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Starbucks-bashing makes NO sense to me. NONE at all!
Our son is a Starbucks employee. Our son lives just around the corner from his workplace. So do his co-workers. So does the manager of the branch. They know their neighbors. Their neighbors know them and enjoy lasting friendships and caring feelings all around.
Many Starbucks employees, including our son, are part-timers BY THEIR OWN CHOICE, and for compelling, sensible reasons. Starbucks cares enough about their employees to offer excellent health care coverage for both employee AND domestic partner, as long as the employee works at least half time. No ifs, ands, or buts. It’s true. I know. This experience is our own, in our own family.
The reasons many Starbucks employees work only half time are varied, but certainly not dictated by the company. Rather, this is the case because MANY of the employees use their Starbucks job to put food on their table and get that guaranteed health coverage option for their family while the employee uses the extremely flexible scheduling policies simultaneously to pursue other dreams and aspirations.
Our son is a good example. He’s a gifted classical musician, holding two Principal positions in regional symphony orchestras, subbing often in others, and performing in numerous recitals, educational programs for school children, and the like. He cannot live on the music income alone at this point in his career, but he CAN afford to live and strive for that dream job in classical music, THANKS TO THE OPPORTUNITY STARBUCK’s OFFERS with its health care coverage, income, and EXTREMELY flexible scheduling of work-hours.
I am disgusted by some very nefarious negative forces out there who appear determined to hurt a perfectly decent company with a deliberate campaign of misinformation.
If you, or people you know, have found yourselves tempted to join in smears aimed at Starbucks, please stop, think, and refrain. If you have indulged in the past, for reasons I can only think you must neither understand nor appreciate, you may be being duped, “used”, by a totally unfair attack.
PLEASE. STOP. BASHING. STARBUCKS! It is wrong-headed, grossly unfair, and downright dangerous in today’s stressful times.
Go ahead and enjoy that latte with a clear conscience, so long as you put down your phone for a second and take the trouble to wish your server a good day in response to his or her greeting to you. You might find you have a lot in common and, btw, there’s no harm in returning a smile.
21 Comments
While you will always be a bluebird to me, I can see the kildeer-with-the-broken-wing kinda Mom that you are.
Not at all, hon. Merely an example of a satisfied employee. (please to check in on ## 4 & 5 above.) Sonny’s very self-sufficient. If his present balancing act wasn’t working, he’d switch to something else on his own.
Sonny’s a very astute fella (an adult, dues-paying musicians union member who knows whereof he speaks). He thinks their employee policies are fair and reasonable. Based on what he says, I’d have to agree. They seem to do some innovative things that, if followed elsewhere, would undoubtedly ease the strain tw’ other businesses hiring lots of part-timers, and their employees.
Uggh! This post makes me sick.
And who are these “nefarious negative forces” you refer to? It wouldn’t be one of those nefarious labor unions by any chance?
Are YOU saying unions are “nefarious negative forces?” I deliberately DID NOT do so. For all I knew, McD’s cafe wuz a nnf. Walblare is definitely suspect. Unions? not so sure. Might depend upon the union. Basically, we are pro-union in this household, fwiw.
All I know is, sonny chose Starb. benefits as being hands-down better than what he could get through musicians union which, to me, is ludicrous. I’m not going to argue with a pro musician, especially in today’s difficult market.
Oh, and for a somewhat more realistic view of working at Starbucks see ttp://www.starbucksunion.org/
Thanks for writing this. I have 2 daughters who worked at Starbucks and loved it. They had health coverage, they liked the people, they were treated well and it was a good experience for them. I go to Starbucks fairly often and enjoy it. Many kids need this money.
Starbucks is a great place to work. I know lots of people who have and they do have great labor policies.
But they are being bashed because they have teamed up with WalMart and are the two top companies lobbying against EFCA. If their pay and benefits are so good already, they should not be afraid of unions.
That one of the major reasons why Toyota and Honda plants are not unionized here. They offer pay and benefits that are comparable to what the workers would get if they were unionized – without being in a union.
So…what is Starbucks afraid of?????
Ahhh! THANK YOU. I suspected something like that, but didn’t know.
Strange bedfellows indeed.
(quoting myself from #7)
I wish the walmarts & mcdonalds would copy some of Starbucks innovative policies, instead of dragging the whole dialog down by their very presence in negatively influencing the treatment of hourly workers.
cutthroat business climate?
recession driving down customer base?
business strains caused by too much expansion beyond their best single product, good coffee?
(I believe their company founder/CEO has returned and is trying to right the ship in that area – selling ‘easy-listening’ CD’s, coffee-makers & trinkets seemed to be stretching their normal niche a bit in today’s market)
BINGO! To you all who responded. Just call me nitwit catalyst. I have been guessing, but couldn’t find out what all the fuss was. Now I do, and I thank you all.
Thanks all for helping me understand the situation better.
p.s., We in this household are NOT anti-union. I used to be a union member. Sonny currently is union for his music. Some of our dearest friends… seriously, GM retirees. Try walking in their moccasins these days. There are no easy answers. We all need to keep up the dialog.
Great thread. Thanks to all, especially Adie.
FWIW, Jack Welch (formerly “neutron Jack” of GE), has called into question the long term sustainability of the shareholder model in a lot of industries: Catering only to shareholder profits is a concept whose time has passed.
ForBucksStarbucks has to answer to its shareholders and that pits the shareholders against the employees and the customers and the suppliers. Even if the employees could afford to buy the shareholders out, no way, they would still be pitted against the customers and the suppliers.I am pro-union and pro-private property. I also believe in the laws of supply and demand. I’m not sure, but there may be other “issues” with where Starbucks obtains its coffee beans and the means by which it transports them into the US.
Oh my. I’m humbled. Thanks to everyone. I knew the situation must be complex. Thank you all for helping flesh out the images.
Yes, BooRadley, I believe there are various, rather complicated issues concerning sources of beans and the like. If I heard correctly, the founder/former CEO, who has returned recently to try to help the company out of its present difficulties, is a strong backer of fair-trade and environmentally sound policies. That’s another set of reasons why we and our son are pleased with the way this company was and hopefully will be run, if the wrinkles can be worked out. It’s a challenging situation with many facets.
One more thing: I need to correct myself on one point regarding work hours and benefits. My honey read the diary and commented that, as he understood it, an employee needs to work for 25 hrs per week, on average rather than just half time, in order to qualify for benefits. So when considering the whole complicated issue, one should tack one more hour per day, on average, to be precise. Still a pretty good deal, considering the very active role a regular employee can have in working out scheduling of work hours – as an ongoing process. (e.g., if a concert gig or audition opportunity suddenly arises for sonny, he can, on the spot, work with the store manager and other employees to trade hours so that his average work time is maintained and benefits unharmed, and yet he can be free to follow his 1st calling, the music).
Boo, you seem well informed on business/economic issues so I am surprised you are not aware that Starbucks has been slammed for the fraud called Fair Trade coffee. The Fair Trade concept is that the coffee retailers in rich countries take proactive steps to see that some of the enormous profits find their way to the impoverished coffee farmers in the poor countries where the beans are grown. Good concept, but the execution is difficult. Starbucks has been explicitly accused of promoting itself as a socially responsible outfit by using the Fair Trade logo, while evading its responsibility to share profits with the growers.
link?
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/…../starbucks
Link to Oxfam is loaded with information and kudos to all: Ethiopian farmers, Oxfam, AND Starbucks, for working out some solutions and continuing to cooperate with eachother.
Very informative link. Have you read it in its entirety?
Very complex problems and much dedication to finding solutions, from all three parties in the negotiations.
Starbucks is ONE of the roasters, which make up ONE of the steps in a process involving farmers, importers, and distributors, and Oxfam as a catalyst influence attempting to negotiate and improve the plight of an impoverished country.
Starbucks receives kudos from Oxfam for its efforts to negotiate (negotiations which, I take it, are continuing).
Yet you read the encouragement from Oxfam to continue and improve the agreement, and still use the following inflammatory rhetoric, which is NOT in the link you gave.
“Starbucks has been slammed for the fraud called Fair Trade coffee.” [I found no such claim in the link]
“Starbucks has been explicitly accused of promoting itself as a socially responsible outfit by using the Fair Trade logo, while evading its responsibility to share profits with the growers.” [I found no such claim in the link]
Link to Starbucks Union is also loaded with information, and kudos to IWW and the brave baristas who are trying to stand up for their rights as working people.
I suggest you read up on the issues of Fair Trade coffee before popping off about how Starbucks is one of the good guys. There is ample information on the subject in the public domain, if you are actually interested in the subject. If your interest is in an emotional, knee-jerk defense of Starbucks, then there is no need for you to educate yourself on the subject.
Good luck to your son.
p.s., do you have any information more recent than early spring, 2007?
Love ya, Adie. Love Starbucks. Love Unions.
I don’t know the answer but your son seems to be figuring things out very well! And that’s the first order of business for us all.
My my. Thanks for all the advice. Pardon my knee-jerk. Comes with age and experience. We do have a brave barista in our family with a bunch of years’ experience working at Starbucks. Maybe he just has that one good peach of a boss from the barrel of rotten ones. Perhaps a number of things that slid in quality over the past few years might be made more palatable now that the guy who dreamed up the idea in the first place is back in the chair at the head of the table. He is said not to have been very pleased at mgmt at the helm of late, like around the time of discord highlighted at the Oxfam link. I think that’s why he came back.
I used to be a union member myself. I have read up on Fair Trade coffee, and have been near to that scene up in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica (where I bought beans directly from a grower with no intermediary a number of times), as well as in Costa Rica and Ecuador. Coffee from the latter is often sold as “Colombian”, as are bananas. Did you know that? I learned that from a friend/native-born-and-raised Ecuadoran who works as a guide.
Please don’t assume I’m just “popping off”. Thanks.