Pros
The only benefit of this job is free coffee.
Cons
I worked here for 2 years, was promoted, and never once no-showed to a shift. I had managers say "I really don't know what I would do without you." But for all the work I did for the business, there was no appreciation in terms of pay, benefits, or working conditions. In 2 years I was there we had at least 5 different managers because they aren't treated well either and constantly quit. Whenever there was a change in manager (they very rarely hire from the cafe workers themselves, they want career managers from outside the store who come in not knowing how anything works) I essentially had to pick up all the slack and train the manager on many things to boot--things get really messy during those times and I regret going out of my way to keep things running well. I got nothing for it. This job was 3 times the work as when I was a barista in Seattle for about half of the pay--you are the cashier, the barista, the cleaner, the dishwasher, the kitchen worker, and anything else you can think of. You will run back and forth through the cafe all day juggling all of these tasks, sometimes on your own, and if you are good at it, you will get nothing for it. Pay is stingy. At 18 months I was due for a 6 month raise (a very tiny 25 cents/hr, not even really a reward) and the operations manager pretended to me like the raise schedule had never existed. Imagine working hard for 6 months, coming in to cover shifts, always going the extra mile, because you think working hard will qualify you for your scheduled raise, and then when the time comes, "oops, we changed the rules, sorry!" When you start, they say that you aren't allowed to work at another cafe for 30 days after quitting, to scare you from getting hired away by any cafe that might offer you better compensation. I'm not even sure if that's legal. When I left, they gave me a piece of paper to fill out--the top portion was for writing my address to send my last paycheck to and the bottom is an NDA. The implication, which of course is not true, is that you must sign the NDA to get your last paycheck, and I'm sure lots of baristas fall for it. So manipulative! Just found out the location I worked at is closing and they only gave the baristas 3 days notice that they'll lose their jobs even though they surely had made the plan to close well ahead of then. Absolutely heartless.