Being employed at Starbucks is more work than it seems. On top of having to figure out every new TikTok-fad drink—what is a Sour Patch Kids Refresher, anyway?—staff are expected to clean, process orders, heat up food, and more, all while keeping a positive attitude in a fast-paced working environment.
The “positive attitude” point can become an issue when management is poor. Now, TikToker and former Starbucks employee @mollimykenna is sharing secrets from her time in a managerial position.
Specifically, she’s detailing what she changed upon assuming her role in order to make sure “people wouldn’t get treated the way I was treated.”
@mollimykenna Part 4… I think of i don’t miss working at Starbucks #ssv #shiftsupervisor #tobeapartner #starbucks #partner #morningrush ♬ original sound – Mollimykenna
In the video, she lists three points that can be applied to many workplaces, Starbucks or otherwise.
The first tip is “moving people around.”
While she says it’s “not always possible,” she claims she would “always try to make sure I didn’t stick somebody in the same position for their entire four- or eight-hour shift.” She then says she repeatedly checked in with her team to make sure they weren’t getting “burnt out.”
“And if they were [getting burnt out], move ‘em,” she shares.
The second tip is trying to “keep a happy, light environment.”
“It would get extremely stressful, especially during morning rush, and a lot of shift supervisors would breathe down your neck and tell you to hurry up,” she recalls. “So I always tried to keep a very happy morale and remind people, ‘It’s just coffee. We’re gonna be fine.’”
The third and final tip is, when possible, to give workers choices.
“That way, I wasn’t just constantly forcing people to go somewhere they maybe didn’t want to go,” she explains.
“Moral of the story, if you’re in charge of people, treat them with kindness,” she concludes. “And I’m not saying I was perfect with all these things. I just tried to do them.”
In comments, users backed up @mollimykenna’s tips, with many saying they wished they had a manager who followed them.
“Bro thank you for being a good shift!” one user wrote. “The way I was treated esp as a closing barista, I was always the one doing everything, no help from the shift…they would sit in the back and be on their phone. But when I became shift, I worked hard along with my baristas.”
“I wish my ssv [shift supervisor] was more like you. Its always the same 4 people on bar and the same 3 on [register] at my location,” another alleged. “Everyones burnt out and tired—it’s so real.”
Others say they try to do the same thing when they manage workers or plan to do so in the future.
“When I get handed off to, the first thing I do is go talk to every partner and see how they are, if they need to go to the bathroom or anything,” a commenter offered.
“Checking in with everyone when I take over the shift… that’s a good one thank you,” a further user stated.
“This i why i want to become a manager,” an additional TikToker said, “so i can be the manager people wish they had.”
We’ve reached out to @mollimykenna via TikTok comment.
Today’s top stories
*First Published: Aug 6, 2022, 9:54 am CDT
Braden Bjella
Braden Bjella is a culture writer. His work can be found in Mixmag, Electronic Beats, Schön! magazine, and more.
