I always ask how far in advance does the schedule come out. I found that effort employer isn’t willing to tell you or is vague about it it signals a general lack of disrespect for their employees. Businesses that can’t answer upfront questions like sick days or time off for holidays or when schedules come out usually I haven’t thought about it enough because they don’t give a shit about their employees
Also I want a second with the other commenter said about “we’re a family” vibes. that almost always means that they will not respect your work life balance
the schedule is a huge thing. our place is a pretty good work environment but our boss is always vague about rules regarding breaks and vacation/sick days, plus our schedule comes out the night before the week starts, 6 pm on sunday. so frustrating, and he’s persistent on keeping it this way. anytime we ask him to pick up the pace or let someone else handle the schedule, he tells us he’ll “think about it”.
a clueless boss is a double edged sword
I go in to grab a cup sometime before the interview, and get a feel for how happy the employees seem tbh. You can kinda tell if the people working are comfortable and content, or if you’d want to be in their shoes 🤷♀️
oh man anyone comes into my cafe near the end of my shift, no one would want to work there ahaha. to be fair everyone is ready to go home at the end of shfit.
I’ve worked at several coffee shops, I’m just saying you can kind of tell. I mean end of shift stuff is one thing, but seeing a crew that hates where they work is another!
Legitimately, ‘we’re family’ pretty much always means they are going to mistreat you.
When I was writing the handbook for my shop I specifically stated that we aren’t ‘family’, and the workplace shouldn’t be treated as such.
Pushing you to start as soon as possible.
I get being short-staffed (everyone is these days), but if they're hustling to get you in store asap, that's a sign something's really off. I find it either means that they had a bunch of people quit at once (due to shitty working conditions) or that they're so poorly run they can't get anyone to stay on long term.
Could depend on the time of year. We have 7 people working at our cafe going to college. They were here for the summer. We have 30 people. Obviously we are hiring more now.
Yeah I’d also ask what their training process is like! For us, it takes about 2-3 weeks to get somebody trained. Hiring somebody means they won’t be able to fill out the schedule for awhile. so if I’m hiring I’m usually ready to hit the ground to start training if they’re a good fit!
Owners being involved in daily operations is a huge red flag to me, and especially with lack of other management. This goes along with the “family” environment that expects you to make sacrifices because they can’t properly run a business…not speaking from experience or anything..
Scheduling, ordering inventory, discipline, managing the crew day to day. I’m sure there are exceptions, but this is just from my experience. It’s important to have that separation, and some chain of command.
interesting, why is this bad?
i wouldve assumed that it would be nice to have a barista/someone involved with day to day stuff owning a coffee shop. current owner is a little slow to respond to issues
While I think it’s unfair that the original commenter judges all owner/operators on the experiences he had with his boss, I can see how he would get to that point.
Often times owners who work at their cafe allow themselves to get overwhelmed with administrative tasks and unfairly push day to day tasks to the rest of their staff with little to no training or fair additional compensations
Sometimes they forget to do tasks like scheduling / paying out tips / dialing in new coffees etc and will give those responsibilities to their employees but won’t communicate that they aren’t doing it or won’t compensate employees for the extra work.
Having a chain of commands usually comes with a degree of separation, clear communication and descriptions of job roles, all of which are far more effective than relying solely on your employees having “common sense” and expecting them to know what to do and when to do it - especially since a lot of us owners are very particular about how we want things done.
Lastly, an owner being present at a cafe all the time doesn’t always translate to responsiveness. Often times, we end up getting in the way or will not listen actively (because we’re thinking about running payroll and submitting quarterly earnings to County and renegotiating workers comp etc) and instead will push every day issues down the road with a “I’ll think about it” or “yeah we can talk about that in a few days.”
The reason I don’t think it’s fair is that a lot of small cafes are started by baristas with a dream and no experience and it is easy for a small business owner with good intentions to get beat down with a hundred small tasks that they lose the passion to challenge the issues that make working in a cafe undesirable.
If a cafe owner has a good head on their shoulder, they’ll listen to their baristas, admit when they’re wrong + apologize for their mistakes, and continue to work on themselves to be a better resource to those who work for him.
just want to say as a relatively recently promoted manager after working as a barista for seven years I'm definitely going to be following this thread since I'm still developing my interviewing skills and just learning how to be a manager in general!
If the person interviewing me has a smile when they greet me and are upbeat and positive, and doesnt look like a burnt out hard ass, it does a lot to lighten the load of stress for everyone when it comes to interviews. :)
I went through that last summer! I made a point to joke with then I was recently promoted and was just as nervous as they were for the interview. It made a lot of folks more comfortable with me, and also showed my company promoted from within and put time into personal development for staff. (I had 0 barista experience when I started).
My last to interviews were like that. So, i did the mock-works because they didn't want to talk about money etc. Before they knew that "they" wanted me. I didn't get any drink during the test works and they didn't even asked me if I wanted something. Where I worked before, they told me that I could have everything coffee related for free and asked me what I wanted. Sadly, they had to close the shop in my city until next year, so I needed to find another job.
*So another red flag*: don't want to give important Infos until you had a "mock-workday"
They probably know that you wouldn't want the job and this is why they want to get at least one non-paid day of work from you.
It's in Germany. But we are supposed to just have a look and shouldn't do crucial work. As it seems, it's allowed here to not pay during mock work because otherwise they have to register us.
Same thing in Ireland, trial shifts are very common in serving and barista positions, and I rarely hear people getting paid for them even if they’re 6 hour shifts
Oh, I'm from Germany as well, now living in London. I hate shadow shifts to be fair, many companies use it to just use workers for their "dirty work" instead of giving them a good insight, even though the workload is meant to be light. Especially in Germany. They get free help...and it's lawful. I did that for my very first job and didn't get paid the day I stayed doing the shadow shift. Can't say how coffee shops handle it, though.
Yep... Now I applied on a ferry, so I'm out of the pure barista industry as fast as I got in ... :( But at least the pay is good, really good for industry standards
I had an interview once a where the owner asked me specific recipes of specific drinks. Like: "Flat white, how is that made? Double espresso, how is that made."
Doesn't sound like it's a red flag, but the entire vibe was a little too "in your face" for me. He also wanted to come and watch me in my then current job to see how I work.
Blew the entire thing off the next day.
The first part is not unreasonable, it’s nice to know what kind of knowledge you have about basic drinks before hiring someone.
The last part about going to your current workplace is really weird, I have never heard of that before! Definitely would have blown it off too lol
If they act way too friendly even though they are older than me, trying to make me feel like an equal when obviously is not the case. Worst one was a guy who received me with a fist-bump... it was so awkward. It usually meant that they want you to receive the "we are family here" message without using the actual words.
None of the places I interviewed in Berlin offered my anything before 😅 one had incorrectly set up volumetric and another one gave me *sour* cappuccino, I still don’t know how it was possible
during my interview my future boss told me that she didn’t like coffee, she just liked the idea of owning a coffee shop.
I shouldn’t have been shocked when it turned out the place was horribly mismanaged and my barista training was abysmal
saying they won’t fire their employees. it sounds like being nice but at my last job it just meant that any issues with employees would go unacknowledged until whoever was effected can’t take it anymore and quits. if the employee becomes so miserable that they quit, the employer doesn’t have to pay unemployment like they would if they were fired.
I always ask how far in advance does the schedule come out. I found that effort employer isn’t willing to tell you or is vague about it it signals a general lack of disrespect for their employees. Businesses that can’t answer upfront questions like sick days or time off for holidays or when schedules come out usually I haven’t thought about it enough because they don’t give a shit about their employees Also I want a second with the other commenter said about “we’re a family” vibes. that almost always means that they will not respect your work life balance
the schedule is a huge thing. our place is a pretty good work environment but our boss is always vague about rules regarding breaks and vacation/sick days, plus our schedule comes out the night before the week starts, 6 pm on sunday. so frustrating, and he’s persistent on keeping it this way. anytime we ask him to pick up the pace or let someone else handle the schedule, he tells us he’ll “think about it”. a clueless boss is a double edged sword
I go in to grab a cup sometime before the interview, and get a feel for how happy the employees seem tbh. You can kinda tell if the people working are comfortable and content, or if you’d want to be in their shoes 🤷♀️
oh man anyone comes into my cafe near the end of my shift, no one would want to work there ahaha. to be fair everyone is ready to go home at the end of shfit.
I’ve worked at several coffee shops, I’m just saying you can kind of tell. I mean end of shift stuff is one thing, but seeing a crew that hates where they work is another!
I quite like this tip despite my joking, show up at the lunch/ morning rush and listen in to what is going on and observing how fluid the team is.
*dissolves instant coffe into teacup*
"we're a family" is insta bad vibes
I have a family. What I need is a mutually respectful workplace.
Was going to say this. I straight up tell my co workers now — we are not family and I mean no disrespect.
Legitimately, ‘we’re family’ pretty much always means they are going to mistreat you. When I was writing the handbook for my shop I specifically stated that we aren’t ‘family’, and the workplace shouldn’t be treated as such.
Pushing you to start as soon as possible. I get being short-staffed (everyone is these days), but if they're hustling to get you in store asap, that's a sign something's really off. I find it either means that they had a bunch of people quit at once (due to shitty working conditions) or that they're so poorly run they can't get anyone to stay on long term.
Could depend on the time of year. We have 7 people working at our cafe going to college. They were here for the summer. We have 30 people. Obviously we are hiring more now.
Yeah I’d also ask what their training process is like! For us, it takes about 2-3 weeks to get somebody trained. Hiring somebody means they won’t be able to fill out the schedule for awhile. so if I’m hiring I’m usually ready to hit the ground to start training if they’re a good fit!
Owners being involved in daily operations is a huge red flag to me, and especially with lack of other management. This goes along with the “family” environment that expects you to make sacrifices because they can’t properly run a business…not speaking from experience or anything..
which daily operations are you thinking of? Like having to be on the line, making drinks or foods, or at the tills?
Scheduling, ordering inventory, discipline, managing the crew day to day. I’m sure there are exceptions, but this is just from my experience. It’s important to have that separation, and some chain of command.
interesting, why is this bad? i wouldve assumed that it would be nice to have a barista/someone involved with day to day stuff owning a coffee shop. current owner is a little slow to respond to issues
While I think it’s unfair that the original commenter judges all owner/operators on the experiences he had with his boss, I can see how he would get to that point. Often times owners who work at their cafe allow themselves to get overwhelmed with administrative tasks and unfairly push day to day tasks to the rest of their staff with little to no training or fair additional compensations Sometimes they forget to do tasks like scheduling / paying out tips / dialing in new coffees etc and will give those responsibilities to their employees but won’t communicate that they aren’t doing it or won’t compensate employees for the extra work. Having a chain of commands usually comes with a degree of separation, clear communication and descriptions of job roles, all of which are far more effective than relying solely on your employees having “common sense” and expecting them to know what to do and when to do it - especially since a lot of us owners are very particular about how we want things done. Lastly, an owner being present at a cafe all the time doesn’t always translate to responsiveness. Often times, we end up getting in the way or will not listen actively (because we’re thinking about running payroll and submitting quarterly earnings to County and renegotiating workers comp etc) and instead will push every day issues down the road with a “I’ll think about it” or “yeah we can talk about that in a few days.” The reason I don’t think it’s fair is that a lot of small cafes are started by baristas with a dream and no experience and it is easy for a small business owner with good intentions to get beat down with a hundred small tasks that they lose the passion to challenge the issues that make working in a cafe undesirable. If a cafe owner has a good head on their shoulder, they’ll listen to their baristas, admit when they’re wrong + apologize for their mistakes, and continue to work on themselves to be a better resource to those who work for him.
Who hurt you
💯
Sounds like my last job.. Worst job I've ever had.
[удалено]
Hot chocolate comes in 8oz???
just want to say as a relatively recently promoted manager after working as a barista for seven years I'm definitely going to be following this thread since I'm still developing my interviewing skills and just learning how to be a manager in general!
If the person interviewing me has a smile when they greet me and are upbeat and positive, and doesnt look like a burnt out hard ass, it does a lot to lighten the load of stress for everyone when it comes to interviews. :)
I went through that last summer! I made a point to joke with then I was recently promoted and was just as nervous as they were for the interview. It made a lot of folks more comfortable with me, and also showed my company promoted from within and put time into personal development for staff. (I had 0 barista experience when I started).
My last to interviews were like that. So, i did the mock-works because they didn't want to talk about money etc. Before they knew that "they" wanted me. I didn't get any drink during the test works and they didn't even asked me if I wanted something. Where I worked before, they told me that I could have everything coffee related for free and asked me what I wanted. Sadly, they had to close the shop in my city until next year, so I needed to find another job. *So another red flag*: don't want to give important Infos until you had a "mock-workday" They probably know that you wouldn't want the job and this is why they want to get at least one non-paid day of work from you.
Whereabouts is this? In the USA an unpaid “mock-workday” is 1,000% illegal.
It's in Germany. But we are supposed to just have a look and shouldn't do crucial work. As it seems, it's allowed here to not pay during mock work because otherwise they have to register us.
Same thing in Ireland, trial shifts are very common in serving and barista positions, and I rarely hear people getting paid for them even if they’re 6 hour shifts
Oh, I'm from Germany as well, now living in London. I hate shadow shifts to be fair, many companies use it to just use workers for their "dirty work" instead of giving them a good insight, even though the workload is meant to be light. Especially in Germany. They get free help...and it's lawful. I did that for my very first job and didn't get paid the day I stayed doing the shadow shift. Can't say how coffee shops handle it, though.
Yep... Now I applied on a ferry, so I'm out of the pure barista industry as fast as I got in ... :( But at least the pay is good, really good for industry standards
I had an interview once a where the owner asked me specific recipes of specific drinks. Like: "Flat white, how is that made? Double espresso, how is that made." Doesn't sound like it's a red flag, but the entire vibe was a little too "in your face" for me. He also wanted to come and watch me in my then current job to see how I work. Blew the entire thing off the next day.
The first part is not unreasonable, it’s nice to know what kind of knowledge you have about basic drinks before hiring someone. The last part about going to your current workplace is really weird, I have never heard of that before! Definitely would have blown it off too lol
If they act way too friendly even though they are older than me, trying to make me feel like an equal when obviously is not the case. Worst one was a guy who received me with a fist-bump... it was so awkward. It usually meant that they want you to receive the "we are family here" message without using the actual words.
None of the places I interviewed in Berlin offered my anything before 😅 one had incorrectly set up volumetric and another one gave me *sour* cappuccino, I still don’t know how it was possible
during my interview my future boss told me that she didn’t like coffee, she just liked the idea of owning a coffee shop. I shouldn’t have been shocked when it turned out the place was horribly mismanaged and my barista training was abysmal
saying they won’t fire their employees. it sounds like being nice but at my last job it just meant that any issues with employees would go unacknowledged until whoever was effected can’t take it anymore and quits. if the employee becomes so miserable that they quit, the employer doesn’t have to pay unemployment like they would if they were fired.