- Joined
- Jun 9, 2026
- Messages
- 1
Hi everyone!
I work in starbucks and the team and I want to launch a complaint against our Food and Beverage Lead, and I'm the one checking over the email before we send it out, but before that, I wanted to just get some insight, just to even see if these are really things we can complain to the Ethics team about.
First of all wether or not everything else isn't worth complaining about, it can't go unsaid that she is incredibly rude to us. To the point where multiple people are thinking of quitting just because of her. I'm putting in my two weeks on Friday because I can't stand her anymore (and just working in a Target with Target rules too). She goes on these random power trips and acts like we are kidengarters who are the scum of the earth. We can have a line full of people, and she will come around and try telling us to do things, then gets upset when we don't do them right away. Like okay (name) i know that Uboat is sitting in the lobby, but I am currently by myself and can not do anything about it. Yes, (name) i know it needs to be moved. We were planning on taking it back when we take trash back. I still can't do anything else about it (name). There are other things she does where she goes and almost stomps around all huffy, trying to find something wrong so she can point it out. I'm not even kidding. It's gotten so bad that TM from the floor have pointed it out to us.
Aside from that, we have had issues with sampling, scheduling, and overall power dynamics.
Insert - We do not have a master barista. We do not have a manager. We do not have a direct TL. We are reporting to the Food and Beverage TL. I have taken up the role of being the "leader," but as TM, I can't do a whole lot.
Sampling
- This one is the one I am the most iffy with putting in because I was reading through these forums and all over the intertnet and consensus has been you sample in training and then no other info really. Let me be clear when I say NO ONE at my store has received formal training for working at Starbucks, we are 'trained' by the other team members (im the only one who completed the LS STAR training and ive been here for 6 months, there are 4 people who have been there much longer than me, one even being 3 years, and have never even opened LS STAR) so we dont really know all the rules when it comes to things. Our prior TL (who left way before I started) told the team we were allowed to sample using the tall cups. Now, yes, many TMs did abuse this policy, I'll even admit I did too a couple of times (I'm trying a new drink if I slightly change the ratios right?), but for the most part, it was left to trying the new drinks. We have had multiple incidents since she came back from maternity leave a few months ago, where she has outright declared no sampling unless customers are trying it too, and we should be using the small (2oz i think) cups for samples. I can agree to a point, and this is where our most recent incident has come into play. Two of the TM wanted to try the new Smore's drink that is coming out soon. So that when it does come out, we can tell customers what it tastes like. TL not only made them throw it away, but also told them that unless customers are trying it, we cannot sample. Which would be quite literally against Starbucks policies, as we would be giving a drink out before it launches. Now I can see if you want ot say that we should just wait till launch, but I feel as though baristas should be aware of how a drink tastes before it comes out, so we can be prepared to deliver and even change it in the best way to suit a guest's needs.
Scheduling
- Now she does not do our schedule, but she worked at Starbucks very briefly years ago and now thinks she knows how we should operate. She told our HR TL that we should have 2 openers, 1 mid, and 1 closer. At our store, that is just stupid, and we have told our HR TL many times that we cannot operate well with 1 closer. (Often, it ends up being 1 opener, maybe 2 mid, and 1 closer, if people show up) This puts such a strain on all the employees because I end up alone most of my shift, and not to forget everything the closer has to do, alone??? It's insane and incredibly unfair especailly considering most of our schedules allow there to be 2 closers.
- Another issue that has arisen is the fact that she pulls people from Starbucks to work in the market. We already don't have a ton of Starbucks hours to begin with, and now she's taking away from them. This is an issue because we are often left working by ourselves. We aren't a high-volume store, but we still do get quite a bit of traffic. Now we have two TMs who split shifts, but oftentimes she won't even let one of them come up to help when they are using Starbucks hours. The other TM complained to our HR TL, and now she doesn't get pulled anymore when she is working Starbucks hours, but our other guy still does. We had a big incident on this past Sunday where our opener, who sincce its summer (we are located near a university) was only supposed to be scheduled once a month. Now, for whatever reason (even though I know for a fact they had several talks about it), she was scheduled every other weekend. To which, when she completed her Saturday shift, she was unaware of the Sunday shift. So opener 1 doesn't show up (we have had many issues recently with people calling off a ton), and I imagine our mid person also didn't show up (he calls off all the time), so TL got mad and shut Starbucks down for the day. To my understanding, she cannot do this. We had two other TM come in for closing, and she made them go on the floor and work in the fridges. Other TM on the Starbucks team have told me that she has similarly either tried to tell them to come to the floor or even bribe them with food.
Random
- We have a guest who frequently brings sourdough bread and other pastries to TM at Target. Not just Starbucks (though we are her favourites), but TM on the floor too, and she has been doing this for a very long time, and there has never been any issue with it. The food is always placed in the back, where we set our water bottles, and left untouched. Randomly, during one of her rampages on this past Saturday, she took the English muffins that were sitting in the back without saying anything. She didn't say they weren't allowed, didn't tell us why she was taking them, and nobody could find them afterwards. This guest means a lot to all of us. We appreciate her immensely for taking time out of her day to not only visit us but to give us pastries too. There has NEVER been an issue beforehand, and now, when this guest asks how the muffins were, we will have to tell her we don't know because we never even got to try them.
There are, of course, other issues too that we have had with her, like her acting disgusted when we asked her to print more cleaning logs (we LITERALLY CANNOT access them as TM; it is a TL job to do that) and then never giving them to us, and just other small things where she is just incredibly mean for no reason.
All in all to say, we don't like her, and we don't appreciate how she is treating us. So we are launching a complaint against her. Of those incedents ive described what is actually worth complaining about. I really appreciate you taking the time to read this!!! 🙂
I work in starbucks and the team and I want to launch a complaint against our Food and Beverage Lead, and I'm the one checking over the email before we send it out, but before that, I wanted to just get some insight, just to even see if these are really things we can complain to the Ethics team about.
First of all wether or not everything else isn't worth complaining about, it can't go unsaid that she is incredibly rude to us. To the point where multiple people are thinking of quitting just because of her. I'm putting in my two weeks on Friday because I can't stand her anymore (and just working in a Target with Target rules too). She goes on these random power trips and acts like we are kidengarters who are the scum of the earth. We can have a line full of people, and she will come around and try telling us to do things, then gets upset when we don't do them right away. Like okay (name) i know that Uboat is sitting in the lobby, but I am currently by myself and can not do anything about it. Yes, (name) i know it needs to be moved. We were planning on taking it back when we take trash back. I still can't do anything else about it (name). There are other things she does where she goes and almost stomps around all huffy, trying to find something wrong so she can point it out. I'm not even kidding. It's gotten so bad that TM from the floor have pointed it out to us.
Aside from that, we have had issues with sampling, scheduling, and overall power dynamics.
Insert - We do not have a master barista. We do not have a manager. We do not have a direct TL. We are reporting to the Food and Beverage TL. I have taken up the role of being the "leader," but as TM, I can't do a whole lot.
Sampling
- This one is the one I am the most iffy with putting in because I was reading through these forums and all over the intertnet and consensus has been you sample in training and then no other info really. Let me be clear when I say NO ONE at my store has received formal training for working at Starbucks, we are 'trained' by the other team members (im the only one who completed the LS STAR training and ive been here for 6 months, there are 4 people who have been there much longer than me, one even being 3 years, and have never even opened LS STAR) so we dont really know all the rules when it comes to things. Our prior TL (who left way before I started) told the team we were allowed to sample using the tall cups. Now, yes, many TMs did abuse this policy, I'll even admit I did too a couple of times (I'm trying a new drink if I slightly change the ratios right?), but for the most part, it was left to trying the new drinks. We have had multiple incidents since she came back from maternity leave a few months ago, where she has outright declared no sampling unless customers are trying it too, and we should be using the small (2oz i think) cups for samples. I can agree to a point, and this is where our most recent incident has come into play. Two of the TM wanted to try the new Smore's drink that is coming out soon. So that when it does come out, we can tell customers what it tastes like. TL not only made them throw it away, but also told them that unless customers are trying it, we cannot sample. Which would be quite literally against Starbucks policies, as we would be giving a drink out before it launches. Now I can see if you want ot say that we should just wait till launch, but I feel as though baristas should be aware of how a drink tastes before it comes out, so we can be prepared to deliver and even change it in the best way to suit a guest's needs.
Scheduling
- Now she does not do our schedule, but she worked at Starbucks very briefly years ago and now thinks she knows how we should operate. She told our HR TL that we should have 2 openers, 1 mid, and 1 closer. At our store, that is just stupid, and we have told our HR TL many times that we cannot operate well with 1 closer. (Often, it ends up being 1 opener, maybe 2 mid, and 1 closer, if people show up) This puts such a strain on all the employees because I end up alone most of my shift, and not to forget everything the closer has to do, alone??? It's insane and incredibly unfair especailly considering most of our schedules allow there to be 2 closers.
- Another issue that has arisen is the fact that she pulls people from Starbucks to work in the market. We already don't have a ton of Starbucks hours to begin with, and now she's taking away from them. This is an issue because we are often left working by ourselves. We aren't a high-volume store, but we still do get quite a bit of traffic. Now we have two TMs who split shifts, but oftentimes she won't even let one of them come up to help when they are using Starbucks hours. The other TM complained to our HR TL, and now she doesn't get pulled anymore when she is working Starbucks hours, but our other guy still does. We had a big incident on this past Sunday where our opener, who sincce its summer (we are located near a university) was only supposed to be scheduled once a month. Now, for whatever reason (even though I know for a fact they had several talks about it), she was scheduled every other weekend. To which, when she completed her Saturday shift, she was unaware of the Sunday shift. So opener 1 doesn't show up (we have had many issues recently with people calling off a ton), and I imagine our mid person also didn't show up (he calls off all the time), so TL got mad and shut Starbucks down for the day. To my understanding, she cannot do this. We had two other TM come in for closing, and she made them go on the floor and work in the fridges. Other TM on the Starbucks team have told me that she has similarly either tried to tell them to come to the floor or even bribe them with food.
Random
- We have a guest who frequently brings sourdough bread and other pastries to TM at Target. Not just Starbucks (though we are her favourites), but TM on the floor too, and she has been doing this for a very long time, and there has never been any issue with it. The food is always placed in the back, where we set our water bottles, and left untouched. Randomly, during one of her rampages on this past Saturday, she took the English muffins that were sitting in the back without saying anything. She didn't say they weren't allowed, didn't tell us why she was taking them, and nobody could find them afterwards. This guest means a lot to all of us. We appreciate her immensely for taking time out of her day to not only visit us but to give us pastries too. There has NEVER been an issue beforehand, and now, when this guest asks how the muffins were, we will have to tell her we don't know because we never even got to try them.
There are, of course, other issues too that we have had with her, like her acting disgusted when we asked her to print more cleaning logs (we LITERALLY CANNOT access them as TM; it is a TL job to do that) and then never giving them to us, and just other small things where she is just incredibly mean for no reason.
All in all to say, we don't like her, and we don't appreciate how she is treating us. So we are launching a complaint against her. Of those incedents ive described what is actually worth complaining about. I really appreciate you taking the time to read this!!! 🙂
