Starbucks Workers Feel Venti-Size 'Disillusionment'

Giant corporation's anti-corporate culture is in danger
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 4, 2010 7:15 PM CDT
Updated Nov 7, 2010 6:51 AM CST
Starbucks Workers Feel Venti-Size 'Disillusionment'
In this April 15, 2010, file photo, Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz smiles during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the first Starbucks coffee shop in Hong Kong.   (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, file)

If you're not a fan of Starbucks, you'll be happy to read a lengthy report from Reuters that talks to baristas and managers around the country and concludes they're generally not a happy bunch anymore. Lower pay, fewer benefits, and an increased emphasis on cost-cutting and sales during the downturn of the last few years seems to have created widespread "disillusionment among Starbucks workers," writes Lisa Baertlein.

This disillusionment "may be early signs of a culture change that could strike at the heart of what makes Starbucks Starbucks: that warm, fuzzy feeling stemming from its original commitments to the global community as well as its own healthy, happy staffers who provide service with a smile," writes Baertlein. She makes the case that Starbucks rose to glory based on that culture, and if it goes away, the chain could have trouble keeping loyal customers and growing again. For now, though, all those cuts have restored profits and pleased shareholders to no end. Full story here. (More Starbucks stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X