I hated working at Starbucks.
The training was horrible. There are a lot of rules: there are different dates for every different food item, and about 10 million ways to make ten million drinks--most of which are not on the menu, and nothing is written down. I had training about once a week for 6 weeks. I was given no written rules to study, and no co-employees wanted to help me, and I would forget everything between training days.
My boss was ex-military and had no concept of retail service. She would yell at me in front of co-workers and in front of guests.
The company calls you "partner" but that's a joke. You are an employee.
I would go home crying every night.
My blood pressure went up. I had to go back on my blood pressure medication, which then lowered my blood pressure but made me nearly faint every time I had to stoop to clean drains, etc.
The training was worthless. No guest orders off the menu board. They all order customized preferences.
The guests will order superfast and then look at you like an idiot if didn't press all the screen buttons and write the drink cup and take the cell phone payment all in two seconds.
Co-workers looked at you like you were stealing hours from them.
Management would tell you to do things that you weren't trained on, or that your were trained on 5 months ago and never did, and then yell at you for not knowing what you were doing.
I got yelled at, at least once on every shift. Every morning I would dread coming into work, wondering how I was going to get yelled at for something not my fault.
I am not a quitter. I am a hard worker. I have a good work ethic. But co-workers wouldn't help me and though that I was an idiot, and management kept making my time miserable so that I would quit on my own.
I just wanted a fun, part time job. I've done it before in retail. This was just to supplement my full time job. But it turned out to be horrible.
I asked to transfer to another store, but I did not get a referral. They simply didn't like me or want me.
I rarely got free food or drink. It's several understaffed. I barely had time to go to the bathroom on my break. Before or after my hours, there would be a long guest line, so I could never have time to get my free food and drink. It's like management didn't want me to use that employee benefit and reduce store profit.
If you're not a dark-skinned, female, or an immigrant, you're not wanted. I was replaced by an Ethiopian young woman who barely spoke English. My store was in a big urban area, with a significant white yuppie population, but only one other employee was a white male.
Our "Christmas party" was a joke. A lot of people brought a lot of nice home-made or expensive food, but it turned out to be just a big training meeting and we had no time to eat the food. Then the meeting ended and they were locking up the store and we all had to take uneaten food back home or throw it out.
