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What's the longest you've ever gone without taking a day off?

You guys, I'm very upset and I think that you're probably the only ones that will really understand.

See, I love my job. I go to work excited almost every time and I really do enjoy myself when I'm working. I think I'm pretty good at what I do, I love talking to people all day long, and I take pride in wearing the green apron.
Almost the entire crew opened the store, including myself. We all got the same grueling 2 week training. Our store is very low volume, we serve mainly the military and contractors.

I'm having a very big problem with hours being cut. Our store hours have changed, we aren't making enough money (according to our DM) and everyone's hours have been cut. You know, I'm okay with that. I understand that.
Buuuuut, here is the problem.
There are two older woman, early 40's, and I'm not trying to bash older baristas but these woman cannot keep up with the rest of us. They can't multitask, frankly they suck at hot bar, and there are a multitude of other problems concerning them.
Well when hours were cut these two woman went directly to our DM and cried about how they need more hours. I mean they literally cried. Threw themselves on the floor sobbing, red faced, make up running, and told him they could not survive with the cut hours and they NEEDED more.
So they got more. From the other baristas. So not only did I and my fellow coworkers get our hours cut, but then they were cut AGAIN and more hours were given to these two woman who dont know what the hell they are doing.

You know, I understand that they have kids and families and bills to pay but hey. So do I. I've got a toddler and I'm putting myself through college and bills to pay blah blah blah. Luckily I moved back in with my parents so I dont have to pay rent. One of my friends, on the other hand, is in the same situation but he's providing housing for his girlfriend and son and he truely is on his own and is using this job to provide fully for himself and his family.

Not only that, but when I think about my customers, the people I got to know on the shifts that were taken away from me, getting wrongly made drinks it absolutely makes me cringe.

I feel like because I've done everything right, done the right chain of command when there are complaints and never made a fuss when things didn't go my way, I'm being taken advantage of. I feel like, you know, I should go and talk to our DM and maybe I wont be given the shaft. We have a partner meeting coming up on sunday where we're all going to get together and just talk about whats going on in the store. I really want to talk about this because its something that I feel is very wrong. And its not just me but no one wants to deal with these crazy banshees and have to put up with their screaming and crying.

Should I bring this up? I've heard from the rumor mill that these too ladies might be getting fired soon and my friend says I should just put up with it until then but I dont know if that's true or not.

I have the opportunity to talk openly about it but I'm not quite sure how to even bring up the subject without lashing out because of all my frustrations.

So I left early (legitimately) sick on Monday (went to the doc, turned out I had a sinus infection)
I hadn't been back in the store til today....
And guess what we had??!?!?!?
Counter space!!!!
Why?
Because that m*&#(#()#YI$)(@)ing Sorbetto machine is *finally* gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I don't know if there are any partners in the community from the store by the Paseo Colorado mall in Pasadena, California, buuuut...

I just got off the phone with the ASM there. See, I was in town (Alllll the way from South Carolina, wut) about a month and a half ago, and I'd been meaning to make the call for a while to give a great, big thank you to all the partners there!

I was in town for a week for Botcon 2009 (because I'm a huge Transformers nerd, you see) and the store in question is very close to the convention center. As a result, it stayed SLAMMED for the duration of the convention. Apparently, none of the partners there were aware of what was coming, but despite all that, they remained AMAZING! There really aren't words for how great the store was--Legendary service, perfect drinks, an amazingly clean store; it was like a little slice of home over 2000 miles away!

I told the ASM to pass on my praises to everyone who works there, and asked him for a favor while I was at it. There was a partner whose name I never got, who may have been a shift, I'm not sure, who was there on the first and the last day I was in town, and on the last day he remembered me and my friends, and told us we were the first Botconners he'd seen, and laughed about how he thought I was joking when I said there were literally thousands more of us on the way. He remembered I was a partner, and was just generally great. Young guy, somewhat scruffy blonde hair, average height, maybe in his early 20s? If anyone out there works at the store in question or near it and knows who I'm talking about, I still don't know his name, BUT!

I asked the ASM (who knew who I was talking about soon as I described him) if he would write up a MUG award for the partner in question who really helped make a part of my trip enjoyable and memorable. He said he would! So we said it was from "Harmony, the partner from Botcon!" and I can now say I've given a MUG award allll the way from Myrtle Beach, SC to Pasadena, CA. Long distance love!

The ASM was stunned I took the time to call and said I made his day. :)

Any partners who happen to work at the store in question:

You guys are really, truly amazing! :D <33333

Is anybody else aware of gold cards being discontinued?

The other day one of our employees wanted to purchase one for a relative, only we couldn't ring it up. Scanning the booklet and typing in the SKU was just coming up with an "invalid SKU" prompt. After trying several times on two different registers, one of the other shifts called another store to find out if they were able to ring one up. They told her that the cards had been discontinued.

Maybe this is common knowledge, I don't know, but nobody in our store knew about it, and our manager hadn't (and still hasn't) said anything about it. Are they gone forever, are they re-doing them or something? I didn't see anything on the portal about this either.

As annoying as it can get repeating yourself over and over about the treat receipt, does anyone else get a smile on their face when you tell someone who doens't know about it and they get really, genuinely happy? I found that kind of made my shift the other day, seeing people's smiles.

Also, we had an older gentleman come in the other day, while I was working on bar. He was nice and friendly and started chatting to me. At first I didn't catch what he was saying, but he was talking about my personality. He said, "you like to take on big projects, don't you?" He also correctly deduced my slight OCD-ness and perfectionism.

He just kept going on for a little while, and then was like, "oh, well I must be going." Apparently he did the same thing to the partner who rung him up. It was strange, but now I want him to come back and analyze all the partners at our store.

Good people of GTA!

Any chance your store still carry those black and white mugs you can bake?!

This lady bought all of them from our store as well as from others around.
oh life...

Thank you very much in advance!!!

So, yesterday afternoon I hopped over from my main job next door to my store to get some phone numbers to try to find someone to cover my shift for me today (which didn't work out, so boo on that), and when I go into the office and sit at the desk behind my SM (who loves me to death, bless him), he laughs softly and goes "Careful! I'm firing people!"

I lol, because there's been a fair bit of drama in our store as of late, including some stuff I don't approve of at all (hello, forcibly transferring one of my best friends and a fellow closer, who was an amazing partner on bar! D:<) so I figured he was joking.

Turns out, he wasn't.

( Read more... )

On a somewhat more lulzy note: My store, what with being fairly new and all, isn't due to get our Mastrenas for another year and a half or so. The other two stores in the area already have theirs.

Our machines have taken to SCREAMING after pulling shots. Today, SS N and I agreed on something for the first time in FOREVER, and decided that this is the Verissimo Wail O' Death. We spent the afternoon mocking the Gods-awful "SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" sound. Customers stared and lol'ed. One of the newbie Partners is now even more thoroughly convinced that, beneath the MMA Fighting and the insane amount of tattoos and the love for toy robots, I am completely insane.

Hurrah.

so I've been away in new zealand for the past 3 weeks and tomorrow i start working (one day after i get back- hello jetlag). how are the new yogurt vivano things going? are they a pain in the ass? and how easy has it been switching to the cadence thing? also who else got the metered dipper wells and how is the spoon transition going??

fill me in guys

We have this regular. I don't know her name but she has become Entitled Drive Through Bitch #1 in my mind. She never comes inside. This is her order:

Tall caramel macchiato
-half breve, half nonfat
-two pumps WM
-1 pump TN
-extra hot
-extra drizzle

For some reason, my manager insists we do not charge her for any of the modifiers, not the breve, not the extra syrups. As far as I know, she doesn't work for the company. I "overcharged" her once, never having dealt with her before, and she threw a hissy fit that delayed the people in line behind her for nearly 5 minutes.

On a "good day" with EDTB1, she holds up the line by making more demands: napkins, splash sticks, a different sleeve "because this one is wet," more caramel sauce, etc.

I do not know what EDTB1 has over my boss that ensures she pays only $4 for a drink that any other customer would have to pay nearly $6 for. It really pisses me off, and I know it wouldn't if she weren't such a fucking princess. I don't know how this status quo began, but it irks me terribly.

Tonight, after close, my store will be receiving our new Mastrenas! This is beyond exciting because our current machines are really old, and have the worst track record. Even better, I am the opener tomorrow, so I get to be the first person to use the new machines (before any of my other partners make a mess of it). I've used the mastrenas once before when i worked in a nearby store, and I've watched the training video, but do you guys have any tips for me on our first day together?

Those of you who are supervisors, how long were you working as a barista until you became one?

Sooo I covered a girl's shift today on my day off because shes been sick. Right when I clock on it is pretty chaotic. I find the shift and am assigned to DT reg. Lucky for me, my first customer is a women who orders a tall vanilla latte with extra chocolate drizzle on top. Now... since chocolate is not in the recipe... we charge right ?? Apparently not. This lady thought I was speaking another language when I gave her her total. Not only was she outraged with me... when I kindly explained the reason for the total... but she was on her cell phone during this conversation which made explaining anything close to impossible. Sooo she claimed she's NEVER paid for it... yadda yadda... and I had no choice but to ring it up as just the tall vanilla latte. Whatever... I really didn't care but her outlandish response made me think I wasn't the first to charge her. Do we charge??

BUT, BUT, BUT there's a shift in my store who has no idea what is floor appropriate conversation nor a clue about respect and dignity and has been talking to everyone like dirt for MONTHS.

He's demoting and transferring! AND WE GET HIS HOURS! HOURS HAVE RETURNED TO MY STORE!

Yes, I actually called another shift at my store to tell him and yes we both responded this way which should clue people in to the fact that it was bad.

We have a shift at my store...and every time she does the deposit, money is missing. $10-$15 each time. It can never be found either. She also cant handle anything if undr pressure. She runs to the back to cry. Pretty much the whole store has expressed to our SM that she needs to go. He disagrees. In fact, he left her in charge of payroll, so he could have an extra long weekend. I felt VERY uncomfortable with that.

Just wondering what all the store are doing for today, our store is actually celebrating it for a week, and each shift has a day assigned to them to do something special for everyone. Then on sunday night we are doing an Amazing race through our city. gonna be so much fun


whats everyone else up to

 

( The favourite barista who can't even make cold drinks... )

So.. um.. hey. Just curious.

Where do you keep your partner markouts?

Mine? LOL.

( I think I need a new hiding spot. )

Post a photo of where you keep yours!

We have this costumer who comes into our store every morning. He is an older gentleman and he irritates me to no end. He will come to my register and insist that he orders the following beverage "all the time at this store," which is true! But I work five mornings a week, he does not need to inform me of this every day. Then he proceeds to order a "short coffee, but put it into a tall cup and fill it the rest of the way with foam." -_-

This is, obviously, a tall all-foam misto. In the morning, it is not a big deal to give him this beverage and charge him for a short coffee (even though he should be paying for a tall misto). We always have plenty of milk steamed so there's always some foam to scoop somewhere. If he comes in the afternoon, though, or after peak, it is a problem. I have to steam milk just for his foam, which he has not paid for, and listen to him prattle on about how so-and-so makes his drink so perfect and couldn't I make sure his foam is extra dense? You know, the foam he hasn't paid for.

My manager, I don't know what her problem is, but she bends over backwards to accommodate this guy. So we have to deal with him. I don't get it, I don't like it, and it makes me very angry.

( Hey..hey Mr. Starbucks  )

( Maybe another rant..they all blend in nowadays.. )