Pros
I met some amazing people while working for the company, they were all baristas. Eventually promoted to the in-store management team after it being dangled over my head for a year.
Cons
A company so laughably bad that staff are convinced they've been cast in a sitcom. If I wrote in detail about everything wrong with the company, it'd be a book, so I'll just list some issues I encountered and witnessed. - Called greedy when I informed upper-management that I wanted to be paid for my time and that 15 minutes to close a two floor coffee shop with one other person isn't enough time. - Called negative when informed upper-management of consistent issues in the shop. - Had a promotion dangled over my head in return for working in another shop for 5 days, place of employment was changed without my knowledge and I was stuck in toxic shop I didn't apply for pushing three months with a manager who expressed to their staff that they were too good to be on the shop floor. - Only got moved back to the store I was hired for after a customer complained they were given a paper cup instead of a ceramic. Apparently this was against the companies recycling policy despite the shop I worked in having no recycling policy for the empty milk bottles. - Often witness classism, homophobia and elitism from upper-management. - Rota's given out and changed with minimal notice, shifts swapped without consent, frequent close-opens expected despite some of them being illegal. Management in charge of rotas often changed their hours shortly before they were due in and refuse to put themselves on opens or late night closes. - Expected to close solo numerous times, including a Saturday whilst I was dealing with a flood because the ops-manager at the time (who then got promoted) decided another shop needed the staff member I was on with more so they could make more money. I got home after midnight (this is a coffee shop, remember) and got little to no appreciation for it. Another time I was forced to close alone, someone defecated all over the bathroom floor on the second floor of the shop, I was alone so couldn't leave the bar to clean it and wasn't able to close to fix it. - No actual care for the coffee, despite claiming to be specialty coffee. Head Barista's often hired without experience, speed over quality in getting drinks out, upper-management being clueless to the point where I was once told I didn't need a grinder to dial in the coffee when expected to train staff from a shop hundreds of miles away. - Expect you to work above your role as trainer for shops across the country without any pay to reflect this, even when they had a company trainer who was on significantly more money than those actually doing the training. - Filled in for GM for pushing a month whilst pulling 50 - 60 hour weeks, got no change of pay in this timeframe. Also got nominated for a company award by the actual GM for this which got turned down by the ops-manager. But they’ll tell you your hard work gets rewarded. - Staff room broken into and trashed whilst store was trading, multiple thefts, members of the public masturbating in the shop. No safety training or support given, staff blamed for some of these instances and mocked for others by upper-management. - Poor wage for Baristas, Head Baristas and Supervisors given the expectations put on each role. - Bonus given out to in-store staff for positive google reviews, however they can be impacted by negative reviews claiming that the company is a card only company, when that has literally nothing to do with anyone but the people in head office. - Had a serious complaint dismissed because the person involved denied it, got made out to be a liar by someone who works for the company in London even though they had never been on the shop floor with me or seen me work a single day. Unsurprisingly the staff member I raised issues with was a nepotism hire who got away with everything. Staff member was still causing the same issues upon my leaving, I am yet to receive an apology.
