UPDATE: November 17, 2015 at 6:05 p.m.
After news broke that Starbucks baristas were rallying against what they believe are unfair work schedules, a Starbucks spokesperson maintains that the company's official policy ensures that "partners [employees] have a minimum of eight hours between shifts and that schedules are posted two weeks in advance."
And while the survey results (reported below) collected by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) reveal that 1 in 4 baristas works at a location where the dreaded "clopening" is still in place, it's important to note that those results came from 200 employees in 37 states—a small percentage of Starbucks' 150,000 employees worldwide.
However, the discrepancies between corporate policy and franchisee practices are not to be ignored. According to Starbucks, schedules need to be free of back-to-back closing and opening shifts, but stipulates that this rule only applies if said shifts are less than 8 hours apart. In reality, after commuting and trying to get some ZZZs, that's not much time.
On top of this, the CPD report states that 60 percent of employees interviewed get 7 or less hour of sleep when handed a "clopening" schedule. And more often than not, those schedules are assigned one week or less in advance—48 percent of respondents versus 32 percent who receive them two weeks beforehand and 18 percent who get them three weeks in advance.
In an open letter, Starbucks group president for the U.S. writes that these findings are "contrary to the expectations we have in place." Additionally, company spokeswoman Jaime Riley told the New York Times that "we're the first to admit that we have work to do, but we feel like we've made good progress."
When Delish spoke with a representative for the brand, we learned that any deviations from corporate policy should be reported to the company's Partner Contact Center, which offers baristas and other employees help in discussing concerns, working through scheduling challenges, and getting questions answered.
ORIGINAL POST: November 16, 2015 at 12:32 p.m.
It has been 15 months since Starbucks swore it would improve employees' working hours, but apparently things haven't changed enough for some baristas. While many workers report improved conditions, several new reports reveal that there hasn't been much progress overall.
Last week, while thousands of fast food employees rallied for better wages, a small group of Starbucks baristas gather in front of the chain's Seattle Pike Place location, where they demanded better schedules. And who can blame them? The coffee company is notorious for its "clopening"—when a barista spends the night closing up shop, only to return several hours later to open, leaving little time for rest in between.
According to a new report from the Center for Popular Democracy—an advocacy group that surveyed over 200 Starbucks employees about their working hours—that nightmare shift still very much exists. Additionally, workers reported receiving little advance notice on their schedules and expressed that managers' mentality is that "being sick is your fault."
Though working while sick is a problem that stretches well throughout the food industry, it's especially harmful when large chains reinforce it—whether inadvertently or not. Unfortunately, the company hasn't done much to address the situation of late. Probably because they're too busy with the silly red cup backlash.
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