Pros
Great pay and benefits. I started out at Barista pay, 7.75 an hour, and in just two years I'm making 11.40 an hour as a supervisor, plus an average of 2.50 or so an hour in tips. I would make as much as I did as an ASM there, if I were full time. Most store managers do a fair job of treating their partners with respect and dignity, however, there are MANY out there who act as though they were the only person left in a sinking ship. Starbucks seems to bring out the best in some people, and the worst in others.
Cons
Its very hard to secure a full time job here. Since the company started struggling, I went from working 32-40 hours a week, easily, to working 20-25. Also, Most of the partners I work with are skeptical about the future of the company. We work in a fairly seasonal location, and it has gotten slower and slower every year at each of the stores I have worked at in the city. I also think its a shame that the District managers don't get to see more of what their Store managers are doing. I worked at a store whose manager was there pretty much one day a week. Every time he got word that the District manager or Regional Director was "in town" or headed to the store, he would put on a show for them by overstaffing, working the floor hard, boosting sales as much as he could so the place looked great. He would hold overnight cleaning parties sometimes in order to get the place looking normal before senior management showed up. Rather than just encouraging his partners to keep the store clean as you go, or setting a good example himself. Further, this same manager would hold weekly supervisor meetings to go over new problems as they came up. Unfortunately, each week, we went over the same problems that had come up in the first week.
