11.22.2006

whip it good

today was a day i actually felt sorry for my manager. not only did he have to spend nearly an hour on the phone trying to get our POS systems back online, he also had the displeasure of being our district manager's whipping boy for the day.

apparently the higher ups did a tour of some of the stores in the district and my bux fell short on a few things.
included on the list:
- crumbs in the sink
- fingerprints on the register touch-screens (are you friggen' kidding me?!?)
- partners calling out "caramel frappuccino" instead of "caramel frappuccino blended beverage" (previously so long as we didn't say "frapps" or "ice blendeds" we were a-ok)
- barista telling a customer "thanks! have a good one!" instead of "thank you! have a nice day!"
- crowded backroom
- newbie with a button missing from his collar
- shift supervisor with multiple piercings in her ear (she has an industrial bar so they counted that as two piercings instead of one)

all these were in addition to the normal things higher ups complain about: store not clean enough, partners not fast enough, pastries not pretty enough, sugar not white enough, yadda, yadda, yadda.

now i understand that a corporation as large as bux needs to be insistent upon cleanliness and speed of service. i know it's important to have standards and rules and i know customers want a quality product each and every time they shell out the big bucks for their customized drinks. i also know that nit-picking never helps achieve these goals. i'm not saying upper management should turn a blind eye, or that they should lower company standards, but giving us a lecture because our touch-screens (which customers DON'T see) aren't cleaned every ten minutes is ridiculous - as is trying to monitor the way we thank our customers and bid them well.

what the higher ups seem to forget is this: happy baristas = happy customers.
seriously.
the baristas that give the best service and keep the cleanest stores are the ones that feel supported and appreciated by their management team - including district and regional managers. they are the ones that have no fear they'll be scheduled to open the morning after they were scheduled to close. they are the ones that receive MUG awards when they go the extra mile for their fellow baristas. and they are the ones that are offered promotions in a timely manner, instead of watching un-deserving partners move up the ladder just because they have open availability.

unfortunately it doesn't seem as if the higher ups will remember this any time soon.

partner rant: sorry if we didn't sing your praises when you informed us we could close early on thanksgiving day. i know closing early is a treat but it's hard to get excited when you're only giving us a thirty minute gift. seriously - why have us close early at all? most people i know eat their turkey in the early afternoon - not at 11 at night. so why did you say "good news! you get to go home early and spend the holiday with your families!"? at least have the beans to be honest and say "well, we would have made you keep normal hours, but we knew you'd riot so we decided to throw you an under-nourished bone".

14 comments:

Eric said...

Jeeez how petty. My guess is that since the new manager is new they are being uber persnickity. or they are just asshats that have nothing better to do with thier time. Such is the bane of the service / retail industry. Althougth this may go a long way to explaining the behavior of the manager in previous posts that just could not take the scrutiny.
As for the rant, I hear ya. i was a line cook for 10 years and never had thanksgiving off. Eventually I moved on and found a 9-5 mundane profession that allows for normal hours. But Now I work at a large membership retail company. In the IS department writing code for the accountants. But the top decided that as a show of solidarity with the people that work the warehouses that all employees were not to take any vacation from November to December 20. This means the traditional 4 day TG weekend is now split and I must spend most of it traveling the I 5 corridor in order to see family.
Oh well the things we do to pay the mortgage.
Have a happy Thanksgiving Brat :)

SkippyMom said...

1/2 early? So you can "spend" thanksgiving with your families? Are they kidding? That leaves you a whole hour of thanksgiving who eats at midnight? - woohooo!

My heart goes out to you - and I will be thinking of you on Friday -try and hang in there and ignore the frazzled [read:rude] shoppers!

Hugs!

Anonymous said...

Upper management NEVER remembers what it was like to be the low man on the totem pole. NOR do they EVER appreciate how much work YOU do so they can have their big fat salaries!

I can't believe Starbucks is having how many thousands of employees miss out on one of the few holidays they should be closed! My husband works retail and turkey day and xmas are the only guaranteed days off and he looks forward to corporate not taking those away from him.

Unknown said...

Sorry to hear that Brat! I was lucky, my last retail job was with a big box retailer, not WALLY world, but the other, with the red and white circular logo ;) We were lucky enough that in this district at least, the high ups started as one of us bottom feeders, and was understanding. It was great. However I have worked for other companies that were just like yours. It was horrid. I would love to see them thrown into a store one day, and let them do it ALL. Bet they couldn't do it half as well as you all do.

http://detourfromsanity.blogspot.com

Louise said...

that sucks brat! did you hear about hear about starbucks changing their mission statement? ...Enriching peoples daily lives in under 3 minutes...

ALL starbucks should be closed on Thanksgiving AND Christmas...people WILL be able to survive without their precious coffee for a day! But nooooooo...I'll be there dark and early...4:30!

Anonymous said...

My theory... the entire reason for closing a half-hour early is so that management can tell employees they close early on holidays, but tell customers that they remain open during (almost) normal hours.

A long while back in my home town, the Board of Education promised a raise to all public school teachers within the year. After a year had almost been up, they finally passed the raise--which worked out to a whopping 1 cent per hour. No, really... $0.01. (Teachers petitioned and did a half-strike--long story--though I can't recall if the raise was later set at a more realistic amount). K

Sling said...

Sadly,large corporations are run by Ivy League bean counters that wouldn't know what the pleasure of being served by an honest to god thoughtful human being is worth..
They have their checklist of "Proven" marketing approaches and yada yada....GAG...
Fingerprints on the touch screen??..

mellowlee said...

That makes me sad that you will be working on Thanksgiving! :( Honestly, the customers should be home with their families too! Sorry to hear that. As for the nitpicking, how bloody annoying. It's like they are SEARCHING for things to write down wrong just out of boredom. Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

Only 30 minutes? What kind of crap is your DM giving you? My store gets to close five hours early tomorrow.

Love,

Schlatko

Anonymous said...

Hope you enjoy your 30 minute holiday. Hopefully for Christmas you'll get the full hour.

Peace baby.

Malnurtured Snay said...

Upper-management is always completely out of touch. They should be required to work one shift a month in the service related industry they're working. Y'know. To keep "in touch."

Morons.

Unknown said...

Half and hour early is pure bullshiit. Why not make it 15 minutes? Why not 10 minutes?

Half hour is actually WORSE than working the entire day, because they're trying to get one over on ya...

Cup said...

Completely agree with you on the happy baristas = happy customers equation. Since management changed at my regular bux (a micromanager who isn't that hot on customer service), the brats aren't as chipper and I don't go as often. Sad, isn't it?

Oh, and if I heard the exact same greeting for every customer, THAT formula would drive me further away. As would that "blended beverage" crapola.

But I still love you, Brat.

Anonymous said...

I work at a SBC in Borders and thankfully we have Thanksgiving and Christmas off. As with the upper management, the SBC managers are just as described by the first posts. "You aren't doing the lobby sweeps every ten minutes!" And my store manager is the most miserable disgusting swamp-trudging ogre you will ever meet. She is unhappy that at 45 years of age she cannot advance any higher within the company because she doesn't have an education. So she takes it out on the employees in the form of backhanded comments about our "lack of" intelligence. She probably forgets that a lot of the employees are actually medical students (myself included) going to the nearby university...