Pros

Starbucks is a very flexible company as far as time of or switching shifts. I have worked at the company for 4.5 years and I feel that is a testament in itself. It has been great work throughout my post secondary schooling.

Cons

There is not much room for change as it is such a large company; however, you are encouraged to voice your opinion.

Advice to Senior Management

I think over the past year Starbucks has done a great job at ensuring that it goes back to basics. Refocusing the company was a very smart strategic move.

Pros

you get to talk to people, and make coffee. fringe benefits and tips

Cons

when it gets busy, and a line starts to form, the job gets very stressful. nothing i couldnt handle though

Advice to Senior Management

reward baristas more with more recognition. higher better educated managers, and love what you do

Pros

Free coffee and tea. That's about it.

Cons

Giving employees health insurance is an empty gesture. At a starting pay rate of $6.90/hour, you won't be able to make your co-pays. Benefits for part-time workers is a great idea, but this idea is implemented poorly. It serves only to make Starbucks look good.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay employees a decent living wage, THEN insurance. Also, stop calling your sub-minimum wage workers "partners." It's disingenuous, at best, and insulting.

Pros

Not a bad job for a high school student. It required the normal tasks needed for foodservice with a sense of dignity attached.

Cons

Were not flexible enough. They don't value their hourly employees as much as the full time employees...but that is true mostly anywhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Make schedules more flexible. Its hard to work when you are in high school because there are so many commitments.

Pros

flexible hours, great benefits- health, dental, 401K, stock, & considerably easy job (all you have to do is make coffee!)

As i said in the headline, it really depends on the competence of your management. If they know the ins and outs of the daily inventory, types of customers, how to schedule and deploy baristas/shift supervisors (Some people are meant to work in the morning and some at night). I find that their attitude trickles on down to the rest of the workers. I had a great manager who was dedicated to his job and always tried to do what's fair. I was one of his closest friends but he never showed favoritism and always called me out on things that I did wrong or could have done better. Of course, he did love me because I had a great work ethic.

My manager gave me constructive criticism on a daily basis so it was easy to grow and learn. There is a method to it all. You have to have the proper deployment, have people assigned to tills according to their hours and capabilities. Once, I had one of my baristas assign a till on the wrong side and it ended up being a nightmare with giving out breaks and lunches.

The stock is the best part of this job- Starbucks is a company where they lost a ton of their revenue but still made a profit. That just shows how smart and business savvy this company is.

Cons

You have to deal with customers who understand that Starbucks has a "Just Say Yes" policy and will abuse it to no end. I once had a customer who tried to return an OPENED cd and threw the line, "Well, my friend works for Starbucks and you have to say yes." My asst. manager ended up giving her the refund but threw away the cd in front of her.

One of the worst things is if you have incompetent or apathetic co-workers (Called partners in the company). I knew a lot of partners who decided that working at Starbucks was another way to indulge in laziness. This results in "bottleneck" lines and unhappy customers. Yes, working at Starbucks is not all that luxurious but I still took pride in my job and worked hard.

Another con is when you work 35-40 hours a week and have sensitive skin, all that steam will make you sweat and dry out your skin. My fingers were so dry by the end of my 4 years working there, that they started to crack and bleed while working. I wore gloves but I found they were streaked with blood by the end of my shift. If I took a couple of days off, my fingers would heal completely but as soon as my shift started, they were cracked. Of course, this is a rare case but still a fair warning.

Tips are not that great. You work 35-40 hours and you still make about 90 bucks for a week's worth. I worked in a high volume store but because of the recession, people are less willing to give tips.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to do your job. Make sure you understand daily inventory because when we run out of something as important as cups or syrup, customers will definitely b*tch and moan about it. It then turns into the baristas'/supervisors' fault. What we did was when this happened, we upgraded their drinks to the next size.

Learn to communicate with your shift supervisors. Definitely don't nitpick at flaws- we work hard at maintaining the store.

Don't play favoritism amongst the partners. It's a small group and people can smell it a mile away.

Pros

Extremely fun place to work as long as you like your co-workers. Very flexible for college students. Love the coffee discounts!

Cons

Customers are demanding, extremely fast paced.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to value employees! You are doing a great job

Pros

Flexible hours
Easy work load
Good customer interaction

Cons

Low pay
Benefits could be better

Advice to Senior Management

Stop building more stores, focus on the current ones.

Pros

Fun work environment if you work with people you like
Not a boring job
Basic job skills that actually have real-world application

Cons

Extremely hectic
You can burn your hands (it happens)

Advice to Senior Management

When a barista calls a senior manager or a district manager, there is an issue. When my issue was not dealt with in a manner that indicated concern or interest, I was made very upset.

Pros

Salary
Benefits - Health, Dental, Vision, Vacation, etc...
Work Life Balance

Cons

Career Advancement
Micro Management of Senior Management

Advice to Senior Management

Stop Micro-management or great managers

Pros

Interesting people, flexibility, tansitional employment. You can change titles, or move and still have options for employment at Starbucks.

Cons

There are some great distric managers, and some terrible ones. You have to find the right people to work with. Some store managers assume great integrity, while others are manipulative and selfish. It's all about the district and store you work in. I had both the best managment and worst managment I have ever seen there, 10 miles apart from each other...

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be fooled by magic numbers... Some of your worst managers produce good marks, while some respectable managers are in tough neighbor hood markets.