barista

shift leader

opener

closer

team leader

Aroma Joes

Each location is individually owned and operated so training and pay does vary! The pay will either be the minimum wage plus tips or just the tips wage with tips to make up the difference. There are no breaks even when working 8+ hours. The girls who work there are extremely cliquey and will bully you until you quit and if you tell the owners or manager they just dismiss you and will cut your hours until you quit. There is no pay raises or employee incentives to keep you or to do your job properly. Owners play both sides of employees to try to make everyone happy while creating unnecessary drama and a hostile work environment. Your expected to have open availability and work every weekend. you're also expected to cover any shifts when people don't show up or are late even if you have appointments or class to attend. There is always high expectations with very little pay or training. Management is a joke they are the owners puppets and are expected to go along with everything they say even if they don't agree with something. They don't support employee growth or mental stability. They claim they have a certain culture but they actually don't, they encourage stores and employees to volunteer or do donations but they tell you to make it a catch meaning if it doesn't help bring you money don't do it. The turnover is huge because they don't properly train anyone and allow the drama and hostile work environment. Overall the absolute work company I have ever worked for!

At Aroma Joes, pay is based off tips. However, barista tipping, at least at Aroma Joes, is very uncommon, which means as an employee you can expect to be making below minimum wage with little benefits - tips for an entire shift may often be in the single digits.

Additionally, tips must be split between all employees at the end of a single employees shift. This means that when you clock out, you have to figure out how to split the tips with the other employees on shift. This can be problematic, as shifts without an actual shift lead or manager were common - often every day when I worked there, leaving a good deal of room for argument between employees over tips. 

For an easy part time job, this wouldn't be bad. However, Aroma Joes is an extremely stressful job with bad work culture. Depending on location and shift, you may be expected to run an entire shift by yourself, going between taking orders at the register, opening/closing duties, making drinks for customers and doing Doordash orders. For a single employee making less than minimum wage, this is too much. Expect to be constantly busy.

Lastly, work culture was horrible. Any problem that was noticed when the store was opening could be blamed on closers. Management was very hands off at some stores meaning that problems between employees could not be solved. During my time at Aroma Joes I noticed a lot of conflict between employees, especially ones that had been there longer.

Although this job was fun for me when I first started, you are often forced to work long hours. You are not allowed to call out, even if sick. IF you can't find coverage (which most employees don't pick up other shifts) you are forced to work. They preach customer service, but willingly let us work sick and spread germs to our customers which is gross. You also do not get breaks, cannot sit unless you go to the bathroom, and don't receive any benefits. 
I was constantly made to stay later after my shifts due to poor planning on management/owners parts. I once was forced to work from 4:30 AM to 2 PM with no break, when I was only supposed to be there until 11. They do not care about your well being. 
Most co-workers do not want to do their job so you are constantly picking up after them and finishing things by yourself. There were usually only 2 people scheduled at a time even on weekends which was unbearable with the morning rush. It was miserable. Nobody steps up to help struggling employees that are slammed on a Saturday, and then proceed to complain you aren't moving fast enough and the line should be moving. 
I do not recommend working for this company. 

The work in and of itself is not bad at all, it’s fun actually, and rewarding to build relationships with friendly regular customers. It is blatantly obvious however, that as a barista you are not valued by your employer in the slightest-this will quickly become apparent to you as an employee!! The pay is terrible (though depending on what shifts you work, tips can partially make up for this). Management is hit or miss as far as I can tell, though I hear more negative than positive in regards to team leaders and how they run their locations. There is little to no incentive to do your job to the best of your ability, so often times employees slack off on tasks, making for a disorganized environment and uneven distribution of work. All in all, working here is just not worth your time and effort-it is not appreciated. The turnover rate with this company is entirely understandable- this is not a place you’ll want to stick around!!

The coworkers at Aroma Joes are generally very nice and helpful. There are few difficult customers and many regulars  who you can get to know and love. However, the management needs some serious improvement. Often the manager will answer questions unhelpfully or without fully reading the message that their employer sent. The manager also expects employees to find coverage for their shift if they have the stomach flu, unless they can provide a doctor’s note to excuse them from work. Hours are flexible, but don’t let that deceive you. Even if you ask for 15 hours a week, you could end up with 30. If you’re a closer, you often end up alone for the last two hours of your shift, regardless of whether you’ve been working for a year or a month. Overall, communication between the manager and employees is poor. The pay is low, which can be justified if working the morning shift, but after 12pm it simply isn’t worth it. Also, breaks are not a thing, even if one’s shift is 8 hours. 

A typical day at Aroma Joe’s can be fun, but it can also be chaotic. It really depends on the day and time of year. 

At first, the job was enjoyable, but over time, the expectations became overwhelming. Management often limits staffing to save money, which means there are times when you’re working alone. You’ll find yourself juggling multiple responsibilities, like taking orders, making drinks, preparing food, handling back of house tasks, and keeping up with cleaning and stocking, all at the same time by yourself during busy times. 

The work environment can also be very difficult. When you’re working alone and struggling to get everything done on time, management tends to be unfair and rude instead of offering support. The stress simply isn’t worth it. To make matters worse, they frequently hire teenagers to work night shifts alone, which raises concerns about both safety and fairness.

Aromas had always seemed like my ideal work environment, and I always thought I could totally handle a hectic work environment, but I really couldn't. They had me closing the store alone for 2 or 3 hours at the age of 16, literally staying almost an hour after close to try and desperately get everything set up for the people that open the store in the morning. The most irritating part was that managers always yell at closers for the littlest things, and that was ultimately what led to me leaving. I could go on and on about that, but another huge issue was management. I worked at Aromas for 9 or 10 months, and we went through three different managers. That is quite literally unreal. Anyways, I'm really just posting this here to warn any teenagers to not work here because as great of people there are there, it's not worth sacrificing your own stress rate.

 A typical day included counting both registers at the beginning and end of your shift, pulling food from freezer, refilling coffee urns and cleaning them, and doing the daily tasks. I learned a lot about customer service, how to work a cashier system, how to handle and assemble food, and how to work in a cafe environment. The management at Aroma Joe's was average, either one of the store managers was there during one shift or all of them. The workplace was calm but would be chaotic at times especially during a rush. The hardest part of  the job was during rush hour and making sure the drinks were made within the 3 minute prepare time. The enjoyable part of the day was end of the day shift and being able to just clean. 

at first I thought it was a super fun job until I realized I was a 16 year old in high school working 30 hours for minimum wage with very little tips because I worked the closing shifts. My huts location was not the best leaving me to deal with a lot of dangerous customers that often made me feel very unsafe in the work environment. Additionally upper management is very unhelpful when it came to helping employees find shift coverage. One time I had really terrible food poisoning causing me to be sick ever couple minutes and nobody could cover for me so I was still expected to come in and work my 6 hour shift while sick. I was very unimpressed with how this company treated their employees overall. There were times when was even expected to clean things that nobody of my age should be expected to clean. And to top it all off I was working 9 hour shifts and still expected to pay for my bagel at the end of the day.

Usually at work you can work at your own pace as a closer, and an 8 hour shift you aren't often itching to get out. Openings and Mids can be nonstop with customers, but you can make a range of 45-90 dollars in tips from an opening shift, and a range of 20-40 from a mid shift. I have learned many tricks to cleaning things in this hut, mostly metal things. The management is questionable, some huts come with very judgemental managers who talk badly about their employees and have unprofessional behaviors, like talking about drinking in the work group chat. The hardest part of this job is staying focused, as it is very easy to get sidetracked. The most enjoyable part of this job is working with people you get along with well, because good conversation keeps the work flow smooth and fun.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Barista 6 salaries reported	$13.58 per hour
Shift leader 1 salary reported	$17.50 per hour
Opener 1 salary reported	$12.50 per hour
Closer 2 salaries reported	$12.00 per hour
Team leader 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour

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