There I was, wondering what to write about before work, and Stephen Suh, over at Cogitamus hands it to me in an e-mail. Thanks, Stephen! (and PS, sorry if I seemed difficult about your post this morning). :)
And it even involves... going to work.
In California, apparently, Starbucks has been facing a class action lawsuit on behalf of baristas, claiming that Shift Supervisors are management and should, therefore, not be eligible to receive tips and the judge, apparently has decided in favor of, the baristas. This is not a small deal (for one thing, it involves $106 million in payments). For those of you who don't know about our tips, each store divides the tip box proceeds every week among all the baristas. And the Shifts, but not Managers or Assistant Managers. (A brief plea here - think about leaving a tip.)
If this is allowed to stand, it would be terrible news. Tips are very important to us - Shifts (I'm not one, but am hoping to become one soon) don't get paid that much more than the rest of us, and are really just like "Senior Baristas" who keep things organized and running. I've worked for a lot of Shifts, good and bad... but I can't imagine keeping them away from tips.
It's true that Shifts often benefit under the tip structure, in which an hourly "tip rate" is multiplied by hours worked. That's because Shifts usually work more consistent schedules with heavier hours. But if you asked me - or many of us - who shouldn't be getting tips... it's that useless barista who's mostly a mess-up, with a bad attitude, who doesn't pull his share and generally makes life difficult for the rest of us... but then, that's another things tips help with - creating the team atmosphere where helping your "bad barista buddy" get better is more helpful than, say, giving him or her a hard time - because the "bad barosta's" quality of service affects tips.
Stephen said to me, in his note, "If I was a Shift in California I think I'd never take out the trash, clean the bathrooms, mop the floors or work on the pastry case again." I have to say, I think he's right. Way to go, CA!
And PS - while we're on the Starbuckian subject... check out Matthew Yglesias' thread on the "Starbuck vs. Dunkin Donuts" approach to defining this year's battle between Clinton and Obama...
No, you weren't being difficult.
Good point about the teamwork aspect of everyone sharing in tips. This judgment also means Shifts are the only partners in stores who don't get an incentive now.
Posted by: Stephen | March 21, 2008 at 01:56 PM