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After 4 years I no longer work for Starbucks. They offered the furloughed employees another 6 months of furlough or a voluntary layoff with a pisspoor severance package. Since they cut my benefits in March anyways, I took the severance.
So what does this mean? Nothing, really. My day to day is unaffected by this. Oh, except now I can tell stories about how shitty service work is without fear of reprisal from my employers.
Like how they cut my health benefits right before a global pandemic because my average hours per week dropped below the requirement because they didn’t approve a leave I took after a nervous breakdown on the job.
Or the time they gave a 4¢ raise and called it a “cost of living” adjustment at the same time they raised prices on 60% of the menu prompting customers to blame us for the price increase.
But it’s ok because they offer free* college, health benefits*, and pay better than other service jobs.
* - Tuition reimbursed at the end of the semester and benefits only if you average 20+ hours per week subject to biannual audit.
* - Tuition reimbursed at the end of the semester and benefits only if you average 20+ hours per week subject to biannual audit.
To anyone that says it’s “unskilled labor,” I challenge you to work a morning rush at your local Starbucks, especially a drive thru store, and then tell me that keeping up with customer and corporate demands in that instance is “unskilled labor.”
In closing, the true wealth of a business is its employees and not the product. They deserve to be paid a living wage that isn’t dependent on tips with benefits extended to ALL workers.
