barista

kitchen team member

front of house staff

store manager

retail sales associate

Happy Lemon

Working here is pretty fun, most of the customers are cool, the co-workers are great, and learning and making drinks is also a good experience. The schedule is also very flexible. It does get pretty busy as expected from a boba shop that is open late, so do expect some busy hours. Where there could be improvement is the benefits. You do not earn any money from tips until done with training, which would be fine if the training period was not 2-3 months on average. Although the starting pay is very generous, tips would still be nice. There is also no direct deposit unless you are willing to pay the fee on their end, and there is technically no employee discount. It works on a points system; anytime you want to bring home a drink, you can either pay for it or use points, which are earned based on on the amount of hours worked. These points can be used even after quitting, which is nice, but I did expect there to be a discount when paying for my drinks. There is also no discount for friends and family. These may seem minor, but after hearing about work experiences from other boba shops, it makes it seem like there are very few benefits working here. All things considered, Happy Lemon is a good place for a first job with good pay and a very flexible schedule, and I do recommend it if you can get over the little things.

For my short time at Happy Lemon i enjoyed the environment and everyone i worked with. They made me feel more comfortable starting a new job and helped me when i had questions. Stayed mostly busy so we were never sitting around. I was hired on the spot and worked my first shift 2 days later. I worked a total of 4 days at Happy Lemon and then my schedule for the next 2 weeks disappeared without management saying anything to me i contacted them to get my schedule fixed because maybe it was a mistake. When i contacted them management told me my position was no longer available at happy lemon. Without notice i was let go without reasoning. To my guess maybe they hired too many people and were overstaffed but i saw new people starting on the schedule so who knows. The manager that is there everyday spoke to the “hiring manager” and told me he said my position at happy lemon was no longer available. I looked forward to working there but unfortunately i will not. Also i never got a introduction to the company with any paperwork or anything just started training immediately.

Lacks leadership, refuses to hire more employees, gives excessive workload and makes employees work overtime. Some employees are on call for 20 minutes or a couple of hours, and are then sent home once they’re no longer of use. They’re sent to work different locations and asked to come help out or to deliver things after work hours. Employees no longer follow work chat ignoring it completely as nothing changes. They're offered 1 day off out of the 365 days plus a free dinner, but everyone turns it down because they would rather eat together instead of with the company. This speaks volumes about the workplace. Shockingly high turnover rate. There are absolutely zero breaks and zero benefits. It is a franchise so location probably wouldn't matter much. The only perk is the free 1-2 diabetic drinks per shifts. Overall, I would not recommend working here. Company does not care about employees.

Worked here for only about 2 months and I'm glad I worked there for so little. Barista job required me to learn and memorize a lot of drinks but the resources available for review were non-existent. I remember asking multiple co-workers for a copy of the drink recipes and only getting it 2 weeks later. When I did get my head in the game and start memorizing the recipes (on my own unpaid time because time in the shop was limited) I was told that I had memorized outdated recipes. Hours of learning the drinks wasted. The work place environment is awful, no co-workers spoke to me willingly even one time even when the store was empty and there was nothing to do. I started believing something was wrong with me but looking back at my experience it's really the management who fabricates a toxic work culture. Only work here if you're homeless and in desperate need of money.

What is the best part of working at the company?
some of the co workers were nice


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
DID NOT PAY FOR THE THE FIRST TWO MONTHS. onboarding was sketchy and didn’t ask for any proof that you can work or proof of age. Did not even ask for my payment info but upon asking i gave it to them, but still didn’t pay for two months and when I noticed they said they forgot. 
constantly understaffed no more than 2 people working at once. Really stingy, makes employees pay for toppings and made me once run after a doordasher because we gave too much topping. Also everyone is Vietnamese so if you are not don’t even bother applying because no one will talk to u

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic, people only spoke in vietnamese, I am pretty sure they thought I was viet  when they hired me but would have not hired if they thought i was something else

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
long over working

What is the best part of working at the company?
The management quality is very poor. The owner tends to focus on trivial and unnecessary details—for example, insisting things be “fully filled” even when they are already sufficient. At the same time, there is little to no hands-on contribution from leadership, with most of the effort going into giving orders rather than supporting the team. Overall, it creates a frustrating and inefficient work environment.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The management quality is very poor. The owner tends to focus on trivial and unnecessary details—for example, insisting things be “fully filled” even when they are already sufficient. At the same time, there is little to no hands-on contribution from leadership, with most of the effort going into giving orders rather than supporting the team. Overall, it creates a frustrating and inefficient work environment.

I started out when this location opened and only had a week of training before having everything memorized for the opening. There was a lot of miscommunication with managers and they were not understanding of issues within and outside of the company (personal issues). Scheduling was always difficult and there was not a lot of room for learning and error. I worked hard to be a great barista and to fix any issues or problems others were having but was blamed for accidents and any mistakes that I was fixing that I did not necessarily make myself. The people working there were amazing and also in the same boat as me but management was the issue. 

Mostly work by yourself (including opening and closing). Workloads and responsibilities are not bad here, and schedules can be somewhat flexible. However, this place I work at needs a better management (it is a franchise/ family business) iykyk. For ex. your hours can get cut significantly simply because they do not like you or if you are not "friend" with the owners (management) etc. 
If you are looking for a good paying job, this place is a hard pass. Not enough hours and some people only get to one day a week. Still, keeps hiring more people.
But, if you are looking for a job that you boss loves micromanage, pretentious, miscommunication, favoritism, then this place is your best match. 

For those opening you start off making the boba then the teas. Following morning procedure for all the machines. On a typical day you clock in and start making drinks, taking orders and cleaning up. Making any toppings out of stock if you need to. Once it's time to close you clean the store and leave it ready for who opens the next day. At this job I learned how to work in a fast pace environment while also improving on my social skills. Management only consisted of the store owner/manager, and he would stay in his office whenever possible. Workplace was filled with gossip and drama. Hardest part for me was opening by myself and the best part is definitely getting to build a relationship with the customers.

I would only recommend this place if you want to work with fun people and like the drinks. The staff members overall are nice and the only reason why I stayed as long as I did. Shift managers are overworked and do not receive any benefits whatsoever. The owners are not very organized and keep opening new stores so they do not properly maintain stores. This job has definitely taught me a lot about management and leadership, and I am thankful for that. But this is not a job for people that want to thrive in life. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Barista 20 salaries reported	$18.35 per hour
Kitchen team member 9 salaries reported	$18.58 per hour
Front of house staff 2 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Store manager 2 salaries reported	$14.50 per hour
Retail sales associate 1 salary reported	$23.00 per hour

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