Starbucks baristas have to follow a lot of rules. Some of the strange policies include
a strict dress code, rarely saying "no" and being limited on how fast you can work.
Here are some other weird rules for Starbucks employees.
Starbucks really has no problem with employees dyeing their hair any shade
of the rainbow. However, if they're going to go all out with some unnatural hair color,
the chain asks them to commit to it. In other words, Starbucks doesn't allow its workers to
wear temporary hair dye, and other temporary hair changes – including colored hair sprays,
hair glitter, and hair chalks – are also off-limits.
The Starbucks employee style guide asks that all hair color is permanent
or semi-permanent for the sake of food safety. It seems like Starbucks
is worried some unsuspecting customer might open the lid to their macchiato
and find a bit of hair glitter floating on top. You might be wondering, though:
If semi-permanent hair color is okay, then why not temporary hair color? What's the difference?
Semi-permanent hair color sits on the surface of your hair and lasts between four and 12
shampoos before fading. Temporary hair color, on the other hand, washes out with one shampoo,
making it much more susceptible to fall out. If you've ever used temporary hair color,
you can likely attest to the way it can get just about everywhere if you're not careful,
which could mean staining clothes, tissues, and anything else that your hair touches.
When it comes to employee regulations, including about clothing,
Starbucks can seem pretty militant. Think about it - every time you've gone into a Starbucks,
what were the employees wearing? Probably nothing memorable, right?
The Starbucks employee handbook and style guide goes a long way to ensure that this
is the case by inviting employees to wear a variety of colors that are, quote,
"subdued." According to the guide, these subdued colors include black, white, gray, navy blue,
and brown. But Starbucks goes beyond simply monitoring the color of its employees' clothing.
The guide specifically addresses patterns, too, once again using the words "muted" and "subdued"
to describe what's acceptable, including small stripes, plaids, and "tight" patterns.
"Busy" and "bold" patterns are also a no-no, with Starbucks stressing that overall, solid patterns
are okay. Specific shirts that Starbucks employees aren't allowed to wear include any shirts with
loud colors or "busy" embroidery, as well as those featuring large logos or an inconsistent wash.
When it comes to jeans, the trends change almost every year. From bell bottoms to skinny jeans,
dark wash to light wash, blue jeans come in many forms and fashions. Light wash
jeans have been growing in popularity over the last few years, but Starbucks still says "no"
when it comes to employees dressing in this particular pant style. Instead,
it asks employees to only wear bottoms in darker denim or fabrics in black, navy, or brown.
The only light colors permitted for Starbucks employee bottoms are grays and khaki.
Other types of pants that Starbucks employees can't get away with include jeans with holes,
baggy jeans, jeans that are too long, leather pants, athletic pants, and sweatpants.
When it comes to tattoos and piercings, Starbucks' employee rules are just as
strict as you'd probably expect them to be, considering the other items on this list.
Starbucks employees cannot show off any face or throat tattoos, and any tattoo with questionable
imagery must be covered as well. The chain also doesn't allow more than two earrings per ear,
as well as no septum piercings. No jewelry is allowed on the hands or wrists, including watches.
You can wear one plain band, so wedding rings are good to go, though engagement rings are not.
While you might think that Starbucks' employee dress code rules are a bit harsh, they were once
much harsher. In 2019, Starbucks slightly adjusted its dress code to allow facial piercings for the
first time, including nose studs and ear gauges, though they couldn't be larger than a dime.
"Oh, dumb Starbucks. Okay."
"Oh, you thought it was Starbucks?"
"I did."
Most working adults probably understand that they should go to their place of
employment having showered and made themselves presentable, especially when it comes to food
service. But Starbucks wants its employees to wash away a few other things from their bodies,
including things that might be acceptable in most other work environments: nail polish and perfume.
Regarding the former, the Starbucks employee handbook notes employees can't wear anything that
could fall into food or drinks. Perfumes, as well as fragrant products like lotion or body wash,
are prohibited for similar reasons, because according to Starbucks,
strong scents could interfere with customer experiences.
The rule against perfume makes some sense, at least. As scent
is a huge part of the dining experience, you likely wouldn't want the aroma of your coffee
interrupted by a whiff of someone's Axe cologne or overly floral perfume.
If you like to go to Starbucks to work, you may feel like you need to earn your favorite
chair with consistent purchases. A coffee every hour should be enough to keep your place, right?
Well, turns out you don't have to buy anything to sit inside a Starbucks - not even a single coffee.
In 2018, PBS reported that Starbucks changed its policy to allow anyone to sit in their
cafes for as long as they want, and employees could not ask that person to leave. The change
was a result of controversy. A Philadelphia Starbucks employee had called the police to
report that two Black men, who were waiting for a meeting with a real estate investor,
had not made purchases at the cafe and refused to leave when asked.
Video taken by a bystander revealed the men were sitting calmly, yet when Philadelphia
police arrived, the two men were arrested. The video of the arrest went viral and
Starbucks announced it would close many of its doors for a day of racial bias training.
"I want to begin by offering a personal apology to the two gentlemen who were arrested in our store."
As a result of the policy change, the only time Starbucks employees are permitted to report a
customer who is not leaving is if they feel someone is a threat to safety. Employees are
also not allowed to ask that person to leave. Instead, they're supposed to call the police.
If you ever feel you've had to wait a long time for your order at Starbucks, you should know that
your baristas are most likely working as fast as they're permitted to. In 2010, Starbucks made
changes to their employee guidelines that may have left customers waiting longer. This rule
change dictates that Starbucks employees are not allowed to make more than two drinks at one time,
and they can only start making a second drink once they are almost finished with the first.
Additionally, employees have to steam milk for each Starbucks drink separately,
versus steaming a larger batch of milk at once. The rules also say that employees have to wash
certain tools after every drink, that they can only use one espresso machine at a time,
and that they aren't allowed to move from workstation to workstation.
The policies were intended to create a more efficient coffee line, but as
soon as they were rolled out, Starbucks employees reported that things weren't
as efficient as they should've been. The Wall Street Journal quoted one employee
as saying that wait times doubled in some cases, and longer lines were the result.
If you've ever been touring a city and needed to find a restroom fast, you've likely walked
into a chain restaurant in hopes that they'd let you use the bathroom in exchange for a purchase.
"Ohhhh."
"But it wasn't the restaurant."
"Oh, no, no, no."
"Where are you going?" "I need a bathroom."
But the next time you need a potty break and there's a Starbucks nearby,
feel free to walk right into the café and ask to use the restroom, no purchase required.
At the same time that Starbucks eliminated its no-loitering rule,
it also changed guidelines around who could use the coffee chain's bathrooms.
Now, anyone can head to Starbucks for a bathroom break without having to buy a drink.
Even if you're in an area where the Starbucks bathrooms are typically locked,
all you have to do is ask the employee for the key code or key, and they're not allowed to deny you.
While the new bathroom rule was intended to better serve customers,
according to a University of Texas study, the policy change actually reduced Starbucks
visits. Starbucks in-store visits decreased by nearly 7 percent following the decision,
and this decrease was more than 80 percent higher for stores located near homeless shelters. The
customers who did go into Starbucks also reduced the amount of overall time spent inside the cafe.
The Starbucks policy against telling customers "no" when they ask to use the restroom extends
even further. Technically, Starbucks employees aren't supposed to tell you "no" at all,
regardless of what your request might be - rather, the policy is "just say yes."
According to former Starbucks employee Carrie Dils,
"The concept is simple: If a customer brings up a problem or complaint, offer them a resounding
YES. Don't focus on what you can't do for a customer, tell them what you can do for them."
For example, Dils says if a customer asks an employee to microwave a drink for them
because it's been sitting next to a laptop for an hour, the employee should not say no. Instead,
the employee should say yes to warming up the customer's drink with some steamed milk.
So, the next time you have a special request at Starbucks
and you think there's no chance that the employee will help you out, go ahead and ask.
There's two specific customer requests that Starbucks employees are required to give a
resounding "no" to. If you ask to go into your Starbucks a little early to get that perfect
seat by the window or if you ask to stay a little late to finish up that last email to your boss,
you're out of luck. Starbucks employees are required to keep customers out until their exact
opening time, and they must herd customers out the door as soon as the clock strikes closing time.
If you think you're an exception, you might want to think twice. In fact,
one Starbucks employee told Insider that asking to break this rule is one
of the most annoying things a customer can do. The employee told the outlet:
"There's an entire checklist of things the employees have to do before they can open
the store, and they really can't open 15 or 30 minutes early for an early bird customer."
Showing your gratitude for the service workers and other professionals in your life
via tipping is a pretty nice thing to do. However, if you're thinking of offering a holiday or even
a just-because tip to your favorite Starbucks barista, you might want to think twice. Starbucks'
tipping policy dictates that employees must split cash tips equally. According to a Reddit thread,
how strictly this rule is enforced seems to depend on the cafe, though many employees feel
peer-pressured enough to not break the rule, even when a good tip is at stake.
Starbucks employees on Reddit also reported that some customers have
worked around the splitting tips rule by putting cash in a sealed
envelope with an employee's name on it and asked the employee to open the envelope later. However,
it's unclear whether that employee is required to split what's inside.
Some employees responded that they would feel bad about not splitting these kinds of tips,
while others declared they understood that some of their colleagues absolutely deserved to keep them.
Overall, it seems like the Starbucks team really is a team of people who support one another.
And many employees indicate they get a pretty good share of tips,
even when they're all distributed evenly.
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