VA: Starbucks Doesn’t Know How to Reward Great Employees
Jul 9th, 2007
(19 votes, average: 3.16 out of 5)
Loading ...Last Thursday my husband and I had an inopportune meeting with a real estate agent to discuss a counter offer on a property I’m interested in.
[Side note: If my […]
Original post: Starbucks Doesn’t Know How to Reward Great Employees
This reminds me of a place I used to work — we’d get these little peer/customer commendation forms. A co-worker described them as “Something to wipe your ass with when you do a good job.”
Great piece, but I think this applies to the vast majority of companies out there, not just Starbucks. This is comes with a society deeply rooted in the ideals of capitalism.
Whoops, typo (wish we could edit our posts): “This is comes” = “This comes”
I dont know how much V reads this, but, i work at a restaurant (server). We have comment cards that people always fill out.. we dont really get any credit for those when someone fills one out. But when someone emails our corporate office they post those letters up and highlight them and make sure to thank us. The emails are usally more detailed than the comment cards. Since people rarely email good things we see only a few of those. They are nice to see though & we do enjoy it. Too bad starbucks couldnt be like that too since V tried so hard.
When I worked at Starbucks, rewards and punishment were given out according to the whim of a manager who played favorites. One coworker of mine was praised for “good customer relations” for giving away expensive, labor-intensive blended drinks, while another was nearly fired for giving away an already-poured plain cup of coffee. So yes, it’s often impossible for customers to know what repercussions their compliments might have.
If one of us wanted to reward a coworker for a job well done, we could give them a little pin to wear on their apron. Of course the pins were meaningless, given arbitrarily, and just added the hassle of having to remove them to wash the apron. But we’d get a stern talking-to if we hadn’t been giving away “enough” of them.
On the upside, though, we did have health insurance.
This whole post drips of condescension. Her entire argument is based on the assumption that working as a Starbucks barista is a demeaning job. I am a Starbucks barista currently, so I feel the need to respond.
I am not ashamed of my job, nor do I think it is demeaning. In fact, I take pride in doing a good job. The assumption that I would only take true pleasure in receiving money as a reward for a job well done is, again, insulting. I do not do my job looking for a monetary bonus, and this includes tips.
If anyone reads this, please don’t hesitate to leave a good comment when someone gives you good service. It may not give us $10, but we still appreciate it. If you can’t tip, a simple and sincere thank you is fine as well.
Ridiculous.
Why does this behavior from a corporate giant surprise us?
Unfortunately, this is the typical mentality of big business in America today. Fake kudos are handed out and the employee sees their passion and motivation drop even further. Good management and leadership takes courage, something lacking in far too many individuals who are placed “in charge”. I blame the company for creating a culture which encourages and rewards stale conformity over leadership and passion.
Oh I used to work at McDonald’s. If you want to lose your mind quickly and efficiently I’d recommend you get a job in drive thru.
I worked their for almost a year and a half. Oh and I of course got a raise. A 3 cent raise.
Oh Ryan. The only way a company as big as Starbucks can show any meaningful appreciation is with money - because it’s the only thing anyone at the top cares about.
Sure, your manager and the customers can show appreciation in other ways, but if you deserve a raise and aren’t getting it you’d be a dope to hang around.
And that’s true of ANY job - perceived by you as being perceived by VA to be demeaning, or not.
First of all, if she wants Keith’s manager to know about his good work, she could ask to talk to the manager at that particular store, or call in and speak to him/her if the manager was not there at the time VA was.
Also, why should a worker get a bonus or other compensation because ONE customer calls to praise them? Is VA’s word (or that of any other one person) so important that all she need do is praise a worker and he must immediately receive a raise or possible bonus or other tangible benefit?
Doing a good job should be a given, first of all, and second, if all it took was one (or two) person(s) calling to get raises and bonuses, I’d venture a guess that lots of Starbuck’s employees would have their friends (or themselves) on the line to the corporate office.
Unless it gets you laid, giving praise to anyone for anything is a waste of time
Having worked in the same retail company for a total of 7+ years, I’ve directly experienced a really great company treating associates semi-greatly turn into a giant hulking money-grubbing red box that cares more about sales dollars than keeping customers. Towards the end of the last couple of years I was there (left in May ‘06), they went from looking for knowledgeable people to help in their electronics department to hiring any 16 year old looking for a job who could read off of a box. It went from at least getting some kind of commission for working hard at selling meaningless extended warranties to getting told we no longer would get commission for selling these, but still had to sell. Instead, they based a bonus for the whole store on what we would make, because people in other departments had less of a chance to sell the warranties, so they wanted this to be fair.
This turned out to be a great deal for us the first couple of years because we ended up bonusing more than we made commissions on. Then the company realized they opened up Pandora’s box with this plan and quickly made budgets and goals just high were they knew we wouldn’t reach it for the bonus, but low enough that we wouldn’t notice but would be scratching our head wondering what happened. This coming from the same company that banned all contests, employee of the month recognitions, and all monetary prizes associated with anything that had to do with singling one person out for “winning”.
All the while, they made more money than ever each year.
I will say this though. Retail/service jobs seem to have better benefits lately. I was much better off working in retail paying $20/week for healthcare compared to the $60/week I pay now for a single person! But to that end, I was flat out told I made too much money towards the end of my retail career and that I would have to get promoted to make more. That’s all great, but when you get promoted over 5 times because the other people have no problems lying and stealing from customers and I on the other hand prefer to keep customers coming back by teaching them what I know about products and telling them “Hey, this is kinda a little much for what you want, why don’t you take a step down to this model, it’s less overkill.” Ya managers loved it when they heard that.
Anyways, the point i”m trying to make is retail and service jobs suck. I don’t think V meant to make it sound like the guy should feel like an idiot for working there. I think her point, and mine too, is that these companies treat their employees like a number. This is true no matter where you go now unless you are in business for yourself.
In the employment world and as a customer, there is NO such thing as loyalty anymore. You have to look out for yourself, and that guy was just trying to help out. The problem is that in cases like this, when a customer feels they need to express happiness over their service, the news never reaches the employee, or other employees look down upon that employee for getting a good comment. In this culture, the way it has changed into, it’s better not to say anything at all to the company whether it’s good or bad. These companies DO NOT CARE about customers anymore. They only care about money and they have lost the fact that customers=money. It’s too hard for them to sacrifice a little to have customer loyalty. The same for employee loyalty.
I agree with V. It seems to me that if corporate businesses like Starbucks wanted to lower their turnover rates (rate of hires/fires/quits for the simple minded) they would do a better job rewarding their employees for good customer service practices, extra duties beyond the job description, ect. Yes, employee loyalty should be expected, but how do you expect anyone to stay loyal to a company that is constantly ignorant of the people who go the extra mile to make the customer happy? The ones who stay a little later off the clock to make sure things are ready for the next shift? The ones who come in early and just go to work, because they see their fellow teammates need the help? With a fucking Way To Go board? It’s ridiculous and demeaning. Any business is only as good as its employees. Therefore, hire good people, compensate them for doing a good job, and try to make them happy too. You’ll be amazed at how much better employees will be if they know that their hard work will be commended by something other than a cookie and a gold star.
I love VA most days, but I have to call foul on this one. The ONLY reason V is pissed is because the call in process was so sorry. This has nothing to do with the baristar.
Just say thanks and mean it. He was clearly ok with giving you good service with a smile. Why can’t you just accept it and think “Man those guys are great. We’re stopping here next time we come through!” Instead you’ve managed to get all pissed off at a corporation that gives everyone full health benefits.
Just let someone do something nice for you without needing a reward for Christ’s sake.
My husband has actually used this trick for years. He will go to Starbucks first thing in the morning with nothing but a 100 dollar bill. He will order his drink, and then when he hands them the 100, undoubtedly they will say they can’t break it. Voila! Free coffee! And with all the Starbucks around, with one on every corner, he’s done this at several different ones and received his free coffee.
I wouldn’t say the guy at Starbucks that V liked so much was particularly nice. I think the people who work there are just all dumb asses and haven’t caught on to the scam.
I have worked for Starbucks for two and half years now and for two different managers. I believe that Starbucks is very fair in handing out rewards just last year they handed out pay raises to every employee who had been there for more than 90 days and they generally hand out somewhat generous bonuses (keep in mind they have quite a few stores with at least 10- 15 employees sometimes 20 at Christmas) around Christmas time. So, I think it is unfair to label Starbucks as being greedy corporate assholes when they do take such good care of their employees. And for the the comment by La Di Da we are not dumb asses and we have caught on. If you come into our store once and do it fine its on us, we don’t keep large bills for security reasons. If you do it repeatedly every morning we will start to give you rolled change or whatever other small bill we have in our drawer and odds are pretty good that you won’t be a repeat offender.
You know, it may not seem like much, but that little customer compliment hung on a board in the back means a whole lot more to some retail folks than a $10 bonus would. This is so for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, by the time the government got done with taxing that $10 and the rest of our normal pay deductions came out, that $10 would be between $1 and $5. Furthermore, those comments stay up on those boards for a little bit. Every once in a while, when you’re having a day when no consumer in the world is happy with anything you’re doing, it’s nice to take a moment and read over the most recent compliments and realize that at least a few people in this world appriciate what you’re doing.
And while a $10 bonus for a compliment would be nice, I would rather have my name on a board that my managers pass every day. Because if my name is there 5 times or 10 times, when it comes time for performance reviews, they’re going to remember that a lot more than if I made an extra $50 in the last 6 months. An extra hundred or so a year is nice, but an extra percentage point raise is better.
I really like all the comments on this article, both points of view have equal merit and in the end it just boils down to what did that particular barista V talked to want? Would he prefer V’s reaction or would he prefer her to just thank him and leave without giving another thought to it?
V has a valid point when she says that plaques on walls do little to pay the rent, and if that barista was struggling with debt (as V was when she was his age) then he would probably have been quite grateful for her efforts.
If on the other hand the barista had no financial troubles, was doing the job part-time for gas money, and was a decent, honest guy as V describes him, then it’s equally likely that a simple compliment was all that he expected, some might even argue that V’s actions would “invalidate” his generosity, in other words the concept of doing good without reward.
So I think you should all just sit back and enjoy the drama. :-)
Wait, I typically agree with V, but this time no.
She writes a huge long article about how this big mean company doesn’t slip some benjamins in his pocket for giving away a free cup of coffee.
If she was that impressed, she should have just told him to keep the change to put in his tip jar.
Seems people forget blogs are anecdotes…she picked Starbucks because that’s what happened for her, but its a general case of Corporations that have a profit-driven mindset, trimming financial costs by trading in morale of their employees and working the numbers rather than working their product/services.
In this scenario, a cup of coffee or two isn’t that expensive to produce, so V shouldn’t really feel too obligated to give praise or some reward…either rewards, a $10 bonus, or a name on a wall won’t really affect someone who is there to do a job and do it well. Its nice, but not a necessity. Plus, they can always find a job elsewhere if their benefits for doing their job does not suit them.
But in a scenario like Wal-Mart, there’s a more significant jump due to the all sorts of reasons.
If you really felt that bad, WHY DIDN’T YOU GIVE THE GUY THE FIFTY?
Fuckwad.
Reenster: +1.
She felt $10 bad, not $50 bad?
The whole time I was reading this I was waiting for the part where V decides to take the matter into her own hands, and shows the barista her appreciation by leaving him the fifty. If V is as wealthy as she has told us she is, and if she was truly upset that this barista wasn’t going to be compensated for his kind gesture, why didn’t she make a kind gesture in return?
And to be honest, as much as I love V and her blog.. I smell BS. You got into town “a good half hour early” before your appointment with your real estate agent to decide upon a counter offer (despite the fact that in “Sleazy Tricks Real Estate Agents Try” you told us you only work with the seller’s agent and never a buyer’s agent, and the seller’s agent does not help customers figure out counter offers so…um…) and decided to grab a cup of coffee.. Then you get the coffee, and by the time the customer service representative asks you to take a survey, you’ve spent “well over a half an hour” on the phone already.. and you take the 10 minute survey, even though it’s “incredibly boring and tedious”.
And while on the phone, rather than look at Keith’s name tag, you ask a guy “sweeping the floor” what Keith’s name is.. because Keith totally wouldn’t notice his customer pointing at him, and then “announcing” to the operator “Keith! His name is Keith!”.. while you’re still in the store. Wow, that’s inconspicuous.
So either this story is total bullshit, or else V has proven that she is condescending, an oblivious hypocrite, and has displayed a total incompetence for business and failure to comprehend common courtesy (taking a “boring and tedious” survey when you are already running late?).. oh, and if this story is true, that means she lied in the “Sleazy Tricks Real Estate Agents Try” about not having a buyer’s agent.
I’m seriously disappointed in you, V. This post is an insult to your readers’ intelligence.
Hear hear, S! As a wealthy real estate agent with a wallet full of nothing but 50s, I don’t see a good reason why V couldn’t have spared one of them for the server if she truly was as sympathetic to the barista’s “plight” as she indicated. Or is 45+ minutes of her time on the phone dealing with Starbucks corporate less valuable than $50 to tip such wonderful customer service? I find that hard to swallow coming from a wealthy real estate agent…and I agree this story is nothing more than sensationalistic half-truths (at best) full of holes.
I loved your story.. well written and made me laugh.. Just happened to stumble across this forum.. so I am joining it thanks to you.. Where do I compliment you at? Is there a manager that I can commend? Would a 50$ do? :)
Looking forward to further posts..
just give me a grande chai and a pumpkin loaf and im a happy man. the rest is all details