I went to the airport interview with mixed feelings and started my first day of Starbucks training with even bigger misgivings. Having been asked for feedback from Tammy the day before my leaving had caught me off guard. I had trouble figuring out how and where to start after feeling like the lines of communication had been closed down. After a lot of anguish the night before my last day, I decided on a letter only to end up having a very candid chat with Tammy after my final shift. We talked with ease about certain problems that had arisen for me, but we never touched upon the big issue. But it did make writing a letter easier, and make me wish even more that I wasn't leaving.
So, Monday morning I began my training expecting a very long day:10am to 6pm and then running to my French class which runs from 6pm until 9pm. The training itself was extremely boring, and I spent much of the day missing Stella Luna (despite its doors being closed as usual for a Monday). Starbucks wants to be North America's neighbourhood Italian coffee shop since they also believe they brought the latte to America; and, to me, it just all seemed so fake considering I'd just come from working at an authentic Italian neighbourhood cafe, complete with resident Roman. We also talked about Starbucks' ways of being and were given little cards describing these, two of which simply screamed to me Stella Luna: 'take care of yourself' and 'love what you do'. The longer I sat through all of this, the more I felt like I'd run away from home instead of quitting a job.
Tuesday was not much better, despite going down to Stella Luna between training sessions for the day (8:20am for airport Security Awareness Training and then 1pm to 9pm for Starbucks training). I had already made up my mind to ask to come back because when I left Tammy had told me I could always come back. But when I did come back, there were not one but two new people. One to replace me (which happened after I completed my last day) and one to replace Bridget who gave her notice around the time I actually left. I went back to Starbucks training, trying to suck it up and be engaged even though it was the last place I wanted to be. By this time, we'd already lost two of the four people meant to be in the full-time supervisory positions... and one of them surprisingly wasn't me.
A lot of what was said by the Starbucks manager (an HMS Host manager of several stores) made it all seem even more daunting. The Ottawa airport has been waiting for a Starbucks for four years and that it was going to be insanely busy in the first couple of weeks due to this built-up excitement. The store was barely staffed as it was and we were basically going to be asked to give up our lives to be there constantly in the meantime. Needless to say, really not my cup of tea. I was already feeling stressed and the store hadn't even opened. I like to care about where I work, but I also don't want it to be my entire life, not when it's Starbucks anyway.
I came home to an email from Tammy saying that if I was really so unhappy with Starbucks that I could take her part-time evening position she was still working to fill. I jumped at the chance, but tried to figure out what I was going to do to make up the difference to pay my bills fully (and to finish paying down my credit card debt).
Despite this new development, I still went to the training until I could work out the details with Tammy. She called during my third eight hour classroom only training shift asking me to come in the next day to train the girl who was my replacement and then begin my night shifts the following day. So, I had another day of training to endure and then, once again, running to French class before starting back at Stella at 8am the next morning. It was before my early morning Stella Luna shift that I emailed the HMS Host people to quit and ask where I should return the nametag, key card and security pass given to me.
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