help with rsi

Wed, 07/20/2005 - 3:37pm -- disibelle
Starbucks Forum: 
Working at Starbucks

hi, just stumbled across this site and was hoping someone might be able to help me!

I've ben with the company for 3.5 years in the UK, working on a manual bar, and have started to develop what my doctor thinks is a repetitive strain injury. my manager and district manager are adament that you can't get an rsi from the bar. does anyone have any experience of a similar situation and any sugestions for what i could do? any help would be much appreciated! thanks :)

Submitted by southbux on

Your district managers behavior is unacceptable however typical of Starbucks. Make sure that Starbucks pays for all of your treatment and doctors visits. In the mean time ask to not work the bar because you could permanently damage your wrist.

Submitted by SWU Organizer on

Hello Disibelle:

I'm sorry to hear about your injury. RSIs are very common at Starbucks because of the poor ergonomic conditions and understaffing which forces workers to operate at an overly brisk pace. As you unfortunately have found out, RSIs can be extremely painful and debilitating.

I would advise you to strictly follow your doctor's advice which I would imagine, at a minimum, is to stop for a while all bar work.

The claim by your managers that you can't get an RSI from espresso bar work is absurd on its face and would be laughable to any occupational health specialist. Faced with persistent criticism from the Starbucks Workers Union, Starbucks itself was forced to admit in its September Safety and Security Bulletin that the espresso bar is a problem area for RSIs.

You should e-mail the Starbucks Workers Union at starbucksunion@yahoo.com and let us know where in the UK you are located. We'll put you in touch with Union members to ensure you're not forced to do any tasks that could exacerbate your injury and explore any other available remedies.

Submitted by DontFormAUnion on

So you have proof that it is working at Starbucks that caused this?

Submitted by southbux on

Dontformaunion...

You represent everything that Starbucks stands for perfectly. The sad thing is you probably aren't getting paid millions of dollars in legal fees like the lawyers that are saying the same crap you are.

Heres an idea. Sign up for law school, pass the bar (if you can), get a job as a union busting attorney. At least then you can get paid for the idiocy you are preaching on here.

Submitted by starbucksonearm on

I have suffered from two wrist surgeries from RMI. It is a WC case, and I can assure you, it is from working at Starbucks. They have not disputed this WC claim at all, but I am now perminiatly damaged, and I do not know what I will do for the rest of my life.
I am sorry, no spell check here!
Any questiona about RMI..I have become the exspert!

Submitted by disibelle on

hey, thanks for all the support!
i was really lucky that my old district manager (my district just got so big that it was split in two) and my regional manager popped into my store yesterday after my manager had left. they were appalled by the way that i've been treated and instantly arranged a transfer for me to an auto bar store, even though my manager had made out that a transfer to a more suitable store would be virtually impossible. they've also set up a meeting for me to discuss the way my managers been acting towards me, but i think that's probably a whole other forum...
dontformaunion: i might not have any concrete proof just yet, however between the 40+hours a week i put in on the bar, making upwards of 100 drinks/hour in busy periods with no rotation as our labour budget doesn't allow for it, and then the law degree i'm doing ouside of work i don't exactly have the time to do anything else that would cause an rsi! prehaps if you don't believe that a manual bar can cause such damage you could come do the shifts i have left til i transfer?!!

Submitted by starbucksonearm on

If anyone else has had any issues with Repetitive motion injuries, please share your experiences with me. I am in the mist of a mess with Starbucks, and my health, and am just wondering if anyone else has suffered the same kind of workman’s comp mess that I am in.

Thanks!