I’ll never forget working at a local coffee shop during college and being told this job was a “fun job” for “fun money.” The trick is I actually loved my job and my managers before the pandemic. When they reopened after COVID they bumped our wages up to $15 and told us to stop taking tips. I was cool with this until I realized that online orders still had a tip option and people were leaving big tips to support the baristas and this money was going straight back into the business. I called out this practice multiple times as dishonest and shitty and was basically told to fuck off. I was told that customers “knew” that the tips weren’t going to baristas even though it didn’t say that anywhere on the website. I also knew this was a lie because when people ordered on the phone and asked to leave a tip I would mention that we were being paid a living wage and any money left as a tip wouldn’t be going to baristas but instead to support the business and almost every person was like oh okay and then didn’t want to tip. I always told management that either they needed to hand over the tips or stop taking them altogether. During a staff meeting one manager said that anyone wanting to have both tips and a living wage was greedy, a comment directly pointed at me.
So anyway I get fired after 2 years of really being awesome at that job after I started to organize my coworkers to complain about this. There was always a 3 strike policy in the employee handbook and then fired me after something really small even though I had no previous strikes. Cut to 2 years later and the business is being dragged on Facebook, google reviews, and my college newspaper is writing an article about how shitty management is based on other worker experiences. VINDICATION!
I always feel a little awkward about this story because at the end of the day I was making $15 and I genuinely loved my managers and staff before causing this ruckus. BUT at the end of the day manipulating a bunch of college students and taking advantage of the community during peak COVID was too much.