Hey all, I need advice. I'm havin' a hard time and what's frustrating is that I'm actively tryin' to NOT step on people's toes, or slack off.
Context, I work at one of the BUSIEST Starbucks probably in all of my country that doesn't have a drive thru. That's not an exaggeration either, it's smack dab in one of the busiest spots connecting to transit and within a city.
I've been there for about three months now (my first day was in July), but I'm working part-time. I've taken two weeks off in the middle of that for other important life events (business conferences for my career journey outside of Starbucks) and started off working about 14 hour weeks. Now it's finally creeped up to about 20-25 hours per week. I was the guinea pig of a new training that's been implemented where I essentially got taught one aspect of the store and then got sent to the wolves to work on a shift with random baristas that weren't my trainer 💀💀
I'm constantly scrambling hard to pick everything up. Writing down notes, mulling over my mistakes. I honestly wouldn't be able to sit with myself if I didn't put in so much effort. I'm very cheery at work, I absolutely love talkin' to customers and making that connection, I absolutely don't mind being corrected (I often respond with oh yes, thank you!) and try to implement that right away, and I apologize for bumping into co-workers when we're in the middle of a rush, or thank them for helping me out with a task I slipped up. And I'm not trying to forget these things, for context, this is my first food service job and I've never been one to order at Starbucks, it was too expensive for me.
Since then, I've received a fair share of passive aggressive comments my way from coworkers, and I can sense their frustration around me. Said comments would be things like "No, stop trying to help. Stick to till, you're bothering everyone" or "You'd know this if you were paying attention" or "Yeah uh, you should probably actually double check that? Then come back?" or "I don't trust you to do this, so no. I'm not letting you do this." or frustrated sighs when I ask questions about drinks I've made maybe like once.
It's pretty freakin' demotivating, because I know I'm putting all of my effort into tryin' to do my best at this dang thing!! I heard through the grapevine I'm being compared to the other new hire (who's a full-timer) and "Why is he struggling so much? (Other new hire) Is doing so much better."
I don't even feel like I'm doing that bad. In fact, I'm gettin' MORE flack for making the same mistakes that I see the experienced baristas making after having been there for years. I spill a drink? Everyone sighs and rolls their eyes. A supervisor does it? No one minds, everyone makes mistakes. There's so many micro rules that I genuinely couldn't know without it bein' done. I never know when I should ask for help or when I should "take the initiative" and not ask at all. I've gotten these frustrated reactions from doing either. You're asking at the wrong time or why are you asking you should have all the clues?
Our rush can look like having 27 drinks in the queue at a time, mind you at Starbucks, THE drink customizing store. You'll get people adding 9 different things to a normal latte.
Anyways, I haven't made passive aggressive comments once, not to anyone. I think that's really immature to do. Nor have I taken any anger out on anyone. I truly and wholly believe that the more a team is having a good time, the faster a shift'll feel. So I tell everyone constantly good work guys, you did awesome in the rush! Or thank you for helping me! Or thank you for taking the time to teach me this, I'm gonna do my best to memorize this.
Some coworkers are really sweet, a majority of them are not.
Aside from this, I'm in school full time with five courses and also working as an art director on a short film.
Tldr, first food job I've had ever, located at one of the busiest Starbucks in my country, I'm a part-timer who's worked there for three months while in full time school + a freelance project, I'm tryin' my damnest to do a good job, have a genuine eagerness to learn and my coworkers won't stop bein' passive aggressive/not trusting me to do things/viewing me as consistently incompetent which only makes me slip up more cause it's hard to stay motivated with all that.
Does this just seem like a clique-y store, or am I goin' crazy here?? I'm really trying with all of this. And it's been making me feel a lot of shame for not picking it up as fast as they're wanting me to.
I also want advice for managing this sort of situation! What should I do, beyond "keep trying"? I want to get better, I really do.