Although I think it would be foolish for us to sit here and argue about what Starbucks corporation can and cannot afford I think it would be nice if they made higher wages attainable for all baristas not just ones that want to climb the corporate ladder.
Zero to four percent of your base pay every six months is not enough. The only hope to make any money at Starbucks is to work hard or kiss the right ass and get promoted.
As it stands right now in my region it would take a barista who got perfect reviews every six months (are you ready???) five and half years to make $9.99 an hour.
Now, could someone get by on that much money where I live? Yeah, if they don't owe anyone anything and they live very frugaly they might just scrape by. The problem is the five and a half years it took them to get to 9.99 (the cost of a green plastic lawn chair at Target). How did this person get by? Stock options? Yeah if they only buy groceries every October 1st. Rent?...
When retail workers survive its mostly due to the kindness of others. Your parents, your friends, your partner, someone is always helping you out in one way or another. In that way we have all experienced and benefited from these different variations of unions.
Wake up!!!
[quote=southbux] When retail
[quote=southbux]
When retail workers survive its mostly due to the kindness of others. Your parents, your friends, your partner, someone is always helping you out in one way or another. In that way we have all experienced and benefited from these different variations of unions.
Wake up!!![/quote]
You’re absolutely on to something. This support of Starbucks workers represents a subsidy paid by the supporters of those workers that allows Starbucks to gain cheep labor.
Society must be made aware of this parasitic corporate habit.
I say corporate because it is not exclusive to Starbucks. In fact the Silvia Federici points out in this speech
http://silviafederici.littlerednotebook.com/
How unpaid women’s slave labor was crucial to the maintenance of capitalism and it’s requirement of a propertyless labor force.
Any barista who could get 5 1
Any barista who could get 5 1/2 years worth of perfect reviews would obviously not be a barista anymore unless they chose to be. Someone who got 5 1/2 years of perfect reviews would be a store manager, or an assistant manager waiting for a store to open up for them. Your situation shows a point, but it would most likely be a married woman who works at Starbucks to have something to do, not to make a living. So once again, if you want to make a living at Starbucks, you can, but like with any job you have to work toward it, not have it handed to you on a silver platter.
This is probably true. Yet i
This is probably true. Yet it begs the question are the metrics used to measure perfection appropriate for selecting a manager.
After all it is entirely different skill sets that make a great manager from those needed to be a great barista.
So the fact is by promoting a great barista starucks would both loose a great assets to a position in which that individual is ill suited. While overlooking an employee who is not performing well as a barista, precisely because their skills are better star being a star manager.
no gods no masters
I just have one question, do
I just have one question, do you work for Starbucks, or are you some random person trying to profit off a union at it?
I do not work for Starbucks,
I do not work for Starbucks, but I am a member of the IWW and a supporter of Work Place Democracy.
no gods no masters
[quote=Organize]I do not work
[quote=Organize]I do not work for Starbucks, but I am a member of the IWW and a supporter of Work Place Democracy.
no gods no masters[/quote]
If you don't work for Starbucks, then please don't give your opinions on how our company should be run. You obviously don't know jackshit about it. A review for a barista isn't just, "oh, good job you can show up on time and make drinks," it's also about your sense of urgency, how well you get along with other partners and customers, anticipating customer needs and evauluating environment, how well you communicate with other partners (if this isn't important as a store manager, then you've fucking lost it), and I wish I could find the rest of my last review to give more examples on. By the way, that review was a 2.8 out of 3, almost perfect. I also got promoted 2 weeks after that review. And one last thing, do not call what you preach workplace democracy, its workplace communism and that's all it will ever be.
Organize, you have been OWN3D
Organize, you have been OWN3D.
And even so I think my experi
And even so I think my experience a manger, in direct marketing for fortune 500 companies combined with my background in international studies, and my personal interest and study of management strategies, economics, alternative corporate models gives me insights which others here may not have.
Communism? Actually that is exactly what the current starbucks structure seems to most aptly look like. It’s a centralized bureaucracy, with limited freedom of speech, etc….
The similarities with Starbucks and the USSR are really uncanny once you begin to think about it.
no gods no masters
The way Starbucks is set up,
The way Starbucks is set up, you have to be a good Barista to be a good manager. It would be pathetic to have your veteran Baristas run circles around your Manager when it comes to expediting, or even running your bar.
I personally think if you're a crappy Barista [ or at least not exemplary ] then you should be skipped on the corporate chain for management. If you can't handle the floor, how are you going to set the precedent for your employees?
Management skills aren't impossible to learn. Put a good Barista in the position to learn them, and I guarantee you that they will. A Manager for Starbucks is not a Back of the House position. I want to say that a majority of their hours are spent pretending to be a Supervisor. They do the same job we do, with some tacked on responsibilities.
I'm going to jump on DontFormAUnion's bandwagon and say that you are in no position to instruct or judge the Starbucks workplace environment. It's a sad, sad song... but somebody has to play the trombone.
[quote=cheapwh0re]The way Sta
[quote=cheapwh0re]The way Starbucks is set up, you have to be a good Barista to be a good manager.[/quote]
You say this is true, but do you have internal Starbucks studies that prove this connection. My guess is that Starbucks has never bothered to test it. In other words they are shooting from the hip, which is why they are making so many mistakes.
That is bad business. Especially for a company that at over 9000 stores worldwide has no choice but to be making executive business decisions on a statistical bases.
[quote=cheapwh0re]It would be pathetic to have your veteran Baristas run circles around your Manager when it comes to expediting, or even running your bar.[/quote]
Just because the thought makes you feel uncomfortable does not make it pathetic. The Military for instance does not require officers to have served their time as regulars first.
That’s because they know that it takes different skills to lead effectively, than it dose to perform effectively.
[quote=cheapwh0re]I personally think if you're a crappy Barista [ or at least not exemplary ] then you should be skipped on the corporate chain for management. If you can't handle the floor, how are you going to set the precedent for your employees?[/quote]
Yeah I wonder how many on the board and in corporate started out as Barista’s and reached their position based on their excellent performance reviews serving espresso?
[quote=cheapwh0re]Management skills aren't impossible to learn. Put a good Barista in the position to learn them, and I guarantee you that they will. A Manager for Starbucks is not a Back of the House position. I want to say that a majority of their hours are spent pretending to be a Supervisor. They do the same job we do, with some tacked on responsibilities.[/quote]
They may not me hard to learn, but they are hard to implement when the very structure of the organization in which one manages is designed to undermine ones trust with employees.
Further more your point illustrates the point that elected management is a doable and workable idea, especially when those managers have a clear mandate and the trust of the employees who elected them.
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