Starbucks Team Leaders

Yetive said:
Who covers your breaks when you have single coverage or for closers?
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exactly, this is the one thing that pisses me off the most. supposedly it's common at 'other stores' but I just can't understand why most of the ETLs are convinced it's fine for us to go dark for a break. I'm going to snap necks, I swear. oh, and when we do have double coverage, they leave at 7 pm, just in time for our huge rush from 7:30 to 8:30. love it. funny part is, since I started as a GSA and my SBTL was GSTL at her old store, more often than not we end up getting pulled away to watch the front end for THEIR breaks. they're finally training 2 more GSAs, at least. I would not complain if I never had to work another GSA shift again.

I miss our old DM. he was a shark. he would have gone after management to chew them out about cutting our hours. I did mention off-hand to our ETL-GE one night while doing cash office that I'd read about how we were supposed to get all our allocated hours. got a total non-response. he knows, and he's our best advocate on just about anything else, but I don't think he really cares. this is the one thing that makes me nervous about potentially promoting to TL. I'm not sure I'm ready or able to fight this battle.
 
radiochu said:
supposedly it's common at 'other stores' but I just can't understand why most of the ETLs are convinced it's fine for us to go dark for a break.
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It's not common at other stores. Perhaps your new DM will be able to help, but other than put your store on an NNC for going dark, they don't have any real power over your hours. I would imagine that an NNC would get some quick action from your store though.

And the battle is easier to fight as a TL than as a TM.
 
radiochu said:
supposedly it's common at 'other stores' but I just can't understand why most of the ETLs are convinced it's fine for us to go dark for a break.
Click to expand...

Absolutely not common. I've had it happen once at my store (TL for 3 years) and that's because they were dumbfucks and didn't call me to figure out a solution. I did happen to walk into another store near me when the TL was the only one there and she was walking to the timeclock to clock out for lunch and she turned out the lights. I bet a DM could put you on a Notice of Non-Compliance just for doing it for a single 15 minute break. The threat of losing your Starbucks (amazing for guest experience, can bring in new guests, and is very profitable) should get your store in line.
 
I hope I get to meet the new DM soon. I'd love to have a chat with her.

a small chat on the smoke deck today revealed though (well, more like confirmed... not like I didn't already figure it was true) that it's definitely our new ETL-HR who's doing this. we all know our STL would never, and our SBTL works very hard on our schedule with the already limited hours she gets. at the beginning of May they took our old HR and transferred her to another store (as ETL-Replenishment, of all things) and gave us a new one, who had interned with us before. when she was an intern, she was micromanaging, controlling, and just basically acting far bigger than herself. I'm pretty sure she's still just on a power trip. I wish she'd figure out that it actually affects not only people but the store itself.

every time I've ranted (quietly) about this to people at my store I include the bit about how we could get fined or shut down over this. maybe I need to actually do something about it instead of just talking about it. well... realistically I guess my TL needs to do it but I don't know if she ever really will. I really do feel like getting in trouble with Starbucks is the only way they're ever going to stop pulling this.
 
radiochu said:
exactly, this is the one thing that pisses me off the most. supposedly it's common at 'other stores' but I just can't understand why most of the ETLs are convinced it's fine for us to go dark for a break. I'm going to snap necks, I swear.
Click to expand...

I don't think it is common. My store's leadership had a healthy fear of letting SB go dark. They would stick someone/anyone in there to serve black coffee and pastries. I've done it, and I don't know the difference between a latte and a frappé, or why coffee needs whipped cream on top.
 
PassinTime said:
I don't think it is common. My store's leadership had a healthy fear of letting SB go dark. They would stick someone/anyone in there to serve black coffee and pastries. I've done it, and I don't know the difference between a latte and a frappé, or why coffee needs whipped cream on top.
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That's good that they at least try to have someone there but the SBDM can still put the store in non compliance for having untrained TMs back there.
 
CoquiAzul said:
That's good that they at least try to have someone there but the SBDM can still put the store in non compliance for having untrained TMs back there.
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Well, they tried. No one, myself included, wanted to learn how to make all those coffees. Had my pot of coffee ever run out, I would have been reduced to selling pastries and telling the guests that the barista would be back in 15.
 
PassinTime said:
Well, they tried. No one, myself included, wanted to learn how to make all those coffees. Had my pot of coffee ever run out, I would have been reduced to selling pastries and telling the guests that the barista would be back in 15.
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So much for Target being global. Be global everywhere else except in Starbucks and Food Ave haha
 
Time to vent!

Saturday, I covered a closing shift, 4-1030. The register crashed at 5pm. Restarted it 7 times, couldn't get it to come back up. Called CSC. They said to turn it off, wait 45 minutes, then turn it back on. Then it should take about 2 hours for it to do a rebuild. Finally got it back up around 1030 as I was about to leave.

It worked all day Sunday.

Monday, the opener restarts the computer (our PMT told us to do it every morning because of how many problems we have with it; I'm not sure if it actually helps, but whatever). It doesn't come back up. They call and we need to do the same bullshit 45 minute wait and then 2 hour rebuild. I get in at 9:45. Waited 45 minutes, it doesn't come back up, PMT calls CompuCom, guy comes out pretty quick. We're in a TL meeting to go over how shitty our BTS results were (ETL-HR and STL want to hear the complaints that the TLs have). CompuCom guy works for like 3 hours, it looks like it's going to come back up, he leaves. It doesn't work. Call CSC. Wait 45 minutes, then restart again. Doesn't hardly come back at all. Call CSC again. This guy actually sounds smart. We go through some troubleshooting. Nothing works. He puts me on hold and calls CompuCom; they're supposed to come back tonight. I leave at 7:30.

For those of you keeping track at home, that means I worked about 12 hours behind the bar without a register, explaining things to each guest and having them meet me at Food Ave to ring them up (making shit up as I go because I don't even know how much the granitas cost and these DPCI sheets are a couple years old) and then go back to Starbucks to make the drink. Every single transaction took about 3x longer than normal. The only complaint I got was from this dumbfuck lady who thought she was the only person in line, but then I came back to make a drink (that I had already rung up) and she thought I just skipped her. 12 hours and the only complaint is from someone like that, I'll take it.

Saturday, I really pushed myself and made it through the whole night with a smile on my face. I did the same today, but that was probably just because the Cavs won last night, and that high won't wear off for at least a few weeks. Still better than any LOD shift I had over my last year as a SrTL.

Fuck I'm tired.

Edit: almost tired enough to take an actual break, but not quite. I pushed through and made it without one. I don't think I've taken an actual break since March lol.
 
Xanatos said:
Time to vent!

Saturday, I covered a closing shift, 4-1030. The register crashed at 5pm. Restarted it 7 times, couldn't get it to come back up. Called CSC. They said to turn it off, wait 45 minutes, then turn it back on. Then it should take about 2 hours for it to do a rebuild. Finally got it back up around 1030 as I was about to leave.

It worked all day Sunday.

Monday, the opener restarts the computer (our PMT told us to do it every morning because of how many problems we have with it; I'm not sure if it actually helps, but whatever). It doesn't come back up. They call and we need to do the same bullshit 45 minute wait and then 2 hour rebuild. I get in at 9:45. Waited 45 minutes, it doesn't come back up, PMT calls CompuCom, guy comes out pretty quick. We're in a TL meeting to go over how shitty our BTS results were (ETL-HR and STL want to hear the complaints that the TLs have). CompuCom guy works for like 3 hours, it looks like it's going to come back up, he leaves. It doesn't work. Call CSC. Wait 45 minutes, then restart again. Doesn't hardly come back at all. Call CSC again. This guy actually sounds smart. We go through some troubleshooting. Nothing works. He puts me on hold and calls CompuCom; they're supposed to come back tonight. I leave at 7:30.

For those of you keeping track at home, that means I worked about 12 hours behind the bar without a register, explaining things to each guest and having them meet me at Food Ave to ring them up (making shit up as I go because I don't even know how much the granitas cost and these DPCI sheets are a couple years old) and then go back to Starbucks to make the drink. Every single transaction took about 3x longer than normal. The only complaint I got was from this dumbfuck lady who thought she was the only person in line, but then I came back to make a drink (that I had already rung up) and she thought I just skipped her. 12 hours and the only complaint is from someone like that, I'll take it.

Saturday, I really pushed myself and made it through the whole night with a smile on my face. I did the same today, but that was probably just because the Cavs won last night, and that high won't wear off for at least a few weeks. Still better than any LOD shift I had over my last year as a SrTL.

Fuck I'm tired.

Edit: almost tired enough to take an actual break, but not quite. I pushed through and made it without one. I don't think I've taken an actual break since March lol.
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I did read on workbench, there is a current list of dcpi for manual entry to cover register failure.
 
Hey guys.. haven't posted much at all in this forum lately but I moved over to starbucks and am loving it! I meet with my DM tomorrow and am wondering if anyone could tell me what I need to have with me? I was going through old paper work on Friday and found a bunch of observation? Sheets and wondered if I needed to do that? Unfortunately my entire team is basically new and the old TL was let go so no one to ask!
Other than this visit and apparently not sending some sales numbers to the DM I'm feeling pretty good with my move!
Thanks in advance for the help. :)
 
so I guess this morning our espresso machine and grinder were both down at the same time? haha. luckily I wasn't there for that mess, but I did get to hear all about the tech visit. apparently he complained about our shots being so far out of spec (how are we supposed to calibrate shot times when the machine is down, I'd like to know? and me personally, I calibrate that machine every time it even gets close to going out of range, thankyouverymuch) but he did fix the machine and also finally replaced the washer that had been making our grounds drawer into espresso soup. he also bitched about how our grinder is crap and Starbucks doesn't even use that kind anymore and blah blah. he replaced the spring inside the mechanism (the other one was sheared off on both ends... I don't have any idea how it got like that, it wasn't like that last time I broke the grinder down for cleaning!) and I guess adjusted something else. it's now far louder and rattlier than it was before. not terribly pleased with that. but he mentioned possibly trying to get us a newer model of grinder? so I guess that's good?

he also confirmed what I've been trying to get everyone to realize for all the months since we opened, which is that we've been grinding coffee for drip on the wrong setting. I told everyone! but they would not listen! SO THERE. maybe this will teach them to listen to the girl who has actually read all the manuals!
 
Glad you're liking it.
For a planned visit, we start with a coffee tasting paired with a pastry, so have your coffee passport (I have mine on my phone).
SOAs from since the last visit.
I print YTD and MTD sales.
Print the Starbucks Dashboard.
A list of questions you may have.
Make sure current Siren's Eye is accessible.
Have Summer 2 material as well.
Make sure Barista certs are available.
You will work together to create goals for the coming quarter.
I have never sent sales figures to any of my 5 DMs.
 
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I'm about to transition SBDMs and my current DM told me that the new DM I'm getting doesn't hesitate to put stores in compliance so to make sure that I address everything. I'm going to be pissed off if I get a whole bunch of NNCs from this DM.
 
CoquiAzul said:
I'm about to transition SBDMs and my current DM told me that the new DM I'm getting doesn't hesitate to put stores in compliance so to make sure that I address everything. I'm going to be pissed off if I get a whole bunch of NNCs from this DM.
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What could he get you for? Sounds like you have everything under control. Have you ever had one before?
 

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