elegancewaves ([info]elegancewaves) wrote in [info]baristas,
@ 2008-05-08 10:42:00
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Ranting/Barista being a jerkface/Me being a jerkface
 So anyone remember the post I made a few days ago, where a girl called in sick on Saturday after a night of drinking and I had to cancel plans to come in early, and she got mad at me because I confronted her?

Well anyway, she's still mad, because I refuse to apologize for something when I didn't do anything wrong. I know, we're both being entirely immature, but seriously this girl needs to learn she can't get away with everything because thats how people have been letting it slide. She's been on her "last string" with my SM and DM for at least a year now, and she calls in sick at least once a week, and still nothing's happening.

So comes Tuesday night. I'm the closing supervisor, and she's one of three other baristas closing with me. She refused to speak to me at all, and when she did, it was a grunt to acknowledge that she heard what I said. I stuck her on R1, because nobody ever puts her there because they don't want to hear her complaining, and so I figure since I don't CARE if she complains, she can have fun doing it. Everyone hates R1, and I mean everyone, so every night with every supervisor its usually a quest of determining which partner will complain about it less. She loathes it more than anyone, so she actually asked me "Will I be on R1 ALL night?" to which I said "If it says R1 then one can most definately assume you will be, yes." And then she resumed not talking/grunting.

And if that wasn't enough, she asked everyone else for orders except me. And barely listened to me at all when I gave them. At close when I needed to cash out the extra till (our night people don't have a specific till, the left register is closed after the morning shift goes home at 4:30 pm and the right one just stays open), she had unrolled all the coin... So I had to count it all. Sucks for her though because the closing tasks were already mostly done so she had to wait around until I finished counting.

The height of our feud though, happened around 9 pm when we started sanitizing everything. She was in the back by the sink and I went in the back and this is how the conversation went:

She's speaking in a raised voice, practically yelling, and I'm mostly quiet but still with a tone until near the end where I do yell.

Me: When you're finished back here can you clean the bathrooms?
Her: Can't you see I'm busy?
Me: Doing WHAT?
Her: Cleaning!
Me: Yeah well, you can finish it after, what the hell's your problem?
Her: You, obviously.
Me: Yeah well, its not my fault you went drinking and called in sick so get over it. (I turned to walk away at this point, where she yells something I didn't catch because by  then I just tuned her out, it was something whiney about the actual calling in, but while she was in mid-sentence I spun around and shouted "MUFFIN!" and kept walking.)

Anyway, she got to bathrooms pretty quick after that, and thats all I care about. I WANTED to send her home, but then I'd be down a closer, and I'd feel bad because I participated I guess.

I know the whole thing's really immature and we're both being assholes, but honestly, her attitude towards people needs to stop and her complete lack of regard for work and the people at work also needs to stop. She needs to stop lying to my face, for one. She's still adamant about being actually sick. And she probably was, but she still went out drinking, and therefore still could have come in to work. Her friends came in on Saturday and ratted her out anyway, another shift was the witness to that one, so whatever. She can say what she wants. My SM says she's going to fire her when she gets some more people hired (although we'll see if that actually happens), and I have permission to keep her on R1 whenever she's on my supervising shift, so thats one less position I have to hear griping about.



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[info]esotericsmile
2008-05-08 02:40 pm UTC (link)
We tend to rotate positions so that no one is stuck in one place all night. I think intentionally sticking her on R1 all night was a bit passive aggressive.

And while I understand your frustration, I think "What the hell's your problem" was out of line. If you're the shift, you're supposed to be showing maturity - it's part of the job.

I understand that you're frustrated, but you didn't *have* to go in early the other day.

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[info]cookiesr1
2008-05-08 03:48 pm UTC (link)
Which is R1? And it would be nice if people rotated around but sometimes that doesn't happen...

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[info]esotericsmile
2008-05-08 04:16 pm UTC (link)
Register One (R1). Obviously there are occasions where rotation doesn't occur, but it is supposed to.

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[info]cookiesr1
2008-05-08 05:04 pm UTC (link)
yeah i was wondering if it was maybe a dt register or one in the cafe of the store..

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[info]elegancewaves
2008-05-09 12:06 am UTC (link)
Our store never rotates. Its so madenning. Especially when you're on DT bar or cash on a Saturday.

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[info]cookiesr1
2008-05-09 01:28 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm always on register, it is frustrating doing that all day especially when it's really busy on a weekend...

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[info]xrock_steady
2008-05-08 05:05 pm UTC (link)
Agreed.

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[info]elegancewaves
2008-05-09 12:03 am UTC (link)
Well, it was a Saturday, and nobody else answered their phones, so had I not gone in everybody would have been screwed.

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[info]mr_sadhead
2008-05-08 02:54 pm UTC (link)
"Muffin"?

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[info]cascadia_karin
2008-05-08 04:57 pm UTC (link)
As in "Awww, muffin..." (sarcastic alternate form of something like "Awww, princess...")

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this is really freakin long....sorry!
[info]alleh
2008-05-08 03:19 pm UTC (link)
i agree with [info]esotericsmile. being a shift myself for 3 years now, i've had to deal with a lot of these situations. i'm also the passive-aggressive type but i've learned how to work around it.

your job as a shift, first and foremost, is to make the shift run as smoothly as possible...to the best of your ability. this means diffusing unfortunate situations like yours before they get real shitty. so if there are rifts between you and a barista, you need to make sure that (a) the customers don't notice it, most importantly, and (b) the other baristas aren't affected by it....to the best of your ability.

if that means being the bigger person and saying "hey, i know you're pissed at me, let's talk it out" or "i know you're pissed at me but let's just work around it for now, please" or even "hey why don't you take a 10, i'll finish mopping the floor for you" or whatev... something like that would have been the better thing to do, i think. that way she can't keep the idea in her head that you're feeding into the situation. see what i mean?

i know where you're coming from, i work in a store in a college town, and the only person that ISN'T a college student is my SM. people like to call out 5 minutes before their shifts start, because their dog ran away. or they're hungover but won't tell you. or they had a test that they knew about 3 weeks ago but forgot to check their schedule and they really need to study.

as a shift, you can't really hold a personal vendetta against everyone that made a stupid mistake and drank too much the night before. though i HAVE realized that baristas will hold grudges forreeevveerrrrr...which is why you get paid more, as a shift -- to deal with bs like that in a better and more mature fashion, and to just fix it in general) :)

i don't mean this to sound as snarky as it does, i'm honestly trying to help you out because i think i know exactly where you're coming from.

her attitude DOES need to stop. and she DOES need to respect her coworkers a fair bit more. but who cares why she called in that day... and although it's admirable that you did, you were not forced to cover for her. there are worse things to be that upset about.

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[info]lahnna_bella
2008-05-08 11:50 pm UTC (link)
I gotta say you got some good feedback here. I say heed the advice because pretty soon, if your situation stays this way, your managers may be questioning you about these problems and how you are potentially agitating them, regardless of the barista's behavior.

Keep in mind what someone said about keeping these types of issues out of customer and partner sight. Customers get very uncomfortable and upset when they feel they see a person's partner or co-worker being mistreated by another fellow worker. I've been on both sides of that kind of situation. It takes a lot to be the bigger person, but it's more rewarding in the long run.

Good luck!

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[info]millionbubbles
2008-05-09 04:09 am UTC (link)
I can relate to you because I'm a Shift right now having an issue with a barista. As much as I dislike her, think she is an idiot and think she sucks at her job (I already told my SM about her job performance), the next time I see her I plan on apologizing to her about a blowout we had on Saturday.
I realize I need to be the bigger person and I don't want to feel awkward around her all the time because of this stupid arguement we had. Plus I know it made the other baristas feel awkward as hell, so I'd rather not have people feeling weird when they work with me and her.

So yeah....being a Shift really means being a bigger person. Its hard, I hate apologizing when I don't feel I am wrong. But sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet.

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