Working For Starbucks: Pros & Cons
What it’s like working at Starbucks
Everybody has something to say about Starbucks, that little coffee company that takes in a small $16 billion every year.
Whether you’re an everyday customer or a once-in-a-blue moon buyer, I’m sure you have wondered what it's like to work for such an established corporation. Their reputation and continued success has taken over pop culture and the entire world with over 36,000 locations across the globe.
Their stores have a set of quaintness arrangements, artsy pictures on the wall, and not to mention the addicting coffee bean aroma of their store. You might say to yourself, “This would be a great place to work!”
Before we jump to conclusions, let's look at the pros and cons of working at Starbucks.
Pros
1. Partners (employees) can receive a free pound of coffee or tea every week.
Yes, you heard it right. This is a great incentive to save a few bucks on your grocery list if you like to have some coffee right when you wake up. Most if not all the partners take advantage of this benefit every week and it may seem small and minor, but those pounds of coffee add up on the budget expenditures.
2. In-store discount for partners is 30%
Unlike most retail shops where the discount is 20%, Starbucks is 30%, so if you are an avid Starbucks customer this is a lot of savings!
3. Free Spotify
The issue with this is if you’re a long-time user of Apple Music and you don’t feel like creating and repeating a whole set of playlists on a different platform which sounds like a lot of work. However, the price is free and to anyone with a frugal mindset; the choice is easy. Switch to Spotify for FREE.
4. Eligible Tuition Coverage for Arizona State University
Starbucks has partnered with Arizona State University, where eligible partners could be able to work at Starbucks and get their tuition 100% paid by Starbucks through ASU’s top-ranked online degree school.
Out of all the perks, this one benefits the most to individuals who are thinking of going to school, but circumstances might hinder their ability to attend. It’s a great way to earn money while getting that degree and did I mention the tuition is 100% covered?
5. Commuter Benefit
Starbucks offers their partners easy ways to take care of work-related commuter expenses such as transit passes funded by pretax payroll deductions. This is also a significant benefit for people just starting out working at Starbucks and need some help to get over that initial hump for their personal finances.
Those are the pros, let's look at the cons.
Cons
1. Long hours, morning or evening.
The hours can be tough. With a store opening as early as 5:30 and closing at either 9:45 or 10:45, the shifts are gonna be longer than most jobs.
Working in the morning can be a stressful shift considering the constant influx of customers getting their fix of caffeine, while the evenings are a little chaotic having to take care of the evening rush with fewer people on staff, and attempting to clean and close the stores on time.
Some partners feel that these time slots are unrealistic as it pertains to getting stuff done on time.
2. Pay
The starting pay for baristas changes from state to state and they can range from $10–$12.
The issue though is that the next stage for baristas to work up to is shift supervisor, which is only a $2 increase.
A lot of customers complain it is not enough pay for the amount of work you have to put in. However, you can say that statement about any job and if you love making coffee, then this shouldn’t be an issue.
3. Customers
The perspective on customers obviously changes from person to person, but a frequent buyer of Starbucks definitely has a different viewpoint than a Starbucks partner.
The customers are not the most forgiving people in the world, and some customers will get mad if their drink is prepared wrong, and I mean pretty goddamn mad.
Perhaps they may be mad since they are using their money to buy a product, and perhaps people should not flip out just because their latte has 3 pumps of vanilla syrup and not 4.
Just take this into consideration because every day at Starbucks, just like any place of work, is a different day with different customers.
4. Management
Starbucks stores have some change-over of managers, depending on the year. However, management can make or break an employee’s perspective of working at Starbucks.
Some say that they’ve had critical management issues and that it was the reason they left Starbucks, and others have said nothing but great things about management.
It really depends on the people, and if you have great management, work will be much more fun and inclusive environment.
Depending on the type of person you are, Starbucks may be the perfect fit, or it may not.
Working at one of the most popular companies in the world can feel amazing in your head, but without consuming the research into how other people feel about working at a place like Starbucks, you’re going in blind and potentially with expectations that may not be met.
Do the pros outweigh the cons?
