barista with pay woes becomes nonbarista who escapes hell

[baristarryeyed]

So tomorrow is my last day at my current job. I thought I was going to miss everyone but my boss, the one who created on-call hours and then yelled at me when the ones she gave me were not in my availability. So I put in my two weeks' notice and said hey, maybe I'm not going to be around coffee anymore, but maybe I'll go somewhere (even McDonald's) where I can just put in an honest day's work and not deal with the politics (yes I know, NAIVE). But anyway so my boss calls me today and asked why I even bother coming to work if I "don't do anything". I was floored. I had no idea what she was talking about, except that I had been a little on the lazy side (for the first time in my year and a half). So I was ready to cop to that, until she comes out and says that one of our off-duty baristas decided to jump behind the counter and help out my cranky coworker. I left ten minutes after the time I was scheduled to leave, but apparently that wasn't good enough because said cranky coworker, who WAS my friend outside of work (I actually got him his job there) ran to my boss and told her that I never do enough and that I'm basically just a waste of space. I have never been so betrayed in my life, especially because I'm a good worker, and I don't text all the time like he does. I know, petty, sorry. I am kind of venting, because I am so profoundly upset. So my boss basically just called me to yell at me for ten minutes. Is that normal? And the hardest question I'm facing, should I tell my favorite customers that I'm leaving?

 

[caffe biscotto]

You know, it's probably better that you seek out other employment. I doubt you'd find a situation as bad as that one was. You mentioned before that you hadn't received a raise after 30 - 90 days of training there. If it's been a year and a half now and still no raise, that alone should serve as a red flag.

Why limit yourself to McDonald's? There's going to be "politics" no matter where you go, it just depends on how well you fit in. I've found that in food service, you'll almost always get tied up in the politics and have issues dealing with the hierarchy, unless you find a way to create your own niche. Find something you enjoy doing or are good at and use it to your maximum benefit. Be a specialist at something, make it your own.

Should you tell your favorite customers you're going? YES!!! Your favorite customers may have been the only thing keeping you working there for the last year and a half. It's not their fault you have to leave your job. Who knows, they might even ask where you will be working next and become patrons there instead. They may have become fans of your service, your attitude, your personality, your smile even. Be nice about why you are leaving though, because those customers will pick up on your negativity if you talk bad about where you are now and it will reflect negatively on you as the employee there. They may know of a much nicer coffee shop looking for help and could recommend you. Network with your favorite customers.

Oh, I just realized, Saturday was your last day. I hope it went well then. But still, perhaps you could go back for a visit and maybe network a bit. If you need a place to vent, come back here, we'll be watching..... and reading.

 

[PinkRose]

Hi Baristarryeyed,

I hope your last day at work went well. I admire you for showing up at all. It shows that you have a great work ethic.

If I had received that phone call from my boss, I would have told her to take the job and shove it.

The fact that you were asking whether or not you should tell your favorite customers that you were leaving also shows that you're a very considerate person.

I hope you had a chance to talk to some of them. If you didn't tell them that you were leaving, they would wonder what happened if you suddenly disappeared. Plus it's very likely that your boss and the other back stabbing baristas will "bad mouth" you after you're gone.

I have a feeling for the next couple of weeks or so you will be second guessing your decision to quit as well as re-running all of the events of the past few months in your mind. Please don't waste too much time fretting about the past. You can't change anything that's happened to you. All you can do is learn from your experiences and watch out for "red flags" the next time you look for a job. Maybe now that you know that people can be back stabbers, you'll be even more careful about trusting your co-workers in the future.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond to your posting sooner. I'm away from my computer a lot during the week, plus for some unknown reason I wasn't able to get into the coffee forum all day on Sunday. I kept getting a message saying that the coffee forums server was busy or not responding. That was very frustrating....but at least I was able to get here today (Monday).

Please take some time and give yourself a few days to "recover" before you start going out on interviews. If you still have lots of negative feelings bouncing around in your head, that negativity will come out in an interview, and it will show up in what you say and how you act. If you take a few days to clear your head before you start looking, you'll have a much better chance of landing that new job sooner than you think.

I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Rose