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[@usorthem3]

I just want to thank Jim for giving a forum where all can B said w/out fear of being fired 4 Ur perspective, because when it comes down to it, this site shows all different views at Life at the @SBUX. partners & customers alike. bravo & kudos

[SC BARISTA]

Has anyone else been fired for not having open availability? I was yesterday and think its a bunch of BS...

[baristadisgruntled]

Has any other partner been bent over and defiled unwillingly by the health insurance? It was not appropriately COMMUNICATED to me that I NEEDED to fill out my WebMD Health Quotient again by the end of August, after nearly 4 years of working here with the same insurance, or SBUX Benefits was going to switch my insurance to their NEW DEFAULT--the STANDARD PLAN--which is a ridiculous plan that puts my husband and me $1500 in the hole, not including the additional $60(ish) taken out of my paycheck every two weeks...

When you don't change things, things should stay the same, no? Granted we just switched from Aetna to Premera, but could they have not given me the plan that was almost EXACTLY LIKE the one that I was originally on?

A letter to appeal was faxed and sent, certified. I feel scammed by my employer.

[Sneaky]

I read the following comment in the Iced Tea thread and I found it sadly inaccurate;

I think you will find that having worked at Starbucks makes you more valuable to hire.

Posted by: spence | October 16, 2009 at 08:50 AM

Back in July 2008 I was one of about 2 dozen from the same region that were either eliminated or forced to step down. I have stayed in contact with most of that group. Witout fail, ALL of us have heard from potential employers that having Starbucks on our resume has been a detriment not a help. And, the longer we worked for the company, the worse it's been.

In fact, on a recent interview, a potential employer told me more that half of the resumes/applications he receives each month are from Starbucks partners. He went on the say that as a company they've decided NOT to consider former Starbucks partners as potential employees.

I was only with the company for 2 years. I came to Sbux with 20 years of outstanding experience after being recruited for over 3 years. I thought I would retire there. It is so sad that now that brief period is becoming the biggest stumbling block in getting re-hired (yes, I've been interviewing for over a year and still nothing).

Have any other former partners, or current partners in the interview process, experienced this same thing?

[me myself and I]

I wonder why nobody in Seattle realizes that if you screw someone, he/she might screw you back at the next given opportunity?
Starbucks fame used to come from word of mouth. I'm sure this will change into the other direction soon.
I've once heard people tend to tell about an average of three people if they had a good experience somewhere. They usually tell about 13-15 people about a bad experience.

And yes, I can see why some companies shy away from former Starbucks employees. "Partners" tend to have very high expectations toward the way they get treated. Unfortunately, Starbucks set those standards and now fails big time to fulfill them itself. Starbucks management learned the wrong stuff from Wal-Mart.

On the positive side you will find Starbucks employees are usually used to high pressure situations and even though they tend to complain a lot, get the job done with a smile!

[ChristinL]

"It was not appropriately COMMUNICATED to me that I NEEDED to fill out my WebMD Health Quotient again by the end of August"

what would you consider appropriate communication? It was MAILED TO YOU in official packaging before open enrollment. It was ON THE PORTAL which you have access to. Do you want partner resources to visit every single partner and get a signature verifying that they heard and understood? Also, the same thing happened last year, granted we didn't change insurance companies but not filling out heal quotient changed your rates then too.

[spence]

I'm sorry you didn't know about the QT but anyone that reads their mail, did. It was also on the insurance package that they sent to you about the new insurance.
It is also on the Partner page of Starbucks. com
It was also posted last year when you did it.

Now we are trying to sell Via in a traveler for $10. Why on earth would a customer come in to buy a traveling case of coffee want instant? Seriously, Corporate: NO ONE COMES TO STARBUCKS TO DRINK INSTANT COFFEE. I want my customers to keep coming back.

[Schmidt, Jingle Heimer]

The price increase in my area has brought the price of a lot of my customer's drinks to over $5.00. I noticed that when it hit the $5 dollar mark, they suddenly seemed dumbfounded...but the increases in the past that never hit $5 was tolerant-funny how that is.
Also-it would be awesome if partners weren't ignorant to the refill policy. The lack causes uncomfortable arguements. A lot of baristas let it slide to avoid confrontation and the customer knows they're taking advantage...call them on it by letting them know so "uncomfortable situations like this don't happen anymore for the both of us". There was an awesome exchange at the register yesterday with someone with an unused cup (most likely a double-cupped tall coffee from the AM-cities away...using the second cup) arguing with a barista after they set the printed refill policy in front of them to read. I just told the customer that they're doing their job and upholding SBUX policies/standards. No sympathy from me for the free-loaders. He got his refund and still filled up his cup 1/2 way with a VIA sample displayed in front of him-douche.
Another gripe...if I buy a tall frapp., can I get a second one for free? No, you say...OK. I'll take a Venti frapp. and split it into 2 cups please.
And then there's...lines just for water...at the handoff area like they just paid for something...take off-eh! Start charging for the cups/seconds of labor, please.
The last time I checked this was a publicly traded corporation doing business for profit.
Onward?

[GRTL]

Regarding the insurance issue. I am very disappointed in the change in insurance. Not only did our monthly deductions go up, but when my partner went to get medication he NEEDs on a monthly basis he was shocked to find that the copay for medication with the new insurance was 3 TIMES the amount under Aetna.

It's like taking a HUGE paycut. :-(

[bitter bean]

Has anyone else heard that partners are not permitted to use any of their vacation hours during the month of December? I'm truly dumbfounded by this and curious as to whether or not this is corporate wide.

[Will]

Bitter bean, I don't think that's legal. You should be able to use your vacation whenever you want. Report this immediately.

The new insurance sucks. I have a potentially malignant melanoma on my abdomen that I'm having to pay nearly the entire cost to have removed. This policy is worthless. I'm a full time student and shift supervisor, I don't have the money to handle having cancer.

If we're having to pay so much for health insurance, we might as well have single payer.

[SBUX Alum Bill]

There's a poll in today's Seattle Times asking its readers whether Starbucks' sales decline was due to the recession or due to the brand's "lost cashet" (brought about by overexpansion, which transformed the "Starbucks Experience" from one that was cool to one that was mundane). Here's the link for those who are interested.

[stargas]

Please forgive this yucky question, but does VIA give anybody else gassy stomach?

For breakfast, I had a VIA packet mixed in with cold chocolate milk. It was delicious, but after four hours I had a serious case of gas. This is all I have eaten so far today, and I don't usually drink coffee.

Does anyone else have this gassy stomach problem?

[redcup]

Any student of kineseology/physiology/nutrition who might know how many calories does a Barista burn being on tanderm bar during a typical 4 hour morning rush, in which there are approx. 30 bar beverages per half hour and the person you're tandeming with is somewhat competent.

[Asher]

Regarding December vacation, as a Store Manager we've always been "blacked out" from taking vacation time through our busiest weeks of holiday. I don't think that necessarily rolls down through SS and barista though.

With that being said, it's going to be hard to take time off the next couple months. For the majority of us it's the busiest time of the year, and with optimal hours in place, partners will be expected to be available to work. This should be communicated through the SM. If you have a planned vacation, so be it. As long as the SM has time to plan ahead I don't see the problem. Again, I don't think it's the same requirement. Then again, remember it's not as easy to cover time off as it was in the past, and each and every partner's contribution is critical now under optimal hours. So if you're a partner who is used to requesting and getting large chunks of time off, especially during our busiest quarter of the year, it wouldn't surprise me if you get some kick back. I'm not saying it's fair, just saying that's the way it is now.

[K.Latte]

Stargas! (haha) I'm so glad you said that! Myself, and several of the baristas here have had the exact same problems. I think VIA tastes just fine, but it made us all feel very gassy and yucky.

[@SC BARISTA]

Yes, I was separated for not having open availability. I had an availability of 4:00AM to 3:15pm but it was still considered NOT ENOUGH. I had another job besides Starbucks and they actually kept trying to convince me to choose between them and Starbucks, of course, my other job being way better in terms of pay/quarterly guaranteed bonuses/guaranteed hours/better working conditions/less stressful, I decided to choose my other job. Anyhow, I talked to other Starbucks managers about it and they were rather confused as to why I got separated when to them the availability I had was enough to work with, some even told me they wish they had partners who could have that availability for them to work with. I suppose the district manager wanted only full-time status partners only for that store? It seems like there were to be not part-time partners at all, so that's why I accepted separation. Look at the bright side, you get to get unemployment for a bit, I know it's not as great as working as many hours as you'd like and getting bigger paychecks sometimes but it's still a little help. For a few weeks I was not given hours at all and I think they kept waiting for me to voluntarily quit but I knew better, quitting means you have to sign documents saying you don't want to work for the company anymore which therefore means you give up your right to collect unemployment. So as you see, I just kept my mouth shut and when they saw I didn't complain or whine about hours... well they separated me. All I can say is I got separated right before all the major changes were brought to stores and therefore thanks to that I still go to Starbucks and enjoy the beverages and atmosphere without having some negative memories about Starbucks if somehow I had stayed with them longer. I actually feel less stressed/less overworked/way less tired than I did before, and it's been actually great for the past few months since I have left Starbucks. Hang in there, you'll be fine, in no time you'll see that everything will be alright. Take care :-)

[Ithinkweknoweachother]

@sneaky

DB, is that you?

[Oregon SBUX Customer]

One of the baristas at the local store said that Starbucks might stop the whole Gold Card program in January --- I haven't seen anything about that on Starbucks Gossip - wondering if anyone else has heard anything about this...

[stargas]

@K.Latte
Hmmm.....so it isn't just me. We all know that lots of whipped cream makes you feel gassy and yucky in the stomach area. I wonder if it is VIA alone or in combination with milk that does this. I want to know but don't want to do too much experimentation to find out.

[bayareabux]

Something weird is definitely up with Gold... any ideas?

[Sick of Howard!!!]

SBUX Alum Bill-

If you remember three summers ago they introduced the new iced tea/juice frappuccinos. They were so popular that I can’t even remember what they were called. We were told to sample, sample, sample. At the same time labor was being watched very closely, Starbucks retail merchandise was not selling because it was defective, and the company was still opening new stores randomly to prove to investors they had “growth”.

The new fraps were shoved at customers who were trained to expect their beverages in less than three minutes. Less labor and too much focus on sampling made long wait times and customers got tired of waiting. CNBC reported on this many times and said that Starbucks needed to fix their stores. Fewer customers and more stores killed the stock price (from over $40 a share to $30). The stock price briefly recovered in the Fall of ‘07 when cooler weather brought customers back, but then it only tanked again all the way to below $10 a share in a two year freefall.

This had NOTHING to do with the recession and NOTHING to do with Starbucks being a leading indicator for the economy. It had everything to do with a totally inept management. They took a perfectly good company and fixed it. They fixed it so well that it almost went under.

I also remember one word being over used by upper management to the store partners at this same time…ACCOUNTABILITY. Those jerks at the top that almost destroyed a company looked to us retail partners and attempted to shift the responsibility. Their horrific decisions killed store business and somehow we were to be held accountable. What hypocrites. Jim Donald lost his job for it, but he was merely a scapegoat.

Howard Schultz has been at the helm for the entire catastrophe. He was the Chairman of the Board and approved all decisions. The recession was probably a huge relief to him and the rest of the Board because it diverted responsibility for Starbucks horrible performance to the economy and helped them avoid being held accountable.

Today Howard is still in charge and boy don’t things look peachy now. The stock price is up to $20 per share (still down 50% from its high) and everything appears to be going well again. The very fool who helped lead this company to the bottom is now in charge of fixing it. Well, does it feel fixed?

Let’s see, nationwide partner moral is at an all time low, the brand is so diluted that we are now competing with fast food chains, customer count is still down from where it was before the summer of ’07, the stores are dirtier and in total disrepair, and beverage quality is much worse. Way to go Howard!!! Makes you want to just run out and buy a pack of VIA doesn’t it.

[Sam]

@stargas

I had a similar experience last week when I put VIA in warm milk to make a latte. I wonder if this could be a new marketing campaign.

“Get gassed on Starbucks VIA.”

[i want to get gassy]

mmmm...imagine what it would be like to put a couple packets of via in the whipped cream before you charge it...mmmm...

coffee whipped cream. delicious, but gassy!

[Melody]

@bayareabux -
Re: Gold Card - Yes, totally feels like something weird is up. On MSI I've seen posts that all Gold Cards will continue to be valid until January 5, 2010. My card is actually over a full year old at this point, and still valid.

If the bulk of Gold Card sales last year were at Christmas time - gifts - then extending everyone's card to 1-5-10 means most everyone will get a full year out of it (or more) before any possible termination of the program.

That's my theory. My gut tells me Gold Card, as we know it, is coming to an end, and there will be no more second card. And for what it is worth, 13 months into using a Gold Card, I still meet baristas right here in Seattle who are confused about the 2 programs. I have to assume they're newbies, I guess.

[Foam]

Being fired for not having open availability is such total BS. Like wth.

I remember I had average availability for a student, back when I was in high school. Then I was FORCED to reduce it to either weekend only (24 hrs/48hrs) OR be available for a certain amount of hours (forgot) during the weekdays. It was my grad year too, so to me, it was very important and the workload was heavier. There couldnt be a combination of weekend and weekday. That is such BS. The manager who enforced that rule is now fired. Thank ya, GG. =]

[CD]

VIA Question: I just received my new "Fearless Flyer" from Trader Joe's. They have a new Instant Coffee that is "agglomerated" and they say it's the best tasting Instant you've ever tasted. I'd like to hear from some Baristas (or customers) that have done a comparison of Via Columbian to Trader Joe's instant Columbian.

[SBUX Alum Bill]

@ Sick of Howard!!!:

I agree. I think the recession has come at a very convenient time for upper management - it has allowed them to escape accountability for their own mistakes.

[green_cup]

Has anyone else heard that partners are not permitted to use any of their vacation hours during the month of December? I'm truly dumbfounded by this and curious as to whether or not this is corporate wide.

Posted by: bitter bean | October 16, 2009 at 01:15 PM

Isn't this common in retail that during December, they can lock down any time requested off? Besides, isn't that how most of retail works: request-offs? It's called a "request" for a reason: they can deny it if they have good reason to. December being probably Starbucks' busiest month + a tight labor pool = no one should be off.

Gotta think about your customers when you ask for things like this. Your customer shouldn't need to stand in line because you want to take off time during your company's busiest time.

I guess they could just find a replacement for you and you could have an extended break off?

[144xxxx]

AVAILABILITY - For the availability question, all Starbucks requires is 12 hours and if it's on the weekend you need 2 8-hour days, or something along those lines. I don't think that the manager is allowed to force you to open the availability or have more. I would definitely bring it up with the partner service center.

STOCK - I think that the drop in price is due to the constantly changing tactics that it is using to acquire customers. The growth 10 years ago was able to cover up some of the blatant mistakes because we were rolling in the cash. Now that we have to actually earn our money all the flaws come out. Instead of paying a bit more money for the right person we hire anyone that seems friendly enough and hope that they'll work out. As an added example, my DM said, "we are going to aggressively pursue our customers". This to me means that we have to entice our customers to come in because our stores can't provide the customers value for their money by giving them a real Starbucks experience.

GOLD CARD - I highly doubt that Starbucks will do away with the gold card. Since they already gave it to the customer, there would be a huge backlash I think from the customers. I think that either they'll be rolling out more to the program or try to simplify it. I could be completely wrong, but I think that after you give the customer a perk for being loyal, it will be extremely difficult to take it away.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

In other news, the entire Great Lake-New England Region has to report their VIA sales by 3PM and what they're going to be doing to boost their sales if they are not in-line with projects targets.

[Coffee Soldier]

I bet the company is giving customers until 1/5 to keep their gold cards so that in our slow down period after Christmas there is a reason to boost up sales for Q2 with all the gold cards we are going to have to reissue...too bad individual stores don't even see the money on each purchase but the company does...then Howard can stand up in Arpil telling shareholders what a comeback we've had....this company gets more sketchy by the day.

Yes...Boston Rebel...The Great Lakes-New England Region is gone crazy today!!! My district had a talking to today about increasing our Via sales or else....or else what I wanted to say into the conference call to our DM....are you really going to fire 14 store managers at once? Only one store in our district is above 50% to goal!

[CD]

Re Gold Card - interestingly SBUX has gone back to offering a $25 Sbux card deposit on your new Duetto instead of a gold card membership. Wonder what's up?

[just another peon]

Hey, I didn't know also that we were changing insurance and had to do the HQ. Yes I got the package...late but then again, with all the time we have at the store lately to spit shine every crevice, the computer just had a glob of spit where it talked about the new isurance...(not). As for the one who mentioned the arguement with the customer over the refil policy...all I can say is beware....DM's are writing up people...I was...because you are not ensuring that our customers have a highly satisfied experience. Who cares that they are freaking robing from us...taking advantage of policies...and treating the baristas(hrly & mgr) like crap to get their way. My DM has said that he never wants to hear about the refill policy again...just give them what they want, avoid a complaint to seattle. So I know that in some areas close to us...long beach...they actually enforce the policy, as well as in some other areas of CA, this discrepancy of letting the dm's & rd's decide for each area creates much inconcsistency & debate over what policies to follow and what to ignore. It lets the freeloaders get away with it and frustrates both the honest customers and the baristas. Mgrs are no longer able to make a decision based on the situation, we are just glorified cashiers there to do whatever the customer wants and to be told on if we don't grant every "customer" request and then get threaten to be fired by the DM for watching out for the company.

[JerseyGurl]

Re: Time off (barring emergencies)

I work FT for Starbucks and go to college. I do everything I need to get done on my days off. Its called time management, some adults need to learn it. Holiday season is the busiest time for ALL retail, people should know that going into it and know that its only 6 weeks or so.

[Chicago Barista]

Time off

I've been with the bux for 7 years and its always been that way, no time off thanksgiving through new years. My Manager now will take a request during the black out, but we have to talk to her about it and it still might not happen. It's retail people, if you want hours the rest of the year you need to be around during holiday.

[Curious Customer]

If all gold cards are continued until 1-5, what does that mean for the customers who didn't purchase a gold card until Feb or March of this year? If they discontinue early, what would happen?

[crema_the_crop]

Soooo, did any other stores receive THIRTY pounds of Thanksgiving Blend and around FIFTY POUNDS of Christmas Blend in their RP order this week?!!?!? WTF?!? The auto-ship deadline isn't until October 27th, so I would have really appreciated a notice from my CSR that these items would be arriving so early. We're also getting one case of each size red cup AND an extra case of peppermint, which makes SEVENTEEN BOTTLES total since I, a responsible inventory- and par-adjusting SS, already ordered extra since folks are ordering peppermint drinks like it's December 15th.


My store is an un-remodeled, 10-year-old Core B design, so we barely have room for our current weekly product needs, especially since the cooler weather has hit here in the midwest and we're using 50+ bottles of apple juice per day and practically exclusively hot cups.

Not really looking for a valid response or rationale here, just wanted to b*tch a bit. Thanks.

[crema_the_crop]

Sorry, that was 50+ bottles of apple juice per week. Although some days it certainly feels like 50 a day...

[Man Hands]

my friend has been working for starbucks for 16 years and gets 5 weeks of vacation.He had 3 days left to use before October 1st(thats when the new vacation grant kicks in and if you dont use your previous vacation bank before this date, you lose it)On September 4th he submitted a request time away from work for wed-thur-friday. His Supervisor declined,said they were too busy and issued the days that my friend was allowed to take off! I thought you could take off whatever days you wanted with your own vacation! The black out month for his department is December. I know this isn't fair but is it legal?

[Melody]

More on my wild Gold Card theory (I'm truly just making guesses here. Take this all with a grain of salt!!) -

@Curious customer - If a person bought a Gold Card after 1-5-2010, I think you'll get a full year with no possibility of renewal. No new GCs after 1-5.

I just don't think the GC was nearly as successfully as what they thought it would be. Early on, I remember reading a USA Today news article where Starbucks said that they were going to sell "Millions and millions" of Gold Cards. At some point, in one of the investor conferences, or somehow, I think that we heard that Gold Card sales were between 800,000 to a million - Not the millions and millions they forecast.

They got probably customers who spent more because they had it, but in return they created a ton of confusion at the register.

On MSI, it's shocking to me how powerful the desire is for people to have a buy ten get one free punch card, and yet these same people can't see how it's a better to get your reward upfront and not later, and to not have a loyalty program restricted to beverages! Makes me a little crazy.

On a small level, the coupons probably cost Starbucks more than they thought. For example, the free Vivanno GC coupon, sent to customers in the mail on very heavy black and gold cardstock, somehow had its image uploaded online and redistributed. Lots of extra free Vivannos ended up being given away to non-GC holders.

I have no idea but I suspect they'll either merge the 2 programs, and have something where you pay a little more to get both sets of rewards, or just dump the GC entirely. The typical customer seems to cry out for a "points" type reward program. Ugh! I hate those yet so many want it.

In the end, I think there was some disconnect between what Starbucks execs thought would happen with the Gold Card, and what really did happen in the stores.

Four months from now I might look back and slap myself for writing such a stupid post ...guesswork is the trap of the under-informed, and I'm playing right into that trap.

[Anonymous]

Melody: I don't know, the pos was just updated so that the gold card only needs to be swiped once, and then you have an option on the screen to choose (pay with gold card, pay with other sbux card, tender with other, as the three options) you would think they wouldn't care about updating the pos if they were doing away with the program. But then again, it might just be a temporary fix until they get rid of it. I have no clue.

I do know that the gold card seems like a scam to me... and that I really think what they should do is discontinue it and make a card that combines the features of a normal Starbucks rewards card and a gold card into one.

[livin' la VIA loca]

oh yes, and let's not forget how they launched the Gold Cards last November- quickly all stores sold out- and then it took weeks for them to ship us more stock- barely before the new year...

and then how in the last few months they've been removed from stores as a purchase point- so if you see a fellow customer using one in line and you'd like that immediate gratification too...forget it.

i'd like to know how much Gold Card sales have DROPPED since they stopped offering them for purchase in stores- the majority of my Gold Card customers have one- because I sold it to them and they thankfully are still loyal. i'm sure i'm not the only one who reminds :) their customers "hey, where's your gold card today?" if they forget about it at the register.

and Gold Card customers are offered freebies/discounts on all else we have to push for sales goals (like Vivannos) - so why weren't they given one for VIA? That certainly would've helped stores meet or exceed quotas.

i don't find Gold Cards confusing- and the register prompt system with the past month or so has been updated so ringing up a Gold Card customer is easier.

(why would SBUX spend $ on a software upgrade/rollout and then discontinue the Gold Card program only a few months later?)

[me myself and I]

To add a bit to that wild Gold Card guessing game:
Myabe they will change the whole cards program into a bonus program. If you load up 50 Dollars on your card you'll get actually 55 Dollars, if you load up 100 Dollars, you'll get 115 or something like that (maybe in a smaller scale). This way they could kind of combine the programs, get people to load (and keep) more money on their cards, get them the 1 for 10 bonus and use the registered card benefits all in one. Would make sense to me. And might even be a smart move since Starbucks would pocket all the interest earned by the lots of uploaded but unused money on the cards.

But then again, this would be a smart move and right now I feel like smart moves and common sense are banned from the SSC.

[Will]

The Gold Card program was a ripoff to store managers. When they changed the bonuses to sales instead of controllables, then didn't give us sales credit for the $25, they robbed us of sales and made it even harder for managers to bonus.

Shitty stuff.

[.]

This may be way off, but I remember reading something about changes coming to the SEC's Generally Accepted Accounting Practices that would allow for the profit from a subscription based sale to be reported all at once rather than over the duration of the subscription as it currently is...I wonder if waiting until January to start driving for new subscriptions would show up as a big profit boost on paper as we've seen a full year of labor cuts that made the numbers look so good Q2 last year....

[.]

One other thing...Anybody have any thoughts on the Kinetix kits that showed up at our stores??

[bitter bean]

If I could clarify my previous post as it seems to be misunderstood. My manager did NOT say that partners could not request time off during the month of December. She said we could not use our vacation hours to make up for any time we ask off. Essentially, I feel as if the company is saying "Sure, you can spend time with family and friends, but we're going to punish you for it." I'm wondering if this is a legal move on the part of Starbucks.

To those who pointed out how busy the month of December is and tried to say we can't take any time off. Sorry, but this is my 8th holiday season with the company and not once have I heard that partners are not allowed to take time off during that time. Yes, it's more difficult to get a request off, but unless you're manager is a total jerk, most managers will do what they can to grant as many requests as they can. If no one is granted time to spend outside of work this holiday year, the company is going to lose a lot of amazing employees.

[me myself and I]

My SM posted a sign that said there will be no requests off granted during the end of November until Dec 26, emergency's MIGHT grant an exception (emphasizing is mine). Makes you just feel very welcome when you walk into the store and that huge sign basically yells at you: we don't care about you, only us.
I know it is the busiest time in retail, I've been working retail most of my life, but posting such a big sign just seems to be wrong. Just leave a note in the request off book to remind everybody how this is a busy time and to make sure people consider this before they request a certain day off.
My store is open Dec 25 and if I can not book that day off (I'm available Thanksgiving, Dec 24, 26, 31, Jan1 etc.) I'll just call in sick. I have kids. And I have enough of this aggressive undertone at Starbucks.

Sorry if this turned into a rant, but I was closing last night and we were really badly set up for it and my new SM seems to turn into a control freak and introduces/enforces "official" rules no one else knows about and keeps issuing threats packed in friendly words with a smile... (grrr)

[smalltownsm]

I'll jump in on the insurance mess. I am a former partner and have been on Cobra through Starbucks for the last few months. I had already met my deductible and total out of pocket expenses because of a number of surgeries this past year. I have one more this month, and because Starbucks switched insurance companies, I have to start all over with my deductible and out of pocket expenses. Because I'm on Cobra, I received no information on the insurance changes until I received my new insurance card. I called the benefits center and was told that they had switched from the calendar year benefits to fiscal year and my deductible would be starting over. Awesome! Thanks Starbucks. If I would have had any idea that things were changing I would have had this done before the switch.
I gave five years of my life as a manger for Starbucks, and I loved it, but I'm glad I'm where I am now.
I do miss the discount and the free pound of coffee, but that's about it.