a lot of unnecessary waste in my opinion, i did not like throwing out perfectly good sandwiches and pastries every night, not to mention the gallons of unused coffee everyday. (but i know, it has to be fresh!) Sometimes i had to make executive decisions that were not in my job description, but thats like every job where you have even a little bit of responsibility. the months prior to me leaving, pastries were being delivered frozen as opposed to being received daily, which i thought was poor and gross and not very "starbucks". it also got very "upsell" driven, which is not very enjoyable to do when you are shoving VIA down everyones mouth who walks in the door. (why would i sell instant coffee to someone that comes into the store? thats like telling them not to come back and running myself out of business b/c they can do it at home. so much for the "third place"...)
Ultimately, I got promoted in the job because i was a good worker and the manager knew it, but my promotion caused me to get a major cut in hours, from 37 per week to barely 20. so the promotion didnt really change anything in terms of what i was making. if fact, because i worked less, i made less in tips, so it was almost a pay cut (good thing we had overtime occasionally!)
but bear in mind, this situation is not normal. my manager was fantastic, but my district manager was foolish and didnt care about the well being of the employees. Our store had 4 shift supervisors, 1 assistant manager and 1 manager. when the assistant manager transferred out, rather than promote immediately or from another store, the district manager decided to hire another shift supervisor and promote one in the future thus leaving us with 5 shift supervisors and no hours to be spread to them (b/c assistant managers are salaried and not the same as hourly). this also led to one very frustrated manager. none of us 5 ever got over 30 hours and since i had been promoted last, got the short end of the stick. but who can live on such little wages and so much free time? so i got 2nd job to supplement my income which eventually i left starbucks for. 2 other shifts also got part time second jobs as well and leaving the company.
because of this foolish upper management decision, they not only lost quality workers but a chance to promote as well. my manager even told me that i was quality assistant manager material, but i cant sit around waiting making barely enough to get by just to get promoted who knows when.
