Starbucks Reviews in Los Angeles, CA Area

Pros

great benefits, other employees can be jerks, but is overall fun and exciting especially when getting to meet new people everyday.

Cons

upper management does not always recognize employee achievements on an individual level.
stressful in certain situations, but most jobs are.

Advice to Senior Management

recognize employees on an individual basis

Pros

Nice environment. Pay (for the field). Starts $.90 above minimum, $.40 raise after 6 months, free coffee/ tea "markout" weekly, competetive benefits after 20 hours /week, paid time off after 1 year with company (1 hour for every 40 worked), flexible schedule

Cons

If you are under the 240 hour /quarter limit for insurance, they will drop you like a hot potato, there is a constant emphasis on doing as much as possible with as little coverage as possible, lots of targets for sales (I work in a ill performing store, tons of issues there)

Advice to Senior Management

I understand the need to reduce staffing, but this can get extreme at times. Please empower store managers to staff their stores better.

Pros

good benefits for part-time work
vacation hours
good people

Cons

to much politics.
can't believe how some of management got their positions

Advice to Senior Management

listen to your workers.

Pros

Free lb of coffee weekly, health insurance and vacation for part time, free drinks while working, lots of ways to recognize partners, great pay compared to other companies, but not so great considering everything you have to put up with, you meet a lot of fun people both customers and partners

Cons

-DO NOT work this job if your body cannot handle extreme hours that change consistently. In the same week you'll be scheduled as early as 4am and as late as 1 am. Company (up through corporate) will not work with you to make it semi-consistent, even with appropriate documentation from a doctor (which goes against everything Howard Schultz supposedly stands for).

-You get health insurance, but it's shitty-deductable's up to 1125$ and you still have to pay 40-70% of the end doctor bill. Insurance only covers 30-60% depending on which plan you choose. Prescriptions cost up to 100$/month

-Really depends on the manager you get. If you get a good one who wants to train and who knows how to write the schedule and cares about their staff, you'll work your ass off, but probably have a decent experience. In my experience I had an extremely moody manager who had no interest in training, which made for a horrible experience considering i was a manager in "training."

-No support from upper management

-Its like serving a bunch of addicts all day-people get MEAN about their coffee.

-It's a very robotic job, no need to use critical thinking or your brain at all. It's all about muscle memory and speed. Very repetitive job, no change from day to day.

Advice to Senior Management

Store managers need more supervision. DM's-if you have one partner who has issues with the SM, it's probably the partner, but when the whole staff has issues it's probably time to look at how the SM is doing there job and if they fail to show up to an opening shift 2 weeks in a row-address it! And figure out a way to work with people's schedules....your staff will be happier, healthier, and better employees if their not being forced to work hours both in the early morning and late at night. Pick a general time, either mornings or nights, and stick with it.

Pros

There's room for growth. Scheduling is extremely flexible. It's completely worth it if you live in California because of the special California laws. The people you meet are amazing. Starbucks does take care of it's partners and values them.

Cons

Being a "Store Manager" really requires you to know the barista job well. A lot of " External Hires" have trouble adapting to the fast paced environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Plan well, and use all of the resources Starbucks offers.

Pros

you definitely network, get to know different people, learn new experiences, and more! Depending on your district, your experiences will vary. our district just had cliff burrows, renee, and frank visit us! (:

Cons

it can be VERY demanding at times, stressful and A LOT more cleaning than people would anticipate.

Pros

Great flexibility and its benefits are pretty amazing for those who are students

Cons

I can't seem to find one

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to promote from within the company. Too many times in my 5 years with the company, have I seen external partners come in and then right back out.

Pros

Hours of operation are great

Cons

You have to be able to work very early

Pros

- decent pay with some tips
- the work wasn't very difficult or demanding
- free drinks while working was great, especially for early shifts

Cons

- hours aren't great, especially the early morning shift
- doing the same thing gets really old
- some customers could get very demanding or pissy

Advice to Senior Management

- you could maybe offer a higher percentage of tips to the people who actually are friendly at the register and earn them

Pros

Benefits are good. Get to meet cool local people.

Cons

Pay is bad. They should pay us $25 an hour to do this.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within. Everybody has to learn the "pumps" by the way.