Rant about my Starbucks Manager

You've been fully warned what this post will be about in my title, so proceed at your own risk.

I'm sure there are those who would have advised me against it, but I just sent off the following letter:

Dear [District Manager],

I am writing to you today to share my dismay at my present situation at the Starbucks located at [censored for my privacy]. First, let me say that over the past three and a half years that I have been a Starbucks partner, I have come to truly appreciate all the ways in which Starbucks makes itself a company that is truly a top company to work for. In particular, I have continued to be amazed at the variety and depth of benefits that Starbucks extends to its partners, including such things as our Future Roast Plan, S.I.P., Bean Stock, Choose to Give, health and dental insurance, and even our weekly bean/tea markout.

Specifically, I wanted to write to you and share my disappointment in the current management. I understand that as an outside hire my current manager, [censored for privacy], will necessarily need time to adjust to being a part of Starbucks, and to acclimate to Starbucks’ procedures and policies. I freely admit that as a long-time partner, I had high expectations of [censored] when he first came to Potomac Yards, and perhaps was not as patient as I could have been, or should have been, for instance, when I felt that he did not enact deployment correctly during busy periods. Aside from his management of partners on the floor, however, I am writing today specifically in regards, and reaction to, his decisions about scheduling.

I was fortunate in that my last manager was particularly adept at balancing partners’ availabilities and need for hours. In fact, to his credit, during his tenure at this location was able to spread out hours in such a fashion that those of us seeking benefits through Starbucks were able to maintain a 20 hour week minimum average in order to be eligible, and maintain eligibility for benefits. I am very disheartened to say, however, that the current manager has not been as successful to date.

Although the current quarter is not yet finished, I am facing the fact that at this quarter’s end, I will most likely fail to meet the minimum 240 QTD hours worked to maintain benefit eligibility. (The only way I could maintain eligibility would be to use practically ALL of my available vacation hours (50 hours), although technically I missed only one week (20 hours) of work due to being on vacation.) While I did take some time off during New Years (the aforementioned one week), contributing to my lack of hours worked, I did not take any more time than I have in the past, nor has there been a great change in my availability from times past when I was able to maintain benefit eligibility. I, have, however, experienced at least three weeks this quarter when my scheduled hours (1) were no where near my usually scheduled hours, and (2) were below 20 hours for the week. I know that Starbucks does not guarantee a minimum amount of hours to its retail partners, but I am surprised that I have experienced such a decline in my scheduled hours, despite having always received such high reviews on my performance evaluations in the past, along with my availability as one of the few barista-level partners that can open during the weekdays.

From my vantage point, my scheduling hours began just after I approached the manager to share with him my disappointment at what I perceived to be his poor management. I have no firm evidence of this, however, and fully admit that this is simply based on my perceptions and conjecture at the timely coincidence of these, and other similar events. (After speaking with my then assistant manager, who then approached the manager, voicing some of my concerns, I again experienced a decline in hours when others experienced an increase.)

I understand that there is not much you can do to assist me in my situation. I take solace in the fact that I have received approval to transfer to my former manager's soon-to-be-opening new store location. Really, I just wanted to take this time to share these thoughts with you for my own peace of mind.

I have been very disgruntled about my situation, and feeling as if I haven’t been able, or safe enough to share these thoughts with my supervisors, be they shift supervisors, the assistant manager, or the manager without experiencing negative outcomes. These past few months have been among the most unpleasant in my tenure as a Starbucks partner, and have been the only the only time when I have seriously considered reaching out to Starbucks Corporate Compliance. I firmly believe in Starbucks’ Mission Statement, and it is in the spirit of our six guiding principles that I have chosen to write to you today.

I trust that you will take this information for whatever it may be worth. If you desire, please do feel free to contact me in regards to this letter. As I said earlier, I know there isn’t much you can do about my situation, but I do want to thank you for your time and this opportunity to share with you my feelings.

Sincerely,
[me]

It actually feels really good to get some of this stuff off my chest. Working at Starbucks is supposed to be my fun job, the thing that tides me over in the summer, and keeps me connected to people when my academic pursuits would just as soon have me sitting at my computer alone for much of the time. I really do like the company, and have always enjoyed my work--until recently. Hopefully sending this letter off will help me to let go of the situation and keep focused on the stuff that's still good and fun.