Comments on: Training, Caring, and Management

By: Jason Haeger

Jason Haeger — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:44:44 +0000

It’s not coffee. It’s not the industry. It’s not the city. It’s the people.

What it comes down to, is that baristas who are coffee soldiers can come across as a threat to their shop’s owner. If the shop-owner is more concerned with maintaining control than with pushing forward with quality, it can be a tough predicament indeed.

Keep your chin up, Chad. It’s about the coffee.

By: Chad

Chad — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:45:23 +0000

Ironically enough, I feel like once again, I fell a bit victim to an inconsistently applied reprimanding. I believe that the coffee industry may just be plagued, maybe just in the Houston area, with quashing creativity and people who want to be soldiers for their coffee shops, giving over countless hours and countless turnaround shifts.

I think coffee and I get along; maybe it’s just this city and myself that do not.

By: Jason Haeger

Jason Haeger — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:27:37 +0000

Well stated, Chad. I agree wholeheartedly on almost everything you said.

Thanks.

By: Chad

Chad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:16:30 +0000

Recently, I have the joy of becoming a store(co-)manager. I cannot forget the days of working for shop after mismanaged shop where the apathy of a manager/owner would trickle (gush) down onto the Baristi and infest like a plague.

Ignorance is curable, but requires care on the part of the administrating doctor. I think one of the largest problems in dealing with ignorance is lack of care, but the largest problem in dealing with apathy is a lack of consistent reinforcement. Management tends to be either way too harsh in remedying problems, or inconsistent in applying ‘punishments’ or other forms of negative reinforcement. As much as I love where I work, the issue of being short-handed, I feel, can limit the consistency of punishment. Of course, as the punishment becomes more consistent, it falls on salaried workers to pick up the slack. It happens.

It goes to show my thoughts and theories on relying on your hierarchal level: that, usually, your biggest supporters come from your own level of ‘management.’ I have seen cream-of-the-crop baristi trying to lead by example almost achieve success in getting fellow baristi to cast off their top-down apathy, only to be reprimanded by said management for ‘overstepping their boundaries.’ Of course, then on out, the other baristi shunned the now ‘overachieving’ barista.

As a barista, in the end, I do believe a barista can only be as good for a company as his/her management lets him. If a barista has skill, desire, and knowledge, it then becomes that barista’s duty to shop jump until he/she ends up where they belong. After three years, and I would say 6 shops, I think I finally found a good company for which to work.

As a manager, in conclusion, I also believe that rules = care. I look beyond the scope of my store when training a new partner. I believe in setting up the rules and regulations for coffee that are universal, so that they may achieve success more quickly than I had – or teach a new person these fundamentals. Each one, teach one. I call on management to trust their well-trained barista and have their back at every turn when they are in the right.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:59:39 +0000

No matter how good you yourself are at making coffee/latte’s, if you train a beginner barista what you know, they should end up with a decent cup even if they don’t care. I know when I started with this company, I couldn’t believe the quality of machine they had for us to use and I find it somewhat funny that people getting into the industry wouldn’t know how lucky they are to get to use it. There are baristas yes that care, the others are the ones just looking for good paycheck.