Manager woes

For almost a year now, I've been working on and off (mostly off because of school) at Starbucks. Starbucks, despite its recent changes as we progress toward "promises" to our customers to ensure the highest quality cup of coffee because Howard Schultz can't handle the fact that Dunkin Donuts' and McDonald's coffee sells for a cheaper price and is, in fact, as good, if not better than Starbucks' coffee (note to Howard: get your panties out of a wad!), is a great company to work for. A review happens every six months in which a partner gets a raise (or doesn't, in some cases). I got mine just recently. The regulars are great, and make up for the occasional jerk who comes in.

However, we have a manager problem, and have ever since I started.

Kellie is hyper. Kellie bounces off the walls. Kellie is hard to work with in the mornings. Kellie wants all the milk pitchers filled perfectly with the perfect foam and the perfect temperature. Kellie wishes she were a barista, apparently, and hardly completes managerial tasks she's assigned. Kellie is terrible at scheduling. Kellie is so fucking OCD about the damn pastry case that I want to take every pastry and throw it at her and break all the pastry plates. Kellie plays favorites, and because I'm not a lesbian, I probably won't become a shift leader like I've been trying for months. Kellie schedules the two lesbians who are dating in the store to work together, but tries to do so discreetly- while one is about to leave in, say, thirty minutes to an hour, the other one comes in- but the rest of us aren't stupid. It's against Starbucks policy- if any two partners are dating, they cannot be scheduled together- that's one of the reasons Joseph didn't work at Starbucks in Roebuck. Kellie is passive-aggressive. Rather than getting on my ass for being fifteen minutes late Saturday morning, she briefly mentioned in passing to "make sure you're not late tomorrow," even after I stayed not fifteen, but thirty, minutes past when I was supposed to get off to make up for said lateness. Oh wait, but never mind that I slept in the hospital two nights and didn't get a decent night's sleep even after Nana's passing. Never mind the fact that I worked over 41 hours a week this summer even though partners who are not shift leaders or ASMs or SMs are not supposed to work overtime. News flash! 41 HOURS IS OVERTIME.

Yes, I realize I have a tendency to run late- always have- but I am always more than willing to stay late to make up for the time. I have taken on thirty minutes to an hour of someone else's shift more times than I can count on one hand- and I am NOT exaggerating. Kellie sends me (and other partners) on a ten-minute break probably once or twice during a nine-hour shift. However, did Kellie get on my ass about it when I got to work? No, of course not. Kellie, instead, got distracted because one of the lesbians aforementioned showed up, and she was too busy joking around and talking to her- making me feel, once again, not only excluded, but also like I was pulling both their loads, as well as the third girl who transferred from a store in Chicago. When I was late, I didn't leave anyone hanging. Kellie and Sade (the new girl) were both there- it wasn't like someone was waiting to get off his/her shift or anything like that. I didn't hinder the opening process. Another thing that Kellie did this particular day that pissed me off so much that I wanted to pour freshly-steamed milk over her head was during a busy time. I was on bar, meaning I was making all the drinks that were coming in, and we had oh, say, 6-7 drinks in drive thru and 3-4 in the front. So, Kellie's over there scratching her butt or something, I don't know, basically not helping me out because she's too busy obsessing over the fucking pastry case that nobody cares about (!!!). She finally comes over, and says, "Oh, you have big bubbles" or "no bubbles" or something like that- a comment regarding my milk foam. I thought she said "good bubbles" because she speaks low and fast, so I said, "Thank you." I wasn't being an ass. The ensuing comment?

"That's not good, Christina."

Then she proceeds to laugh in her stupid little moronic passive-aggressive way of laughing but really not laughing- like a kind of "haha, you're stupid and you fail at life" chuckle that made me feel about two inches tall. This all coming about half an hour after she praised me for "doing so well during this rush"- I was making drinks left and right, but my foam turns out to be bad ONE time and she gets in her little passive-aggressive bubble of annoying wannabe managing. WHO CARES ABOUT FOAM. NO ONE OPENS HIS/HER DRINK AND COMPLAINS ABOUT THE FOAM. WHAT THE HELL.

Should a manager be personable at times? Sure, that's not really a bad thing as long as they don't go overboard. Is it good to have a sarcastic manager sometimes? Well, sometimes, depending on people's sense of humor- for me, I would love it, because I was raised in a very sarcastic family. Should a manager be passive-aggressive? NO.

I talked with one of the shift leaders about all of these problems, and if I didn't love her before, I sure do now. She relates to and agrees with everything I've said about Kellie and told me I'm not alone- Ariel's complained about the playing favorites game, and about the scheduling bullshit that frequently goes on. Many partners believe she should not be a manager, and I wholeheartedly agree. This isn't a new development, either; when I was working there over Christmas break I was thinking of all the shit Kellie does that pisses me off. I'm all for equality of homosexual/bisexual groups, but I do NOT believe in favoritism because of one's sexual orientation.

Kellie needs to return to Managing 101, because whatever she's doing isn't working. And if I end up quitting Starbucks (a very real possibility at this point) or transferring to the Eastwood Village one, it's only because of her and what I've been through.

So...daycare is sounding better and better everyday. :)

(I've already decided that I am, for sure, working at HUMC's children's place if they have an opening available, and Starbucks will be my secondary job. I can't handle working 34-on-average hours per week at Starbucks this summer, no matter how great the benefits.)