So todays highlighted tidbit....
Her: Are you going to school (because of course everyone working at Sbux is going to school or an artist)
Me: oh yeah I'm going to school...
Her: Where? and what for?
Me: University of Phoenix...blah blah blah. I was going to study psychology..now I'm not so sure. Might major in literature and get my masters in teaching and teach at a community college. Or something...
Her: oh that sounds nice...
She walks away and goes to the condiment bar for some cream...turns around and says: "Or you can stay here and keep making coffee..
Me: ha...ha... (whimper)...
Really?? Yes I truly enjoy my job. Starbucks is a good company to work for. But... staying and working at sbux for the rest of my life...yeah no...it sounds like a nightmare. I want to do so much more (Thanks 'Little Mermaid')! I want to be teaching or doing something that makes a difference in someone's life. More than making a latte and shooting the breeze with someone. I enjoy talking, but you get the idea. Life outside of Starbucks.
In fact in one of my writing classes I wrote a personal narrative. I think you all might enjoy it! :-) Sorry that it is once again lengthy and wordy. But I had a ton of fun writing it.
Most Starbucks customers do not know what it takes for this barista to arrive at work and set up in the morning before the customers arrive. The alarm goes blaring at 3:45 a.m. I wake up in a blur of shock and frenzy. The world appears blurry as I glare at my clock saying, "It couldn't be time to wake up... I just went to bed!" At this point my snooze button becomes my best friend and worst enemy. It remains my friend when I can hit the snooze button. Seven minutes later, it becomes my worst enemy when the alarm goes off again; reminding me it is time to wake up. Sometimes, in my sleepy fog, I wake up, and tremor in fear that I could have turned-off the alarm, and I am in fact, late for work.
Finally dragging myself out of the comfortable warmth of my bed I stumble down the hall, trip over the cat and go blind as I flip the light switch on. Once I pull myself back to the reality of getting ready for work, the true work begins. Somehow, in the short time I was asleep my hair became frizzy and squished off to one side of my head. Having to tame such a mess down at such an early hour is a task in itself; not to mention pulling myself together to "look awake" before I get to have my coffee.
I rush around the house for the last few things, all the while, counting down to the last minute that I can leave without being late. Once I leap into the car and begin my drive to work the challenge is keeping my eyes on the road, and keeping my mind alert. With the tires screeching into the parking lot at work, I secretly hope that my clock is wrong and that there still is a minute or two left before 5:00 a.m. I find it frightening how often I arrive to work and remember nothing of the drive there. I find it stranger still that when no one is sitting at the opposite light, if I am in a hurry, it is inevitable that the light will be red.
Arriving to the store, the major task is getting all the pastries into the case and making them look tasty before we unlock the door. This sounds easy enough, but it takes a long time to accomplish and more effort than it should. After the pastry case is assembled, coffee and teas must be brewed, espresso machines need to be warmed up, and donning a bright and bushy tailed smile is a requirement. There are many things that need to be remembered and accomplished while running around serving the first customers of the morning.
Although I am still suffering from a severe caffeine deficit, I must begin to serve the customers who have been standing outside our door waiting for us to open. As they begin to file into the store, many of them are not in a kind mood. They are often demanding and are not willing to wait their turn in line. The line begins to look like the lunch line in an elementary school: people cut in line, complain about the wait, and are not nice to others. All of this happens before it is six in the morning.
After I have had a chance to gulp down my iced coffee around six, the world begins to feel a little more tolerable. The regular customers who I enjoy seeing start coming into the store. They are actually interested in how I am doing and in my life outside of Starbucks. Few customers who I see throughout the day care about how my day is going. They even seem to doubt that I have a life outside of those doors. Often when I am standing in line waiting for my drink order a customer will see me and inform me (jokingly) that I am on the wrong side of the counter. I smile, say something nice, and silently grumble to myself out of frustration.
Around seven in the morning our first nightmare of a regular customer arrives. It does not matter how long I have worked in the store, or how many times I have made her drink the correct way, she still tells me exactly how she wants her drink made. Even worse than being told everyday how someone likes their drink is having the person gawking at me ensuring that I am making it exactly correct. Over the hand-off counter I hear, "That's too much soy!"; "Not so much ice!"; "Make sure you put the shots over the Sweet N' Low!" or "Don't put the soy in first!" Everyone in my store is afraid that today will be the day that she yells at us again.
One day with this nightmare customer I was at the register ringing people up. She walked up and I greeted her, "Good morning. How are you?" She replied, "It is my rule that no one can ask me any questions before I have had my coffee. Just so you know I don't even care about how you are." Having left me in shock at the register she walked to the bar and began to complain to my manager about me. She was livid and could not understand how someone could ever ask another person such a personal question. As my eyes welled up with tears, I tried to stifle them as I called out, "I can help you over here..."
Around eight our resident homeless lady comes in. I never know if it will be a psychotic day; or the odd day that she comes in, gets her coffee, and quietly sits reading the newspaper. On one of her psychotic days she yells random statements out into the room at people only she can see, or I could hear about how she used to be in the Pentagon. Sometimes as I wait for her to order (with a forced smile on my face), she may tell me, "You'd be smiling too if you found your mom with her throat slit!" She has also been in my store during our morning rush, weaving her way through the line with her sleeping bag on her head.
As the day goes by I rotate between making drinks, being at the register and taking orders from the people as they stand in line. While I am making drinks I spend the day having many different kinds of on-lookers. The worst kinds are those who are impatient, glaring, sighing, or complaining about how long it is taking for their drinks to be made. The ones who are not bad are amazed about how I can keep their drinks straight and wonder at the complexity of the drinks I am making. It is nice to have the appreciation for the art of latte making. During the day at least 10 people take the wrong drink from my bar, causing the owner of the stolen drink to be angry with me. The problems do not stop there. The person who took the wrong drink is most likely to return to the store and be angry at me for making the wrong drink. With all of these issues and more happening around me frequently I spill an entire pitcher of hot milk down the front of me. Without someone who can replace me on bar I must continue to make drinks as though nothing happened.
Moving away from bar I begin calling drinks down the line. This is our effort during the busiest times of day to assist our customers in getting out of the store in a timely manner. This position is called the "expeditor", the role I play includes taking drink orders, getting and warming pastries, helping the person on bar, and working as the second person on register. Putting the job into the most basic terms I am the person who has to be everywhere at the same time.
As I am calling drinks down the line, there are many challenges that the customers create. One of the biggest challenges is the customers who simply ignore everything that is going on around them. I try to get their attention multiple times, after a while I contemplate tossing sugar-in-the-raw at their heads, instead I continue to attempt to verbally catch their attention. Worse than those who ignore me are the people who are talking on their phone. These people often become upset that I even have the audacity to interrupt their call. Once they get to the register they, make the person who is ringing wait for their attention. They become upset again that they have to speak to us. I am also greeted by customers who cannot decide on a drink, or change the drink five times after you have already written it down. I along my way I also meet complainers, parents with out-of-control screaming children, sexual harassers and eye-rollers.
Once at the register to assist in ringing people up, it becomes my job to aid customers in deciding on drinks, pastries and attempting to force them to purchase VIA. VIA, Starbucks' attempt at instant coffee has become our most pushed retail product. It is the current focus of our corporate world. Everyone's job depends on how much we sell. Daily we have to sell a certain amount. If we meet the amount: good. If we fail to sell enough: there is much trouble when we call in our daily numbers to our District Manager. As the person at the register I try to sample to everyone who comes through the line, hoping that someone will like the product enough to buy it. I am not paid by commission and likely that is for the best because it is terribly hard to sell products that few people are interested in. As for our "New Flavored VIA" it is hard to sell a product that I do not enjoy myself. It is even harder to sell a product that once tasted, most people detest. When customers first try the product most try hard to find something they enjoy about it. After a while I begin to feel bad for making people try it.
Sometimes a customer will develop a curiosity about the secret life of a barista. They begin to ask questions about what time I wake up, when I arrive to work and even sometimes what time I go to bed. These people begin to become aware of the customers around them. Once people understand the time I wake up, the customers I encounter throughout the day and the pressures of working in a "fast food" industry (that is secretly focusing on the retail aspect of business), they become a little more compassionate. As you can now see, the world of Starbucks looks different behind the counter then in front.
Many days I have spent dreaming of the day that I will finally be only a customer in a sea of faces, rather than a single face being bombarded by flocks of people who demand his or her drink now. Even more days have been spent in frustration daydreaming of ripping my apron off, throwing it on the floor and stomping out. I dream of leaving, screaming obscenities at the customers, other partners and the world in general; but that would burn the "Starbucks Bridge" forever. If I did such a thing having worked at Starbucks becomes a dreaded blemish on my resume. No wise employer will hire an ex-Starbucks employee that has been fired from Starbucks for any reason.
In truth, despite all the setbacks, all the frustrations and all of the complaining from a disgruntled partner, Starbucks is truly an amazing company to work for. If you take all the benefits and the customers who are actually nice the good outweighs the bad. I have been at Starbucks now for a total of five years, having left and then returned. I have seen what other companies have to offer and they pale in comparison.
Please allow me to leave you with a few suggestions that will make you into one of the "good customers". Do not take someone else's drink; ensure that you are taking your specific order. Do not stand at the hand-off counter and complain. At the register, do not mumble and become angry when we confirm your drink. It is not that we do not understand or are not smart enough to get your order correct, but that we want to get your complicated drink correct (the first time). Understand that your drink will not be the first one out; many other customers inhabit the store and may possibly have ordered the same drink as you. Say "thank you", and ask how I am before you spout off your drink order. Finally, please remember the barista you are ordering from is a real person and not a machine.
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