barista

shift leader

general manager

café manager

district manager

Blank Street

Your experience at the cafe largely hinges on the specific location, but I’ve found that the dynamics among coworkers, especially cafe leads and shift leaders, can be overwhelmingly cliquey. If a cafe lead or shift lead takes a disliking to you, you can expect that the rest of your coworkers will follow suit. It seems that the hierarchy is dictated by who has been there the longest and their friendships, even if those individuals are just baristas. This creates a challenging environment for newcomers, as support from fellow baristas is crucial. If a lead has made up their mind about you, you will feel isolated and unsupported every time you walk into the cafe.

Additionally, the management is disappointing. I requested a transfer early on because I felt targeted, but they never responded to my request. As a result of the stress of facing this environment daily, I struggled with punctuality. After months of this, I was informed that my tardiness was the reason I could not be transferred. 

On a more positive note, I will say that the schedule is really flexible, 

The job is EASY especially for baristas. The running joke in the company is that this (for hourly workers) is the hardest job to be fired from. The pay is good and is paid every Friday overall hard to leave. On the flip side the company itself is horrible. No organization, there will be rampant retaliation even from HR. Most of the people in corporate have zero idea of what they are doing and it shows often. Your job description is constantly changing to the point where what you signed up for isn’t what you’re actually doing. God forbid you do not kiss the ground of the corporate employees walk on you’ll quickly hear from your managers that you were rude but it really was them.  Word of advice stop hiring friends who clearly cannot do the job. 

It was easy to do this job, training was easy and appropriate in the beginning, but we were always taking on new tasks (the coffee carts were kind of a nightmare to run). We had no AC for most of the summer and would have to shut down early.  Promises of promotions happened multiple times, while they continued to move forward with other team members. Retaliation as was stated in other reviews was definitely a problem. If someone higher up than you had a problem it was very obvious that you were being singled out, sometimes with no explanation. Overall loved the customers and making coffee, but management can make this job difficult. 

The base pay is very solid and tips are great! We all work very hard for it! The team of baristas are incredible and I had an amazing experience working with them - but management and corporate are out of their depth and have no idea what they are doing. Very inconsistent, not reliable, take months and months to resolve small issues as well as major health/safety concerns and major facility issues! Both corporate and management are quick to blame employees and project issues back onto staff. Corporate need to reorg and have a better system for troubleshooting, problem-solving and interfacing with employees effectively!

The teams at Blank Street are great. Really enjoyed working there for about a year as a barista. The management style is interesting considering you don’t have a manager per unit. You just have a shift supervisor sometimes and you manager floats between 6 stores.  it’s hard when management isn’t actively there to deal with problems but you’re given a lot of freedom and independence is solve your own problems and you can make a decent amount of money. Blank Street is  slowly turning into Starbucks and the culture is changing with it but I still think it is a great place to work if you’re looking for a good paying barista job. 

Pretty lame management who were inappropriate and often threatened firing over the phone/verbally and then would gaslight you after. The staff is fabulous but no one feels like management cares about them. I was told that if I was asked to come in at 4 in the morning and couldn't make it that it "might not work out." even though that was not on my availability etc etc. 

There is no clear raise schedule. 

Company is still young. There are many issues that will happen and if you have that mindset then you will do fine here. A lot of the times, people might have negative feedback or not agree with what the company is but at the end of the day the business is what is at hand and their vision is what they want. Overall, a solid place to work and grow if you just express it and show that you want to do better for yourself and the team you're in 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Free coffee on the shift, free one pastry per shift 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Unprofessional and unethical management.
Favoritism. Most of institutions written on the paper don’t exist in reality .

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
A lot of micromanaging and pressure

Managed by bullies who care more about asserting authority over subordinates and joking around with their chosen favorites. Pay is not enough for this high school level pettiness when it comes to how staff is treated. 

The general managers gossip about their employees while conducting interviews for new employees. They don't know how to be professional or how to communicate effectively.  No overtime just high turnover over, small stores and chaos

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Barista 293 salaries reported	$17.45 per hour
Shift leader 351 salaries reported	$20.24 per hour
General manager 73 salaries reported	$74,390 per year
Café manager 19 salaries reported	$75,093 per year
District manager 15 salaries reported	$106,417 per year

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