stevierocks87
08-07-2006, 01:32 AM
Hey everyone, this is Adam. I don't post very often but have been around a while. Anyway, I felt the urge to copy something I wrote on my Xanga on here. Any kind of feedback or comments would be great. Thanks :)
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Friday, August 04, 2006
Internal Conflict
Hello out there! You must be thinking "what in the hell has happened to Adam to prompt him to write in his Xanga again?". I'll tell you in a sec. Does anyone really read these anymore? It really doesn't matter as I am chiefly writing this to sort out my own thoughts, but sharing it with other people is good too.
I am working at Starbucks.
Yes, the little hippie tree-hugger bleeding heart liberal is working at one of the fastest growing corportions in the world. Result? A sh*tload of internal conflict.
I feel a natural desire to support independent businesses wherever I can. My money is going to the person behind the counter or a local independent owner or even to directly support a family. People come in to my store to support hourly "partners" making $7.50 an hour, managers that make $35K a year, and a CEO that makes MILLIONS. Yet, SBux (the trading name) proudly touts themselves as an uncorporate corporation.
They claim as their six "guiding principles" :
"Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow. The following six guiding principles will help us measure the appropriateness of our decisions:
Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.
Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business.
Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.
Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.
Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.
Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success" (bold mine)
To their benefit, from my initial week long exposure (indoctrination?) to Sbux, they do seem to do a LOT more for their lowest employees (Baristas). Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance to partners who work a minimum of 20 hours per week, with a cost of about 20 to 35 dollars each paycheck. Adoption assistance. Tuition reimbursement. Employee assistant and care programs. Matching savings 401k savings plan. Stock investment plan. Partner perks like discount cards and markout priviledges (Basically a free pound of coffee or tea every week). And more. If you volunteer, Starbucks will match your contribition monatarily- stuff like that.
On a global level, Starbucks claims as their fifth guiding principle "Contribute positively to our communities and our environment". They say they pay a fair price for their coffee and give the most money to people who treat their workers well and pay a living wage that can support themselves and their family. They say they are a "green" environmentally responsible company (my store recycles nothing.)
The best thing I can say for them is that, so far, I have enjoyed my experience and been excited by it. I LOVE being paid 7.50 to taste different coffees and describe them. The people I work with seem really cool. I really like my manager Sabine. Good so far.
The.Other.Side
Just going my experience with the world and my knowledge of human history, a correlation seems steadily realiable to go on: to larger an entity gets, the further "values" go down the drain. Everyone knows that a corporation like McDonalds cares above and beyond anything else making the top execs and shareholders money. The thing is, they don't claim otherwise. Starbucks does- in fact, their self-promotion in proudly claiming the opposite is clearly obvious. They tout their "comprehensive pay package" to all employees, including part-time. The horror stories? Managers purposely scheduling employees less than 20 hours a week, even if they request more, to avoid the liability of offering benefits.
With a company growing as wildly as Starbucks (and they ARE growing- think there's already way too Starbucks in Atlanta? There are 100 currently. 200 MORE are planned for opening in the next few years.) and claiming to be an "uncorporate corportion", some of these exponentially growing profits should be handed down to those that need it most, the hourly Baristas. If your top execs are raking in million upon millions while your lowest-rung employees scrape by, then fine, but DON'T claim to be something your not just to make yourself look good- I've read a lot of comments from people that believe Starbucks shameless self-promotion is corporate jargon based far from reality. I realize that it is not the responsibility of Starbucks to save our society and its inequalities, but if there is this much money floating around, why not atleast try to help out those at the bottom just trying to support themselves? Then I would be comfortable calling you an "uncorporate corporation'.
I was just doing an online personality test with Jeremy, and it told me I was ISFP- Introverted, sensing, feeling, perceiving. A quote from the description:
"People who don't know them well may see their unique way of life as a sign of carefree light-heartedness, but the ISFP actually takes life very seriously, constantly gathering specific information and shifting it through their value systems, in search for clarification and underlying meaning"
That's what I'm doing now. I really want to believe all these wonderful things that role off the corporate ladder about how wonderful Starbucks is- why wouldn't I?- but I'm NOT just going to swallow everything they tell me.
I honestly feel like this will be a positive experience for me- I already am feeling more alert and confident that ever by virtue of having this responsibilty of a job requiring atleast some working knowledge. Being a bum- my speciality- generally doesn't lead me to feel inspired to do......anything. I guess thats the nature of Bumdom- circular :-)
IN OTHER NEWS....
Moving into a new room in a few days. Will immensely miss this huge apartment (compartively) I've had to myself all summer, but it was either move into a place with my own room or sharing the one here for another year. I'm going to try to clean up and take pictures of the room before I pack up so I can always reminder my Summer 2006 Private Pad. It IS looking bad-ass, by the way. Who knew I could be a decorator . School starts in 2 weeks, by which time training at Sbux will be done and I should be atleast somewhat into the flow of things.
Anyone reading this please pray or send good vibes or whatever you can do that I will have an agreeable roomate this year- I've already had a major conflict with the first one and after the first switch I got no more chances! In case you need specifics, I need someone who is atleast somewhat *open-minded* , clean, and nice . Thank you very much.
That's all for know. Love to everyone!
Adam
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Friday, August 04, 2006
Internal Conflict
Hello out there! You must be thinking "what in the hell has happened to Adam to prompt him to write in his Xanga again?". I'll tell you in a sec. Does anyone really read these anymore? It really doesn't matter as I am chiefly writing this to sort out my own thoughts, but sharing it with other people is good too.
I am working at Starbucks.
Yes, the little hippie tree-hugger bleeding heart liberal is working at one of the fastest growing corportions in the world. Result? A sh*tload of internal conflict.
I feel a natural desire to support independent businesses wherever I can. My money is going to the person behind the counter or a local independent owner or even to directly support a family. People come in to my store to support hourly "partners" making $7.50 an hour, managers that make $35K a year, and a CEO that makes MILLIONS. Yet, SBux (the trading name) proudly touts themselves as an uncorporate corporation.
They claim as their six "guiding principles" :
"Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow. The following six guiding principles will help us measure the appropriateness of our decisions:
Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.
Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business.
Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.
Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.
Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.
Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success" (bold mine)
To their benefit, from my initial week long exposure (indoctrination?) to Sbux, they do seem to do a LOT more for their lowest employees (Baristas). Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance to partners who work a minimum of 20 hours per week, with a cost of about 20 to 35 dollars each paycheck. Adoption assistance. Tuition reimbursement. Employee assistant and care programs. Matching savings 401k savings plan. Stock investment plan. Partner perks like discount cards and markout priviledges (Basically a free pound of coffee or tea every week). And more. If you volunteer, Starbucks will match your contribition monatarily- stuff like that.
On a global level, Starbucks claims as their fifth guiding principle "Contribute positively to our communities and our environment". They say they pay a fair price for their coffee and give the most money to people who treat their workers well and pay a living wage that can support themselves and their family. They say they are a "green" environmentally responsible company (my store recycles nothing.)
The best thing I can say for them is that, so far, I have enjoyed my experience and been excited by it. I LOVE being paid 7.50 to taste different coffees and describe them. The people I work with seem really cool. I really like my manager Sabine. Good so far.
The.Other.Side
Just going my experience with the world and my knowledge of human history, a correlation seems steadily realiable to go on: to larger an entity gets, the further "values" go down the drain. Everyone knows that a corporation like McDonalds cares above and beyond anything else making the top execs and shareholders money. The thing is, they don't claim otherwise. Starbucks does- in fact, their self-promotion in proudly claiming the opposite is clearly obvious. They tout their "comprehensive pay package" to all employees, including part-time. The horror stories? Managers purposely scheduling employees less than 20 hours a week, even if they request more, to avoid the liability of offering benefits.
With a company growing as wildly as Starbucks (and they ARE growing- think there's already way too Starbucks in Atlanta? There are 100 currently. 200 MORE are planned for opening in the next few years.) and claiming to be an "uncorporate corportion", some of these exponentially growing profits should be handed down to those that need it most, the hourly Baristas. If your top execs are raking in million upon millions while your lowest-rung employees scrape by, then fine, but DON'T claim to be something your not just to make yourself look good- I've read a lot of comments from people that believe Starbucks shameless self-promotion is corporate jargon based far from reality. I realize that it is not the responsibility of Starbucks to save our society and its inequalities, but if there is this much money floating around, why not atleast try to help out those at the bottom just trying to support themselves? Then I would be comfortable calling you an "uncorporate corporation'.
I was just doing an online personality test with Jeremy, and it told me I was ISFP- Introverted, sensing, feeling, perceiving. A quote from the description:
"People who don't know them well may see their unique way of life as a sign of carefree light-heartedness, but the ISFP actually takes life very seriously, constantly gathering specific information and shifting it through their value systems, in search for clarification and underlying meaning"
That's what I'm doing now. I really want to believe all these wonderful things that role off the corporate ladder about how wonderful Starbucks is- why wouldn't I?- but I'm NOT just going to swallow everything they tell me.
I honestly feel like this will be a positive experience for me- I already am feeling more alert and confident that ever by virtue of having this responsibilty of a job requiring atleast some working knowledge. Being a bum- my speciality- generally doesn't lead me to feel inspired to do......anything. I guess thats the nature of Bumdom- circular :-)
IN OTHER NEWS....
Moving into a new room in a few days. Will immensely miss this huge apartment (compartively) I've had to myself all summer, but it was either move into a place with my own room or sharing the one here for another year. I'm going to try to clean up and take pictures of the room before I pack up so I can always reminder my Summer 2006 Private Pad. It IS looking bad-ass, by the way. Who knew I could be a decorator . School starts in 2 weeks, by which time training at Sbux will be done and I should be atleast somewhat into the flow of things.
Anyone reading this please pray or send good vibes or whatever you can do that I will have an agreeable roomate this year- I've already had a major conflict with the first one and after the first switch I got no more chances! In case you need specifics, I need someone who is atleast somewhat *open-minded* , clean, and nice . Thank you very much.
That's all for know. Love to everyone!
Adam