What Is Starbucks Coffee's New Rule on Employee Phones?

Starbucks has begun strictly controlling store employees' phone use. Baristas must lock their phones in a cabinet after clocking in and cannot carry them on the floor. Shift supervisors and store managers may use phones only outside the bar area, with devices kept on silent, and violations draw a warning notice, per employee posts.

The company frames the change as enhancing the third-place experience, and veteran staff say the rule has existed for a long time but was enforced more leniently before. Employees reacted with frustration, asking what to do during a full shift when the store is empty. The stricter approach targets slacking off on the job, not customer service.

In the workplace, occasionally slacking off to relax has become the norm for many workers. Starbucks employees are no exception—scrolling through their phones and chatting during lulls in orders used to be a small pleasure amid a busy workday. However, recently some Starbucks employees have revealed that the company has begun strictly controlling store employees' phone use: baristas must lock their phones in a cabinet after clocking in, and shift supervisors and store managers are only allowed to use their phones outside the bar area. Anyone caught violating the rule will face a warning notice. This change has sparked heated discussion among employees, while veteran staff say the rules have actually existed for a long time—they were just enforced more leniently before. Why the sudden crackdown? What considerations are behind it? This article will explain in detail.

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In today's workplace, slacking off on the job has long been a norm for workers. Whenever they get a spare moment amid the busyness, they pick up their phones to reply to messages and scroll through short videos, grabbing a moment of relaxation.

The same goes for Starbucks employees standing behind the bar. When the order rush is over and the store returns to quiet, partners with nothing to do seize this rare moment of leisure, pull out their phones and enjoy a little stolen pleasure amid the busy day.

However, recently some Starbucks employees posted that their joy of slacking off at work is gone.

According to the pictures posted, in order to enhance the third-place experience, Starbucks will strictly control store employees' phone use. Specifically, baristas must keep their phones in a cabinet after clocking in and may not carry them on their person. Shift supervisors, store managers and others may use their phones under certain circumstances, but only outside the bar area, and phones must be on silent throughout the work shift.

Employees revealed that if they are caught slacking off and playing on their phones during work hours by surveillance or management, a warning notice is inevitable. In response, workers stripped of their slacking-off joy have been wailing: "Can't play on my phone and the store is empty—what else am I supposed to do?", "What do you do during a full shift if you can't use your phone?", "A full shift without playing on my phone is simply a nightmare."

However, veteran Starbucks employees are not surprised. They say the company actually proposed long ago that employees must not use their phones during work hours and must not roughhouse or chat in the bar area.

In practice, though, because shift supervisors, store managers and others turned a blind eye and did not strictly enforce the rules, most employees did not comply, often hiding in surveillance blind spots during breaks to play on their phones or chat with colleagues.

But according to workers, recently senior executives discovered during store visits that some employees were slacking off too frequently, leaving a bad impression on customers, which led management to start cracking down on phone use during work hours. Some also speculate that "because a social part-time partner violated the rules by filming videos and even doing product promotion," harming Starbucks' store image, which made senior management take the phenomenon of employees slacking off at work seriously.

Undeniably, if customers see store employees playing on their phones, chatting and so on during work hours, it could affect their impression of the store and the brand, and raise doubts about baristas' professional competence and service attitude. So from management's perspective, requiring workers not to slack off is not hard to understand.

But for employees, slacking off at work is a little spice in their assembly-line-like work—it not only lets them relax their taut nerves after high-intensity work, but also helps them adjust to face the next stage of work. After all, if workers don't slack off at work, the shift just has no soul.

Image source: Internet

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