Hello, everyone! For this week, since it will be the last week of posting, I plan on telling you about my favorite moments at Starbucks. I see it rather fitting to conclude like this, so I hope you enjoy them just as much as I did.

COVID: Round 1

During the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak, Starbucks employees had the option to stay at home and receive COVID pay, or come into work and receive an additional three dollars per hour. I chose to stay at home, however, when we did have to come back our café inside was not allowed to be open. Because of this, we all decided it would be a wonderful idea to play the music inside the store very loud since it was just employees in the building. This turned out to be great, except that we can’t choose the music that plays, so at any time a depressing song could come on and ruin our high energy. So, one day I brought in my own personal speaker and we blasted music from the early 2000’s that most of us grew up on, leading to many dance breaks and karaoke times.

Another fun idea we had during this time came from my shift supervisor, Gavin. With the pandemic, sometimes we would have all of our tasks done while things were slow, leaving us with nothing to do. Because of this, Gavin had the brilliant idea to send me to his car to grab his ladder golf set and set it up in the store. Now, anytime we were bored we played ladder golf together to pass the time and add a little fun into our days.

Ladder Golf

“Most Disgusting” Challenge

When working night shifts at my store, sometimes we do find ourselves twiddling our thumbs with nothing to do, so one night we decided to challenge each other to make the most disgusting drinks. Each barista working that night made a single drink for everyone to try, and then we all came together to vote for the most disgusting one. It was so fun to see the grossed out looks on everyones faces, but also to do something collectively and make the most out of our free time. This was also the start of us beginning to become actual friends instead of just coworkers.

Brunches

Once we realized that our coworkers were all pretty fun people, we decided that we should get together outside of work. We would meet almost every week for brunch or lunch at the park, order out together, and then eat and play Cards Against Humanity. These interactions were some of the most fun I had had with my coworkers, and it brought us all so much closer; we would go to each others houses to hang out, and I even invited a lot of them to my own graduation party. Once COVID got really bad, we decided to do “family” zoom calls every week to keep some sense of social interaction going. In fact, most of us still participate in these (although now they happen bi-weekly to monthly) and we will just talk and catch up or play Among Us until we get too tired to continue. Some of our coworkers have left for other jobs, or even moved to other states, but because we got so close we will always keep in touch. This might not be a moment specifically set at my work, but it is one of my favorite things about working there because my coworkers and I really are like a family.

Over the course of this blog I hope that I have shown you some cool things about Starbucks, but also about the people that work there. I do love my job very much, even though it can have its downs at times. Working in customer service wasn’t something I initially thought would be enjoyable, but I guess I shouldn’t have judged that book by its cover because look at me now; I’ve made some wonderful friends and had great experiences while working for Starbucks. So, if this blog teaches you anything besides Starbucks drinks, remember to be kind and optimistic, because you never know where you’ll find yourself.