Not sure how well this will work, other than as a PR stunt.
If he's serious about this, he should go in, in disguise, without anyone at the store knowing who he is (including top management).
Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
41–50 of 353 posts
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#42Oh, the cynicism.
I'm not exactly sure how this will go down for Starbucks per se, maybe it is PR-ish -- but to pull the camera back a bit, I think it would be tremendously helpful to normalize this idea everywhere, even if it may not always work out perfectly.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#43I recall Amazon used to do something similar. Executives would sometimes take customer service shifts. The goal isn't PR or worker morale - most people see through stunts like that. The real goal is to help leaders better understand their product, its problems, and customer frustrations.
It also helps leadership understand employee frustrations, which translates into improved customer experience.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a week in warehouse might do good for them. Or as delivery driving...
I worked at a small (in Amazon scale - still the largest in the country) home grocery delivery service and everyone pre corona had to spend their 2 first weeks in the warehouse. Everyone had done it, including managers and c-level
I figure that's a much better place to work than an Amazon warehouse then?
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#45I feel like there should be a word for this.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#46The only way things like this really work is by not giving any heads up to the store or the store management.
Otherwise store management spends a huge amount of time trying to tidy up before “corporate” comes by.
At least that was my experience when things like this happened at the fruit stand.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#47The only way things like this really work is by not giving any heads up to the store or the store management. Otherwise store management spends a huge amount of time trying to tidy up before “corporate” comes by. At least that was my experience when things like this happened at the fruit stand.
My experience at the lemonade stand have been similar.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#48I once took a cab in the middle of the night. The cabby was a elderly gentleman who did not seem to know his way around very well. It was a long ride so we got talking. Turned out he was the new boss of the company (a fairly big company, lots of cars) who wanted to get to know the circumstances under which his drivers worked. He had been working the night shift for a couple of weeks.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a week in warehouse might do good for them. Or as delivery driving...
Historically I think they all did around the Christmas rush but probably not so much any more.
In the UK I did some work with HMV doing Dev work on their stock systems.
Similar situation where they would send everyone in the company to work in the store, so you would actually use the system you've developed in the real world and understand why everyone always hates the software.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#50Oh, the cynicism. I'm not exactly sure how this will go down for Starbucks per se, maybe it is PR-ish -- but to pull the camera back a bit, I think it would be tremendously helpful to normalize this idea everywhere, even if it may not always work out perfectly.
Yeah, I don't see the big deal. He's the new CEO and appears to be setting the tone, informing people of one of his first efforts. Stating it publicly seems uncontroversial for a business with publicly-traded stock.
I also don't see it as some veiled attempt to act like he's trying to empathize with every aspect of the workers' lives. Not that a lot of people are suggesting this, but some are, and it seems like an incorrect impulse to assume that. As the new CEO, he wants to see the operating conditions of their stores, where they make most of their money. Seems like a decent idea to me, and is presumably different from what the previous CEO was doing.