June 3, 2013 - decafckyou
Starbucks should reconsider their licensing
Hi everyone!
I worked for the god awful bullseye for almost 7 months and I am sooooooooo glad to finally be out. My experience started out great. I was coming from an equally crappy job, and ecstatic to work for target. I got hired before the store opened and got to help setup. At first, everything was great. My store leader was young and friendly, everyone in HR was friendly and nice, but things slowly and surely went to hell.
We trained for about a month before the grand opening. I was hired full time, since I wasn’t in school for the time being and was promised that I’d have consistent hours and would never work alone. (In my previous job I worked alot of shifts by myself and hated it). That was only the beginning of the lying and manipulation I had experienced. Anyway, during that first month of training and the first couple of weeks before the store opened, we only served team members as practice. Everything was great. I knew it wouldn’t stay that way after the store opened but I didn’t think it’d get so bad. The starbucks team in my store consisted of 10 people, ALL girls, all of us college aged and one 30 something who was cross training in softlines too. By the time I left they were down to 6 and borrowing people from other stores because they can’t keep anyone because my store was crap lol.
We were trained by a starbucks DM who speicifically said on many occasions we should never be working alone. For the first couple of weeks after opening, scheduling was awesome. All of us had our desired amount of hours, no one was working alone as promised, it was fine. We were busier than expected, the nearest target being 45 minutes away and we’re located at a mall entrance. Our business NEVER died down, even if the store as a whole lost sales because we are the only starbucks in the mall and around for a good 15 minutes. Well, no one cared obviously because our hours were cut in half. People were opening by themselves, closing by themselves, even had a single person pulling a shift BY THEMSELVES from 4-10 during our frappucino happy hour promotion. Our team lead, bless her soul, is amazing and I’m SO happy she too found another job. She stated many times she had tried to talk to the ETL-HR about our hours and he didn’t listen. She talked to tuest service ETL who was a total c word, she too didn’t listen in fact she said in front of me that if we can’t do it by ourselves it’s because we’re plain lazy. How can you accuse people who work by themselves ALL THE FKING TIME that we don’t work hard enough?! Are you kidding me?!? The STL who was her final resort that she talked to, told her that this is the way things had to be from now on. A girl on the team was pregnant and had a high risk pregnancy so it was understandable that she’d call off every now and then. She got fired for too many call offs. I get a call from someone from HR to come in on my day off because everyone else was unavailable (there weren’t too many of us with daytime availability because most of us are in college and have class). So I say sure, I come in. I offer to come in at 10, only to find I’ll be working by myself until 4:30 because our TL had other things to do. On my way out that day I got asked if I had talked to one of the cashiers that I was friends with. I said no, someone informed me that his sister had got into a car accident and he couldn’t come in. The front lanes were REALLY busy and theyre already short on cashiers as is so I knew what was coming and I again, agreed to stay . I ended up pulling a 12 10-10 hour shift because I stayed for him. The GSTL said she checked my hours before she changed me in the schedule let me stay but I guess not because the next time I came in I got a nice coaching from the HR lady and the ETL-HR. I get in trouble because I helped cover on a day that we were busy as all hell? On my day off? A thank you would have been nice!
The LOD’s at that store are ridiculous. The older ones are bitter and rude and even though they know nothing about what starbucks is like, assume if you’re not rushing through a line fast enough that you’re lazy. Well I’m sorry that we only have ONE blender, ONE espresso machine, limited supplies and only one person to work bar, register, clean guest seating, and take our own trash out. The cart attendants in the beginning were in charge of our trash and cleaning guest seating since we were so busy, but then suddenly were told they’d be coached and written up for doing so because we’re lazy and can do it ourselves.
I am not afraid of germs. I’m not lazy and have NO PROBLEM cleaning guest seating and taking my own trash to the back,, but where would I find time to do this if I’m the only person working?! What am I supposed to do close starbucks for 10 minutes while I collect the trash and take it to the back room? I was written up the first time for having a cart attendant come and collect my trash during frappucino happy hour when I was working by myself. He wasn’t busy, he offered and I Was thankful. He was coached for helping me and I was written up for not following directions because I accepted some help. You’ve gotta be kidding me. I couldn’t let the trash overflow and let the place be disgusting, so I put the trash in the back by the door where no one could see it (as we had done in the past, the cart attendants would just take it from there) and I was then written up AGAIN. And coached.
Closing is always the hardest shift at starbucks because we only have an hour to close and have to share a dishwasher and sink with food ave. Therefore, even if we do get the outside done we still have to wait at least an hour for the food ave person (they closed by themselves often too) to get done with their dishes because it was often a minor closing by themselves and they had a TON of dishes. So One night, I was closing by myself of course and our TL had told us on nights we were busy and working alone to start preclosing around 8pm. (we close an hour before the store so starbucks closed at 9pm) I was busy the whole night and I began taking dishes back around 8 that weren’t being used, like the coffee grinder containers and etc. 10 minutes before we closed we finally died down and I thought it would stay that way for the night so I took the blender shield and the blender pitchers back. A lady comes in with 4 teenagers and they ALL get frappucinos. I apologized and said I couldn’t make them because everything was already in the back and we close in 10 minutes. She swore at me, threw a hissy fit, and ended up going to guest service and getting an LOD. The LOD comes over and yells at me for doing what I was told by my TL. I was then coached the next day. I closed again the following night, same closing LOD, I did what she said and didn’t start taking things back until 9pm when we were scheduled to close and ended up staying a half hour past the time I was supposed to leave and still didn’t get everything done because they chased me out of there since I was close to going into compliance. I left a pile of dishes I didn’t get to for my poor TL who opened in the morning. She understood though thank god.
Target is not worth AT ALL the aggravation they put you through. I was constantly stressed out and worried about losing my job. My hours get cut in half, I still come in whenever I’m called in and I get treated like that? NO ONE can live off of 15 hours a week. I’m a young mom with a daughter to support who’s trying to save up to move out of my parents house and stop using their money. At first when I was getting the hours I actually applied for everything was fine. After? Those 15 hours a week I got went nowhere. After I filled up my gas tank I barely had enough to buy my baby diapers.
They don’t care about you. They make it seem like they do, everything is kosher until a few months in and after your 90 days is up if you’re still there you can forget about being treated with any kind of diginity and respect. These people, this company, they think they own you. Well newsflash they don’t. I got a job at a corporate starbucks a few weeks ago and love it. I’m getting the hours I deserve, I work with great people who actually appreciate how hard I work, and I don’t have to worry about rude ETL’s and LOD’s and none of that alphabet garbage breathing down my neck and labeling me as lazy.
Starbucks needs to be made aware of the way that their company is being portrayed by the people they license to i.e target. The way we are scheduled really affects our guest service and quality of the drinks that get made because when you work by yourself you get desperate. You have people breathing down you back telling you you’re lazy, not to mention the guests who just want their drink and to get out of there. If I was just a regular person who never worked for target and went into target and got something from starbucks and witnessed the conditions I’d assume they were all like that and they’d never get my business. I know I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
Do yourself a favor, do NOT WORK FOR TARGET!!!!!!!!!! The day I put in my two weeks was seriously one of the most relieving and happiest days I’ve had in a while. I’m sure McDonalds treats their employees better. Target is pathetic. F spot.
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I'm not sure, but this might be the longest rant yet. It's hard to tell, I didn't actually read it. 🙂
The employees at our Starbucks have much the same experience. The front end ETL is constantly up their ass with nothing constructive to add. Five members quit in the same week - theyre trying to fill the spots now.