Starbucks Team Leaders

@Asuras you really will be fine. It's a lot at first, but it comes together pretty fast. Q4 is just busier than the rest of the year. I'm not sure where you are located, but for me, in Q4 the drinks are easier to make. Not many frapps, and lots of the same thing over and over.
 
Xanatos said:
My team is at like 4 right now, including me. One of them almost quit last week. Another will be leaving within the next couple of months. The 3rd wants to go back to the sales floor. So, yeah... Saturday will be my 5th consecutive Saturday with at least a double digit hour shift.

And yet, I still love my job.
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Be picky! It's worth it.
 
Yetive said:
Be picky! It's worth it.
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Yep. We turned down both interviews so far.

I have such a great team right now. The hours are nuts, but it's not even that stressful because the team is so good. I don't really have to worry about things other than staffing and staying under 40 hours.

EDIT: I'll give you guys an example of how crazy it is. Friday I worked 10-930. Saturday I worked 1030-1030. Sunday I worked 810am-930pm (got woken up by a call at 8am saying the opener called off), with two lunches, one of which was almost 3 hours. Monday I worked 1030-730 with two lunches. Today I was supposed to work 7pm-930pm, but got called in around 4 because my food ave closer was a NCNS (I then closed food ave by 7 instead of the normal 8pm, and he walks in at 7pm saying he took a nap and overslept, and thought he was scheduled at 5). Tomorrow was supposed to be 4-1130 so I could take my lunch after closing and then go work on the order, but I'll have to clock out at 930 so I can cut time. Thursday off, so far. Friday is supposed to be 4-930, training someone 430-830, but I might have to cut half of that shift (which will likely mean clocking in at 430, covering a break or two, then taking a 2-3 hour lunch, then coming back to close). Saturday is 10am-1030pm - the new person that I started training the day before will be there with me from 12-5 and she'll have to cover my lunch, which means I'll just sit down right there by Starbucks and eat and be ready for her to ask me questions. Sunday is Food Ave 930-3 and Starbucks 3-6, but the food ave part will be spent at least half in Starbucks because it's single coverage all day in Starbucks (except my 3-6 part, which will be spent doing breaks and lunches). Then inventory on Monday! Lol.
 
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Last year, our Starbucks stayed open with the rest of the store until Midnight. For whatever reason we are still lightly staffed. Is it possible to argue (beg) against staying open until Midnight? Otherwise we will be spread thin. Even though we are a pretty high volume store. It takes a lot off effort to hire people in our area.
 
Asuras said:
Last year, our Starbucks stayed open with the rest of the store until Midnight. For whatever reason we are still lightly staffed. Is it possible to argue (beg) against staying open until Midnight? Otherwise we will be spread thin. Even though we are a pretty high volume store. It takes a lot off effort to hire people in our area.
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Last year there were only a couple of days where we had to close with the store. 90% of 4th quarter was just normal hours for Starbucks.
 
Asuras said:
Last year, our Starbucks stayed open with the rest of the store until Midnight. For whatever reason we are still lightly staffed. Is it possible to argue (beg) against staying open until Midnight? Otherwise we will be spread thin. Even though we are a pretty high volume store. It takes a lot off effort to hire people in our area.
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Even when the store stayed open later, Starbucks still closed at least an hour before the store. When we got our summer hours, our Starbucks hours stayed the same. There will be direction for your hours before Q4. I have decided to stay open longer the next couple weekends because we are super freaky, and that's not a problem, of course.
 
Yetive said:
Man, make them give you some OT!
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I really should... especially with these days with multiple lunches and when I have 3 hour lunches and stuff. I'm essentially on stand-by... but they'll just tell me it's my fault for not cross training people.

And I'll tell them we tried to cross train since January, but EVERY SINGLE WEEK, payroll has been "tight."

EVERY.

SINGLE.

WEEK.

OF THE WHOLE YEAR SO FAR. So no, I can't cross train. Because I tried. And then you deleted those shifts. And then cut my hours even more. Despite both of your bosses (ETL-HR -> HRBP and STL -> DTL) saying directly to me and both of you that I'm supposed to get all of my hours.

The struggle is real. But as I said, I still somehow love my job. So don't feel too bad for me lol.
 
Xanatos said:
I really should... especially with these days with multiple lunches and when I have 3 hour lunches and stuff. I'm essentially on stand-by... but they'll just tell me it's my fault for not cross training people.

And I'll tell them we tried to cross train since January, but EVERY SINGLE WEEK, payroll has been "tight."

EVERY.

SINGLE.

WEEK.

OF THE WHOLE YEAR SO FAR. So no, I can't cross train. Because I tried. And then you deleted those shifts. And then cut my hours even more. Despite both of your bosses (ETL-HR -> HRBP and STL -> DTL) saying directly to me and both of you that I'm supposed to get all of my hours.

The struggle is real. But as I said, I still somehow love my job. So don't feel too bad for me lol.
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Wow, I would flip my lid on all of them if I had to do that.
 
Yetive said:
Yeah, I was there a couple years ago, but my STL said to work the 6 days and get the OT. I didn't understand how that cost less than giving me training hours!
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I sort of agree with the STL, to some degree. When we were initially talking about cross training people, they wanted me to cross train people who would only be used in emergencies and maybe one 15 minute break per week, something like that. I told them I'd want the team members to spend a MINIMUM of 20 hours in training. And they wanted to do this with 5 or 6 people? So we're looking at spending 100 hours, all with the goal of saving about 4 hours of payroll per week. We'd end up spending more than we'd save.

Meanwhile, I tell them we should look for ways to make all workcenters more efficient - things that might cost more in the short term, but be better in the long term (ex - put pushers in key areas on the sales floor, or down-sweep some shelves and put up fencing so certain things zone themselves. It takes a lot of time initially, but can save hundreds of hours throughout the year, assuming it isn't about to be reset). But we don't have the payroll to do that stuff "this week" (aka ever), yet we still say we need to spend more time zoning. I'm trying to make you spend less time zoning.
 
We're at five right now but our hours are still being 'diverted'.
SBTL would like to hire 2-3 more baristas for Q4 but we can't even get hours for regular staffing much less training hours.
 
Diverted? Pilfered, Stolen, Robbed, Taken, Filched, Purloined, Swiped is more like it.
I am grateful that my new ETL HR makes sure I get my allocated hours. Neither my STL nor even my own ETL would give them to us.

Counting myself, right now I regularly use 6, but half of us also work elsewhere. I have 3 others who can be scheduled if need be, and all of the GSAs can cover breaks. I just hired someone who wants to work weekends only. Love that! I am also starting to train 2 tms in September. When I cross train, I usually add an hour to the beginning or end of the tm's regular shift a few times. I start with register and marking cups. That way, they are able to provide backup pretty quickly. After that, I schedule 3 or 4 hour training shifts, again usually in conjunction with hours in their regular department. They finish training by working mids as coverage. If I'm cross training a cashier, the GSA/GSTL will usually send him over for extra practice if it's slow.
 
Two of the best baristas we trained were former cashiers.
It was easier because they were already familiar with the register, they just had to familiarize themselves with the SB menu & touch screen.
Sadly, there aren't any cashiers I'd currently consider worth training for SB.
 
redeye58 said:
Two of the best baristas we trained were former cashiers.
It was easier because they were already familiar with the register, they just had to familiarize themselves with the SB menu & touch screen.
Sadly, there aren't any cashiers I'd currently consider worth training for SB.
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One of my TMs that I have was a former cashier but her performance isn't the best but I think if I continue to work with her she can become a lot better.
 
Any tips on memorizing all the drink codes? Some are obvious but there are so many >.< Just processing it all while drinking up the guest's order and calling the drink out in a timely manner. Don't know what will happen when I finally get thrown into the wild with those long morning lines >.<
 
You will survive.
The majority of drinks are the first letter of each word of the drink. Honestly, you will learn them pretty quickly through repeated orders. I find that there are about 10 drinks that get ordered about 80% of the time. You probably already know those :). Short of memorizing the list from the resource manual, just repetition will do it.
Have you found anything you like to drink yet?
 
Asuras said:
Any tips on memorizing all the drink codes? Some are obvious but there are so many >.< Just processing it all while drinking up the guest's order and calling the drink out in a timely manner. Don't know what will happen when I finally get thrown into the wild with those long morning lines >.<
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Did you review the list, I gave you?
 

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