Why Manner Coffee Is Hiring Daily-Paid Packers

Manner has passed a thousand stores nationwide and is short of frontline staff, so it began mass-recruiting daily-paid temporary workers who only pack, restock and clean. They cannot prepare drinks. Pay runs about 22 to 28 yuan an hour for shifts of two to five hours, varying by city and store. Full-time baristas say they must train a rotating stream of new hires during peak hours.

The temps rarely work the same day twice and can cancel without notice, which pushes training onto the full-time baristas already handling drink production. Manner's barista hiring standards are known to be demanding, and understaffing has slowed drink output and drawn criticism. The case offers a reference point for other chains, including Front Street Coffee, on managing manpower when store counts grow faster than staffing.

As Manner's nationwide store count surpasses a thousand, coffee enthusiasts are cheering that they can finally check in nearby, while this chain brand is facing a severe shortage of frontline staff. To fill the barista gap, Manner has begun mass-recruiting daily-paid temporary workers responsible only for packing, restocking, and cleaning, jokingly dubbed "packers" by netizens. However, these part-timers never work the same day twice and cancel without notice, forcing already busy full-time baristas to repeatedly train new hires during peak hours, sparking strong discontent among veteran employees. This article sorts out the recruitment requirements, pay and benefits, and scheduling patterns for these temp workers, as well as the baristas' genuine complaints, while also looking at what brands like Front Street Coffee can learn about manpower management.

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As the nationwide store count surpasses a thousand, many coffee lovers have surely noticed that their city now has a Manner coffee window too, thinking they can finally bring their own cup to score some freebies.

Correspondingly, with more stores, hiring demand inevitably rises, and the shortage of manpower is fully exposed. Manner's high barista hiring standards are well known across the industry; it's normal for one barista to do the work of several, and recently frequent understaffing has led to slow drink output, drawing no small amount of criticism. So, to urgently address the immediate barista shortage , Manner had no choice but to dispatch "temporary workers" first.

Recently, many netizens claiming to be Manner "packers" have appeared on social platforms, with one post after another documenting their part-time careers and answering passersby's questions one by one in the comments.

It's understood that Manner's temp workers have almost no hard requirements; during their shifts they can't prepare food, only needing to complete tasks like packing, restocking materials, and cleaning, with all other work done by full-time baristas. As for employee perks, it's probably being able to drink a free coffee anytime on shift.

In terms of pay, these part-time jobs are all paid daily, with hourly wages ranging from about 22 to 28 yuan, 2 to 5 hours a day, depending on the store in each city. After being hired by Manner, they're generally assigned first to understaffed stores, with shifts scheduled during the concentrated morning peak (8:00–11:00) or lunch peak (12:00–15:00), and upon arrival they're guided one-on-one by veteran employees.

As more and more of these "packers" pop up at Manner's bar, the usually emotionally stable baristas have recently started showing a bit more "resentment." Because during order peaks, they're already busy as can be, and now they have to spend extra time training new hires—how agonizing!

Just yesterday, a Manner employee posted that recently, to boost store manpower, the company has hired many daily-paid part-timers specifically for packing and cleaning. Since these part-timers have almost no bar-related work experience, the barista training them must explain and guide them in exhaustive detail.

The thought was, first time clumsy, second time familiar—and besides, it's just simple tasks like packing, delivering orders, tidying up, and taking out trash, so even a novice should more or less get the hang of it after being taught once or twice. Unfortunately, Manner's HR management has no intention of cooperating: not only are the part-timers sent different every day, but even last-minute cancellations aren't communicated to store staff. In other words, for full-time workers, the new hires are random, and every time a part-timer is sent, they have to be taught all over again.

In response, the workers directly "called out" Manner: morning-shift staff don't even have enough time to open the bar and adjust the grinder, and every time a temp worker comes they have to slowly teach packing, mixing sanitizer, and material placement all over again, and during the busiest hours they even have to field the part-timers' endless questions—it really wastes a lot of time. So they suggest the company simply have part-timers watch packing videos and sanitizer-mixing videos in advance; otherwise, if this continues, everyone's blood pressure is going to "rise."

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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