after several months of a peaceful truce, there is now hatred where there was once love. menacing glares which were once kind eyes and stinging vitriol when there was once glowing praise.
have the baristas finally rallied against the managers?
have the buddies turned sour toward the brats?
have the newbies resorted to brandishing the pointy ends of thermometers as protection against the old-schoolers?
no.
no.
and no.
history is repeating itself and now there is a full-fledged war between the openers and the closers with both sides bitching that the other doesn't do their required duties.
now i admit that i'm a little biased. i close once or twice a week and i know how much work the closers put into making sure the store is broken down, cleaned and stocked. closers have all the responsibilities of the day crew (serving customers and prepping) AND then some.
so when the openers don't do their set duties, it piles on the work for the closers and they have to stay past their scheduled shifts to complete their tasks (i've gone into overtime too often because the day crew has turned over crappy shifts). if the day has been particularly rough, then the closers might forget to fill the ice bin or empty the sanitizer. these, according to the openers, are cardinal sins. the openers will be so offended that they will spend the day complaining and will
'run out of time' to do their duties, which in turn adds more work for the closers. which of course means they will have to stay later and probably miss another closing duty, like stocking pounds of coffee or filling the sugar containers.
see? it's a vicious circle that polarizes the two sides until management intervention is required. my store is about two weeks away from one-on-one meetings with the manager and threats to be written up.
have a holly jolly christmas, indeed.
customer rant: not only is it against health code to resteam milk over and over - it's downright disgusting! when i saw you checking milk temperatures, then resteaming milk that had cooled down - i convinced my friend to stick with drip coffee instead of getting a latte. but with your standards the coffee was probably two hours old as well.
14 comments:
even at a 5 star hotel i resteamed the milk
Ah yes, "shift wars." Drop the "f" and that's what you get.
Nice to see that this a constant in your field, too.
Whew...well good luck with all that. Reading your blog makes me wanna go to a Starbucks, but I don't drink coffee and I hate your chai so I have to look at the menu for a while. Then the baristas look at me all impatiently (I never do this when I'm in line by the way)and I get intimidated and leave =/
...Oh well!
Sounds like a lovely atmosphere to work in :( Re the resteamed milk EWWWWW
Hey brat, do you not have mid-shifts at your bux? I know all about shift wars in a coffee shop, but I've found that a solid crew of mid-shifters really helps to mitigate any potential hostility between the factions. Also, at the cafe I managed we had a very rigid no-excuses policy of doing shift change work; an hour before your shift was up, you went off-line (stopped serving customers) and did whatever needed to be done (brewing, backstocking, refreshing the condiment stand, et cetera) regardless of how slammed we were. It worked for us. I don't know how feasable that is with the whole one at the register, one at the bar bux setup, but there's my two cents!
oh man, tell me about it. i work at a bakery/cafe and refuse to open or close, because i can't deal with shift wars. i used to close, though, so i'm always on their side (they can ONLY leave when EVERYTHING is done, and the morning crew NEEDS to leave when their shift is over regardless of their work being done or not.)
Catzmiyow has a good idea with midshifters.I'm guessin' Starbucks isn't about to change their staffing requirements however.
An alternative might be to have opening and closing duties listed,and initialed each shift by the employees.Things left undone can be tracked back to the offender...let them get written up.
Will y'all have a Braveheart-type battle?
what exactly is wrong with resteaming milk? talk about a waste if you just tip it out all day long...
Haha...sorry, I've read your blog a few times and while this isn't all that funny, it made me chuckle. I worked in a Starbucks at one of those Travel Plaza's on the Turnpike. I know exactly what you mean about the "shift wars". Good luck settling everything down, sorry I don't have any advice other than everyone has to do their work....
mish - ok, you have now warned me :)
writeprocrastinator - haha, drop the "f", indeed!
china doll - is the chai too sweet for you? it is for me, so i only ever get one pump on those rare occasions i want a chai latte. have you tried the iced teas?
mellowlee - it truly sucks, and right now it's not even at its worst. holiday makes it even better.
catzmiyow - i love that solution! too bad i'm not in a position to implement it. usually the shift managers are the actual managers, and they spend most their time off the floor or on register, so they don't help make sure the closers are screwed over.
anonymous - that's exactly what's going on at my bux.
sling - that method is supposed to be in place, but the managers are really enforcing it. btw - i have spent the last week trying to comment on your blog, but blogger beta hates me!
beth - only if i get to wear a kilt!
anonymous - adding cold milk to steamed milk (or milk that was once steamed) makes a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. if a barista is worth their beans, then they know how much milk is needed and then there is no reason to dump the leftovers.
anonymous - thanks for the sympathy!
I believe you can resteam milk, only once, only if it hasn't dropped below 120 degrees.
I'm almost positive that's the 'bux standard, and could perhaps be slippery slop that brings us to adding cold milk to warm and multiple re-steamings (which I do not condone)
Milk that has not fallen below 140 degrees can be re-steamed once.
Cappucino milk should always be steamed fresh for the bev.
We have that same battle at the restaurant I work at. I work nights only, and the main day waitress bitches constantly about us. We simply point out all the shit she doesn't do. It's worse on the rare occasion that she covers a night shift-- she sets her old ass down on a barstool at the end of the night and does diddly squat.
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