A Starbucks barista has gone viral after a tweet was posted showing them crying because they were scheduled to work an eight-hour shift at the coffee giant. In the clip, the employee opens up about inefficient management and rude customers, but it was their complaints about their work schedule that many people took issue with.
Trans Barrister has meltdown because 8 hours is too long to work on a day… pic.twitter.com/IfVSzZ4G0w
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) October 30, 2022
- A 24-hour week and 8-hours shifts on the weekend were too much for the barista. As the Starbucks barista explained in the video: “I’m a full-time student, I get scheduled for 25 hours a week. And then on weekends, they scheduled me the entire day, open to close, that one’s scheduled for eight and half hours, both Saturday and Sunday.”
- It’s not just the long hours that are tough. The barista went on the lament the fact that only five people were scheduled to work at the busy Starbucks location all day and that one person called out, making it extra stressful. They also criticized the managers, saying they “don’t care about us” and “don’t want to help us.” They accused the manager of calling out because he didn’t want to work.
- It’s clear the worker was really struggling. Breaking down in tears, they expressed frustration at constantly being misgendered and generally treating them badly. “I don’t get accommodations for being neurodivergent, people get mad at me for having too much sick time. I don’t even know what to do anymore, I’m at my wit’s end with this job,” they said.
- The Starbucks barista’s video was shared in a now-viral tweet by a far-right Trump supporter. Sebastian Gorka clearly wanted to humiliate the barista, but many people had sympathy for them. As a full-time student, working all weekend too meant they had more than 70 hours of work in a week. “Wow, you are so brave for bullying a young service worker 🙄,” one person wrote. “A full-time college student is expected to do 2-3 hours of homework per every class hour. So if this kiddo is in class 15 hours a week, has 30 hours of homework, and then 25 hours of work that is a 70-hour week.” Another added that this is standard practice in the service industry, writing: “He’s crying about being understaffed and working two weekend days in a row, with a manager taking no responsibility for the understaffing, and not working with them on the floor. Common practice in coffee shops. One might see it as being exploitation to a degree.”
Wow, you are so brave for bullying a young service worker 🙄
A full time college student is expected to do 2-3 hours of homework per every class hour
So if this kiddo is in class 15 hours a week, has 30 hours of homework, and then 25 hours of work that is a 70 hour week
— Dr. Ada-Rhodes Short 🤖🧠(@The_Ada_Rhodes) November 1, 2022
