Why I Hated Being a Barista at Starbucks

Suffering is an understatement for the level of stress I’d see my coworkers enduring consistently.

Where do I begin? There’s so much to be said about Starbucks as a corporation, the experiences of Starbucks employees, and how the corporation is managed from the top down. I’ll start with what I loved about it first to be nice.

Working as a barista at Starbucks allowed me to meet so many different people from so many different walks of life. As an introvert who’s always struggled in extreme social settings and was told I need to be less of an introvert, being a barista allowed me to improve on my social and communication skills greatly.

I got to meet and build connections with so many interesting people and learned so much from them that I would have never thought to be interested in. I enjoyed the smiles on people’s faces when they realized I remembered their name or their order. I loved when little children would come in and their parents would let them practice ordering and inserting a credit card into our machines. It was the cutest and I’d often give children extra cake pops free of charge just because it made me happy to do so.

I made it a habit to write messages of encouragement on bags and cups for customers. I found this to be…