Just say "Yes"

When dealing with an internal or external client in my line of work, I always appreciate it when my managers back me up and never discredit me in front of a client. It shows me that they care about respecting me as an employee, and to that end, I'm pretty willing to go the extra mile for them.

It seems like Starbucks doesn't care enough about their baristas to do the same thing. The company has a "Just Say 'Yes'" policy, wherein the employees and management are encouraged to do almost anything to retain a customer. But a commenter to this blog, "BaristaBoi", recently pointed out the problem with this policy:

"The misguided 'Just say yes' policy... has trained customers to be "rude, entitled people". It tells people that if they just cause a loud enough stink they will get their way. Starbucks is one of the only places I know, where I could literally never pay for a drink if I wanted to do it."

This guy is totally correct. Starbucks is so concerned with holding onto their client base whilst keeping their prices outrageously high that they'll do anything to keep said client base from leaving. Customers leverage that knowledge into exhibiting (at times) outrageous behavior in order to get what they want.

To me, this policy helps me understand why the level of morale is so low at the store level. Like I said, I'm a former partner, and the number of no-shows and the amount of turnover at my old store was staggering. How can the employees be invested in their job when the company is willing to sacrifice the dignity of their employee base to keep profits up?

I would imagine that Starbucks' HR Dept. (or whoever is in charge of hiring at the store level) feels that if the employees don't like management throwing them under the bus to back up the customer, they won't be able to do anything because of the unemployment numbers in the USA at present. Like I always say, you can't spell "Who cares?" without "HR".

This blog doesn't condone outrageous behavior. Yes, it does tell you how to get drinks for less. But to be perfectly frank, if you want to act out and throw a tantrum because you feel that your registered gold card entitles you to some sort of "elite status", then you're on your own. Just ask yourself one thing... when you exit the shop after acting like a complete donkey, are those condescending looks of pity / disgust worth it?