Great work environment, terrible pay - Manager ink! Coffee Employee Review

3.0
1 Oct 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good coffee and espresso is constantly available for you to enjoy for free as an employee and at any ink! location. Upper management and owners are well-to-do people with good hearts, but value their pocketbooks over the baristas'. Upward mobility is easy for good workers, but do NOT expect any kind of significant pay raise whatsoever. Salary is only available to long-term staff (meaning you invest your life in the company for years), but it is potentially available.

Cons

Profit sharing is reserved for management only and is only 1% of the manager's individual store's quarterly profit, which can vary enormously. Tips are done in CASH only, no credit card tips, so they are relatively low and given out weekly, not daily and not by shift. Tips are also split evenly by how many hours the individual works, meaning you can be a bad barista (not customer service oriented, not enthusiastic) and rely on the great service of another barista for tips, because you'll end up making the same hourly anyway. They also constantly struggle to maintain a consistent staff, probably due to low wages.

Explore other reviews about ink! Coffee

5.0
22 Apr 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They were super understanding of my schedule and paid well for a coffee shop.

Cons

Management was not super competent

1.0
7 Mar 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Had some wonderful co-workers and customers who made working there an absolute joy at times.

Cons

Everything else. From the very top, this company is corrupt. Upper management openly calls staff ignorant and that nasty attitude trickles all the way down the chain. They are condescending, sexist, and disrespectful to their store managers and to baristas. You can't force your employees to work without pay or delete time off of their time clock-it is illegal, and yet I've seen it happen multiple times in this company. It still amazes me that with so much supposed business experience between them, these people are running this business into the ground in every way. Somehow, despite all of this, all of the people who conduct themselves this way are still employed at this company. And the reason is that it starts at the top; ink! is quickly becoming the dark spot of the Denver coffee community due to their terrible moral, legal, and financial decision making. DO NOT WORK HERE if you want to be treated with respect or enjoy your job. You will quickly be made miserable.

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