barista

line cook

server

dishwasher

team captain

Bluestone Lane

The day I got hired the environment was hostile I seen management mistreat a girl in passive aggressive ways she eventually quit. I was given unclean uniform and my training was rushed and I was thrown into work because they needed help during my first day of training. Mind you training you don't get the $16.25+ tips an hour you get $15 for the training days, the application says $23 make that make sense also tips are trash because you barely have time for customer service its ADHD. You are given 1 million different task to a point to where you cant even focus on what your hired for to be a barista. Most of the time the stores at are short staffed from call outs so you might be alone on a busy shift. They never have change so you have to ask customers for exact change. Every shift things are not restocked. Management 95% of them is what kills the company they make the company culture hostile and toxic. The Micromanagement, Negative criticism, The Gossip, Favoritism, clique high school stuff, No room for mistakes even if its your first time at something. They text you off work hours and also ask you to go to different locations one in particular is small dirty smells and has no bathroom. You also don't have a choice to go or you get disciplinary action. GOD FORBIDD you call out sick without a 24hr in advanced notice and coverage. They will try everything in there power to write you up don't even care for your well being. customers and the bathroom since u are not allowed to give out the code you have to stop what your doing in order to open the restroom.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Genuinely good coffee and drinks.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
- Lack of oversight and assistance from upper management. 
- Unrealistic standards set. (coffee shops were expected to compete with each other despite locations playing a large part in revenue generation). 
- Safety concerns regarding location were largely ignored by upper management.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
High turnover rate left little-to-no consistent company culture. Camaraderie between coworkers can be compared to traumatic bonding. Attempts to solve location-based problems were met with rejection from upper management due to a need to maintain brand identity.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Shifts were split between opening, mid, and closing shifts with 2 people on each shift. 
Opening shift required set-up of patio, dial-in of espresso, brewing coffee, prepping avocado smash, set-up of bar and food area, pre-toast bread, and other food prep-duties as needed. 

During operational hours, positions were bar, kitchen, and flex. Bar tends to flex on Point-of-Sale system  as well, but mainly keeps to the creation and up-keep of coffee drinks. Mid-shift must take out trash, clean floors, and help with dishwashing before leaving.

2 Closing shift employees are required to flex on bar and kitchen while finishing dishes, cleaning up stations. after close, closers have 30 minutes to clean and close espresso machine, coffee pots, take in patio furniture, mop eating area, clean bathrooms, and take out the last of the trash.

I worked at a coffee shop, not a cafe. The coffee shop barista job requires you to do cooking, drinks, and prep. Which is all fine, but it’s a lot when they only schedule 2 people through the week even during busy times at a busy coffee shop. If you have an ACTUAL general manager, it’s great. mine was supportive and did everything they could to help out the employees because they understood that you need to do what you can as a manager to help out the day-to-day employees who are always there. But when we got a new “manager” who wasn’t really a manager, just someone who made sure we weren’t losing money and didn’t care about us employees at all, everything changed. The business and lack of staff is fine when you have support from a higher up, but without that help it makes work miserable. It’s impossible to prep all the food and syrups and still maintain the insane amount of orders through an 8 hour day with only 2 people working. The pay is great but you definitely start to feel overworked and under appreciated for all that you’re expected to do! definitely got burnt out. Bluestone, as a whole, doesn’t care about their employees and are completely unsympathetic toward anything you have going on in your personal life.

I worked at Bluestone Lane for almost two years and gained a lot of experience in management, customer service, and training. I drove sales, trained new staff, and regularly received positive feedback from customers. I also took part in Bluestone University classes, which helped me build professional skills.

I truly enjoyed working with my team and creating a positive environment for customers. The people were the best part of the job, and I did my best to help keep morale up in a busy, high-pressure setting.

Unfortunately, there were serious challenges. I applied for a general manager position but was overlooked, which made me feel undervalued despite my dedication and leadership. Communication from upper management was often lacking, and employee growth wasn’t prioritized. On top of that, the heat in our store was broken for over a month during the winter, and nothing was done until we reported it to OSHA. That experience made it clear that employee well-being was not a priority.

Overall, Bluestone Lane gave me skills and leadership experience, but the lack of support, recognition, and attention to basic working conditions made the job much harder than it needed to be.

I find myself at odds, bluestone lane has the utmost potential to be a great worksite to come to on a daily basis, unfortunately management and the companies finances cannot keep up with their customer demands nor the promises they make to their employees.

Less than a year but more than 6 months I have gone from Server to Team Captain I cannot say I’ve had a happy moment coming to work, the pay just isn’t enough, the culture just isn’t there nor does the company allow it to really stick out, and lastly the job demand is unrealistic.

This is as honest as I can get but they lack compassion and care for their employees, the only care they seem to have is about how reviews and sales are, you can do super great on sales and then get 1 bad review and it’s a huge problem or you can have great reviews and low sales due to the season or simply how they market and begin cutting everyone’s hours to the point full time employees work 5 days but below part time hours.

I DONT recommend working here, save yourself the trouble don’t risk your physical or mental health. Bluestone will not do right by you

To the potential investors, VC firms, RSE, etc-

As you have this unique opportunity to cherry pick the best of the best hospitality brands to resuscitate following COVID-19, please do yourself a favor and say "next" when evaluating Bluestone Lane. Here's all you need to know: Bluestone Lane was broken well before COVID-19 hit the States. The corruption and greed from the top down has ruined the lives of countless talented professionals. A colleague nailed it when stating the CEO "leads by mayhem and fear." There was never a day that your job - and livelihood - wasn't threatened at Bluestone Lane. Because of this the culture was broken & it became a game of who's + what department's fault is it (that we were unable to achieve unrealistic numbers that the CEO promised investors). 

Dear CEO - you got what you wanted. We're all gone. Instead of spending your time doing your job (which you were extremely unqualified for anyhow), you micromanaged us & didn't have a contingency plan. You opened more and more stores instead of taking care of your people. It is not shocking that you did nothing to help your people in a time of greatest need. SHAME ON YOU!

I worked back in 2018 when they had just opened. Management talked behind my back. Had no faith and did not care to remember my experience in customer service. Management many times would not respect the questions I had such as the time I should clock out from training. Answers were along the lines as "How do you not know what time you need to be off?" That showed the lack of communication and organization. There judgement in believing in there employees lacked. I did not have the opportunity to train in serving tables during a full day of training. I briefly had the chance to as employees were on break and was treated as if they could not rely on me. Never in the 10 years of working in the service industry was I ever treated as such and that says a lot. I believe in working my way up no matter how much experience I have but to always feel like I can't be trusted or dumb for asking questions is beyond. I resigned after my third day of training. Do better please. 

I was hired to manage one of the company's busiest locations. During my 7(!!!) job interviews I kept asking what tools of support the company offers its managers to make sure they succeed at their job. The people who interviewed me promised endless tools and systems to help me do the best job that i can. Great. Loved that. 

Being confident in my leaders, i entered my role as a GM, slowly learning the in's and out's of the location i took over and the company i just joined. Busy location with a great and soulful team and amazing guests. I was let go 60 days later with the excuse that i wasnt a good fit. I wasnt offered any feedback during my training nor any personal performance issues were ever brought to my attention. None. HR simply called one morning asking me to not come in. Very disappointing. Very unprofessional. 

The day to day of working at a store can be fun and engaging. Customers at Bluestone seem to be more entitled than similar coffee shops, but it is manageable as long as the teammates are there and good workers. That’s very uncommon though as the corporate mandate to Store managers is to staff the store as poorly as possible to cut costs. This leaves one or two people SCRAMBLING to do a workload that is designed for 3-5 people, ie bussing tables, making coffee, making food, serving tables, taking orders, etc… This means that there are almost no opportunity to take breaks. On top of this, the corporate employees (CEO, Ops Managers, etc…) don’t trust their employees and actively look down on them and being outright disrespectful. If you like being spoken to like you’re a small child, then this is a good position for you. 



Short Staff
Lack of Management Help
Aggressive Manager
Over-worked Employees
Broken equipment

Worked the first 2 months of summer in 105 degree store with no ac and just a box fan. The management at Paramus location are inadequate at running a basic café. Promised full time hours and got 27-29hrs a week. Kitchen staff doesn't wear gloves and contaminated basically everything. They give the most hours and best hours to a girl(no gloves ever worn) who does not do the job but complains and start problems with everyone. No real problem solving is happening there. Month old sauces that are suppose to only last 5 days, rotting food in the walk in fridge. General manager and front of house manager are clueless of how to run anything. Would not recommend. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Barista 31 salaries reported	$21.15 per hour
Line cook 18 salaries reported	$18.97 per hour
Server 8 salaries reported	$13.09 per hour
Dishwasher 13 salaries reported	$16.72 per hour
Team captain 10 salaries reported	$21.72 per hour

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