Millions of people count on Starbucks baristas to provide them with a jolt of caffeine each day, but those employees might be the ones truly in need of a little help: Baristas around the country are spilling the coffee beans on their employer, claiming they are overworked and strained thanks in part to the chain’s endless stream of pilot programs and new services. [More]
baristas
Underpaid & Overstressed: 4 Things Starbucks Baristas Say Is Wrong With The Company
By 5.26.17
Starbucks Mobile Order System Might Be Too Popular, Walk-In Customers Walk Out
By 1.27.17
Shortcuts are awesome, at least until everyone learns the shortcut and bogs down the process all over again. This is the lesson that Starbucks is learning, after realizing that its mobile order-ahead system might have become a little too popular, possibly hurting sales. [More]
Krispy Kreme Trying Out That Whole “Barista” Thing In Effort To Boost Coffee Sales
By 12.16.15
Krispy Kreme has apparently been thinking long and hard about how it can make more money from selling coffee, it seems it’s come up with an answer — call employees that serve up cups of steaming hot joe “baristas.” Heck, if it worked for Starbucks, maybe it’ll work for Krispy Kreme. [More]
Discrimination Lawsuit: Starbucks Fired Deaf Worker Who Asked For Sign Language Interpreters
By 10.20.15
An Arizona woman who worked as a Starbucks barista for seven years has filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly discriminating against her because she’s deaf. She claims she repeatedly asked for reasonable accommodations to help her on the job and was repeatedly denied, and that she was finally fired because of her disability. [More]
Starbucks Barista Rescues Two From Cab After Manhole Explodes In The Street
By 11.17.14
We’d all like to think we could do the right thing and be brave enough to dash into danger to save someone else, but the reality is, it sounds pretty scary. One quick-thinking Starbucks barista in New York City had his movie moment when he ran into the street to help a cab driver and his passenger after a manhole cover exploded underneath their vehicle. [More]
Here’s What Happens When You Ask A Starbucks Barista To Surprise You
By 7.11.14
You probably can’t visit your local Starbucks and convince them to create a record-breaking $54 beverage in a giant flower vase, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask the people there to blend up a menu-bending creation for you. You’ll have to pay for the privilege of enjoying a Neapolitan Frap or a breakfast shake with an entire blueberry muffin blended into it. [More]
Federal Appeals Court Says Yes, Starbucks Baristas Have To Share Tips With Supervisors
By 11.22.13
Starbucks baristas had kept fighting to keep customer tips out of the hands of shift supervisors after a court ruled in June that they’d have to share. Assistant managers are still out of the loop, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that because shift supervisors do a lot of the same work as baristas, they deserve the extra cash. [More]
Court: Starbucks Baristas Only Have To Share Tips With Shift Supervisors, Not Asst. Managers
By 6.27.13
In the fight over who gets to dig their hands into the Starbucks tip jar at the end of the day, everyone is coming out kind of a winner. Well, except for assistant managers, but they already earn salaries and have benefits, so that’s pretty winner-y. A court says baristas must share their tips, but only with shift supervisors. [More]
Starbucks Baristas Trying To Keep Higher-Ups’ Grubby Paws Out Of The Tip Jar
By 5.29.13
Anyone who’s ever worked a job where customers are encouraged to dump their change or heck, even a wonderful dollar into a tip jar knows how coveted those tips are. That’s why Starbucks baristas are in a fight in New York to keep shift supervisors and managers out of the tip jar. The fewer people entitled to tips, the more money each barista gets after a shift serving up venti extra caramel no whip low foam frappywhatchacallits. [More]
Three Topless Female Coffee Shop Employees Cited
By 9.8.11
It seems that uniforms were optional at a Vietnamese coffee shop in San Jose, Calif., where three female employees were cited after they reportedly were caught serving customers while topless. Cited on suspicion of public nudity, but not arrested, the women will be forced to appear in criminal court. [More]
Lawsuit Accusing Starbucks Of Denying Tips Dismissed
By 7.13.11
A group of former assistant managers of New York Starbucks sued the company, saying it violated state labor laws by denying them tips. A U.S. District judge stiffed the workers, dismissing the suit because they didn’t show they had the right to the gratuities. [More]
Starbucks Doesn't Care If You're In A Hurry
By 10.13.10
In an effort to make your stay at Starbucks as long as possible, the company is telling baristas to slow down and make no more than two drinks at a time, reports the Wall Street Journal. [More]
Baristas Flash Their Hoohas At The Grab-n-Go, Get Charged With Prostitution
By 9.28.09
We’re not at the “full body latte” stage just yet, but Grab-n-Go Espresso in Everett, Washington has apparently taken us right up to that edge with their espresso stands where baristas show skin while serving coffee. Now five Grab-n-Go baristas have been charged “with multiple counts of prostitution and violating the city’s adult entertainment ordinance.”
10 Things You May Not Know About The People Who Make Your Coffee
By 4.30.08 — Updated: 10.25.12
Many baristas get “espresso finger,” which is when their index finger looks blackened because they’ve been leveling coffee grounds on the portafilter all day.
Starbucks Retraining Employees At 7,100 Stores Next Week
By 2.20.08
Next Tuesday, Starbucks will close 7,100 corporate-owned stores early to implement a company-wide retraining session on how to make drinks. “The barista re-education is a ‘renewed focus on espresso standards,’ say Starbucks honchos.” We thought that’s why they bought the robot espresso machines—so they didn’t have to have trained coffee pullers anymore.
