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the managers job to properly train a new employee before properly evaluating performance? So not only we’re the managers being unfair towards me, they were unwilling to even assist me in the areas I needed help due to lack of knowledge. I was fired today due to being fed up of being mistreated and talking back to my manager, which like I said I was planning on jumping ship soon anyway due to all the red flags I was dealing with.
Now I am unemployed as I left Publix to work full time for Starbucks and was granted perhaps one of the worst working experiences ever for a full time job. I advise everyone to support unions (especially ones regarding Starbucks) or to boycott Starbucks for their treatment of their employees. What happened to me was extremely unfair when I did my absolute best despite the setbacks and poor training. I wish anyone who currently works at Starbucks that they’ll eventually find better opportunities, join unions so that they don’t end up being mistreated and ultimately create some form of reform within this rotten company. To anyone wishing to apply for Starbucks, either join a union first before doing so or look somewhere better. Avoid any stores/companies for that matter that treat their employees like this at all cost.