r/Costa

hi does anybody know the policy for whether BMs are required to be notified if there is an intruder alarm in the middle of the night. i always thought you could choose whether you wanted to be informed but recently my store has said different. im just not sure how much i want to come and check on the store by myself in the middle of the night when i live far.
thanks <3

How are we fighting this. Just how. Its impossible to cut the hours by 30 a week right at the end of summer when we start getting busy again.
No way I can have one person instead of normal three people.
What you guys do to fight this? 😭

Could anyone that has had a job interview at Costa recently please tell me the questions that they asked at the interview? I have an interview tomorrow and am not entirely sure how to prepare. I have experience in fast food service so will this be an advantage for me in getting hired?

desperate to learn fast, i work in such a busy store and am being thrown onto tills on my first shift!!

I genuinely just don't know anymore. I'm a BM at a franchise store and its normal to have 2 people on past 2pm when the opening person goes home.

During the week is completely fine. Past 4pm, my store is dead and can close pretty smoothly with my batista that's on. But on a weekend, especially today, it just feels like you need 3 people on till 4pm. I didn't manage to start closing down until 4.30 and on a Saturday we close at 5.30pm. I got out 20 mins late and my close was probably bad (i don't know ill probably find out in the morning).

What im trying to ask is, are most stores running on 2 people on a busy ass shift?

I got in trouble for having tables dirty. And we have an upstairs as well. So im like, I can either serve the queue that's going out the store with my colleague or leave my colleague to drown on their own while I clear. Or maybe, ya know, have more staff on. We have the staff for it surprisingly. Just hate hospitality Skeleton crew bullshit mentality so they pay like shit and expect us to do the job of 3 people.

On top of all that. Our air-conditioning does not work but according to the air con man, its fine. Then why and all the other staff sweating our asses off. My manger was legit dripping and walking around with a fan.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

had my first shift today, absolute nightmare. i was on with a girl who bossed me around, got cheeky to me, shoved boxes from stock into my hands just for her to carry nothing and lounge down the stairs etc
they’ve now put me on shift with her by myself, just the 2 of us working so i can handle the till and shop floor
how do you expect someone to handle a till by themselves on their second shift???

has everyone seen the new autumn campaign guide? how are we feeling for it 😭

also do you guys make the seasonal drinks with alt milks even though the standard says not to? i do because at this point im sick of the argument with every single customer when i say we can’t (obviously if they don’t have an allergy)

thanksss :)

They expect us to do these shifts with only a 30 minute break????!!! Absolutely disgusting. Tired of them. Why do managers even have people do these shifts? We have enough staff also does anyone elses manager do the rota so people miss breaks too? Ours have people in working for just 6 hours at the most random times missing lunch but not getting break? Our previous boss never did that. Just tired of this company. I either want an hour break or no more 12-and-a-half shifts.

How does it work at your store? Do you have the same issue?

I assume it’s some sort of premix syrups or something? It’s my favourite summer treat buttttt my money is finite so if there’s any way I can buy the stuff and make it myself that’d be amazinggg

I’ve had quite a few roles, varying between retail, hospitality, admin and research.

I applied and got the job as Barista at Costa as something to fill my time before I start a Masters degree in September. I have been a Barista before at a Cafe.

My onboarding experience was chaos, nobody knew how to get me set up on the online systems (such as the one for timesheets, online training, etc). I still haven’t really been told how to use any of these. For context also I was told I’d receive full on the job training which I imagined would entail things such as shadowing or having a paired colleague, which I do not have.

My first time out front - I was told I was just training on the till but there was minimal introduction and I was just instantly expected to know how to process any and all orders on the till from there and whenever I was having to ask a question I was made to feel as though I was interrupting.

My colleagues are all at least double my age, some triple, and whilst I’ve loved working with older colleagues at past jobs this just turns out to be a nightmare because I am sent on tasks for which I am set up to fail whilst being spoken to extremely poorly. I excelled in a lot of my past jobs and am familiar with praise often stemming from my eagerness to learn new things but in this role it is simply different. Everything is an expectation and nothing is taught properly.

Today is my fourth shift, if that same colleague attempts to speak to me in the same poor tone, I will inform her I am leaving there and then.

I really have no incentive to stay in this job currently, none whatsoever. From the manner in which the old longer term colleagues speak to me - I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a huge turnover in younger staff and consistently treat them the same. There’s actually a google review I’ve found from a few months ago which alleges bullying behind the counter.

A final note - this reddit page really channels solidarity and otherwise I would’ve felt isolated and ostracized by my team of disgruntled colleagues without it.

It's clear that costa is trying to cater to the younger generation by bringing in newer drinks but their target is more so adults to elderly. The quality of their drinks is disgusting and i seen food in the fridge that was over expired. They treat and overwork their staff and in this day and age many of them are young adults or students who are needing some income and can't just get up and leave. Lack of proper training for staff

They have fallen behind and once that generation soon dies out so will costa there are those few cafe's where the drinks are top notch but that's because of the staff who go above and beyond. The company needs a whole rebrand with new drinks and menus and better care for its staff

Genuinely tired. Sick, and tired. Physically and mentally. My knees, my back, everything. Who knew being a barista would make me feel so sh**. I love most of my coworkers, theyre good for a chat and all that, though they are older, some double my age. Its management that sucks, specifically the Regional, Training and HR managers.
I feel like an experiment. Training Manager; does no training or help, get told to do the online training and then get in trouble when somethings done wrong, and instead of training to help fix mistakes, theyre only pointed at and given out at.
Regional Manager has us under constant surveillance. God forbid I work 5 Clopen shifts in a row and im tired, shes right onto me for being slower than usual.
And HR omg god forbid I clock out 5 mins late or early. and dont get me started on the one time my app stopped working so I clocked out 30 mins late.
I feel like a little puppet. Undervalued, underpaid and underappreciated.
cant bloody wait to hand in this notice ive typed. No wonder the staff turnover is so high.

Hi y'all, I'm asking this here in case anybody knows cause I couldn't find anything specific about it anywhere

I have a situation with my manager (She is horrible just saying) where she keeps denying any unavailability I put in. While I understand shifts and staff availability and stuff and that's completely fine but the way she denies me is just so... Horrendous? Like no opportunity to work anything out or anything like that

She also denies it saying that unavailability are to be used for hospital appointments only? In contract nor in any policies I found it says that

She also just isn't willing to work anything out like if I really need certain days or if I'm just using it for the sake of using it she isn't willing to communicate in any way. Should I bring this to ER/HR?

Hi everyone I’m starting as a Barista Maestro next week, can anyone let me know if I’ll be paid for August or if I have to wait for end of September?😬

I’ve never done barista work before so if anyone can give me any tips or things I should know about the role that would be great!!!