It’s hard not to feel for the young man who breaks down in tears on camera when they learn they have to work an 8-hour shift over the weekend.
Their reaction has sparked quite a bit of empathy on social media.
However, there are some who believe that instead of crying, this individual should be embracing the hard work just like many others who put in the effort.
People on social media have shown a lot of sympathy towards a Starbucks employee who posted a video of themselves in tears due to their demanding work hours.
In the video, a Starbucks barista shares their frustrations with the management and the rude behavior of some customers.
Yet, it was their comments about their work schedule that really got people talking online.
The barista, who is juggling their job with school, expressed that handling 25 hours a week along with 8-hour shifts on both Saturday and Sunday was overwhelming for them.
This confession split Twitter into two camps: one calling the barista soft and entitled, and the other defending them, pointing out that exploitation of workers can take many forms.
In the video, the barista passionately explains:
„People wonder why we need a union at Starbucks. I am literally about to quit. Like, I don’t know if I’m going to do it. But like I really want to, I almost walked out today.
„And I’m crying in the back room right now. I almost cried on the floor. I’m a full time student, I get scheduled for 25 hours a week.
„And then on weekends, they scheduled me the entire day, open to close, that one’s scheduled for eight and half hours, both Saturday and Sunday.
„I’m three and a half hours into my shift. There’s so many customers and we have four people on the floor all day.
„Only five people were put on schedule and somebody had to call out.”
They went on to say that the managers „don’t care about us” and „don’t want to help us,” claiming that their manager had taken himself off the shift because he didn’t want to come in.
The barista stated that the customers were being rude and misgendering them, and finished by saying:
„I don’t get accommodations for being neurodivergent, people get mad at me for having too much sick time.
” I don’t even know what to do anymore, I’m at my wits end with this job.”
Going to college in the US isn’t cheap. Many underestimate the real cost, thinking it’s around $5,000 a year.
However, a 2021 Fidelity Investments survey shows it’s much more, especially when you factor in housing, food, and books on top of tuition.
Costs vary by school type. Public in-state colleges charge an average of $10,423 for tuition and fees for the 2022-2023 year, which is 74% less than private colleges at $39,723.
Out-of-state students at public universities pay about $22,953 annually.
With these high costs, it’s no surprise that 40% of full-time undergrads worked in 2020, and 74% of part-time students did too.
The burden of student loans is heavy, with 42.8 million borrowers in the US holding an average federal debt of $37,787. Total student loan debt in the country is $1.745 trillion.
So while everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the way this particular person is handling the pressure, I hope we all can agree that looking down the line and seeing such hardship can put an enormous amount of stress on you.
Many had sympathy for the worker, with one person pointing out that on top of uni work the student would end up with 70 hour per week.
One person commented: „He’s crying about being understaffed and working two weekend days in a row, with a manager taking no responsibility for the understaffing, and not working with them on the floor. Common practice in coffee shops. One might see it as being exploitation to a degree.”
Another tweet read: „People in the comments defending bad work environment and abuse because they were abused too.”
And in defense of the barista, another user remarked: „This is why everyone hates the older generation because y’all will say you want the best for our generations and then when we want it to be better y’all whine about how you had it worse and essentially say we deserve the same. I will never understand why you wouldn’t want better.”
But as time went by, they got plenty of negative reactions and people started having heated arguments about today’s state of customer service
