shift manager

barista

team leader

store manager

engineering team leader

Philz Coffee

I had a genuinely awful experience working at Philz Coffee, and I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a healthy or supportive work environment.

Philz markets itself as warm, people-centered, and community-driven, but behind the scenes, my experience was the complete opposite. Training was inconsistent and rushed, expectations were constantly changing, and mistakes were met with criticism instead of guidance. You’re expected to perform at a high level almost immediately, yet given very little real support to get there.

Management was one of the biggest issues. Communication was poor, accountability was selective, and favoritism was obvious. Concerns were either brushed off, minimized, or turned back on employees, which created a culture of fear rather than growth. Instead of feeling supported, I often felt gaslit for having completely reasonable questions or frustrations.

Scheduling and staffing were another major problem. Be prepared to cover the floor alone most of the time! Shifts were exhausting, understaffed, and chaotic, with unrealistic expectations placed on baristas to maintain speed, accuracy, and constant emotional positivity no matter how overwhelmed things became. Burnout was treated as a personal failing rather than a systemic issue.

The “culture” is heavily performative, lots of talk about values, kindness, and care, but very little follow-through when employees actually need help. It felt like image mattered more than people. Be prepared to be watched on the cameras constantly by management! By the end of my time there, my mental and physical health had taken a hit, and I dreaded going into work.

Philz may look great from the outside, but in my experience, it was stressful, invalidating, and deeply disappointing. There are far better coffee jobs out there that actually treat their employees like human beings.

Since Philz Coffee have been bought, the "Philz" Culture is gone.
Philz Coffee is just another corporate that cares more about maximizing profit over people and quality. 

People go to Philz for coffee and work for Philz because they liked the people culture and quality put into the coffee. They liked the interaction among staff and customers and that it is a "local coffee shop." However, it is now gone with new management.

Let's start with work life balance, it Sucks. They have hired many baristas, only to not be able to offer minimum hours and so many work between 2 jobs to sustain their livelihood. The flexibility is there but at a cost of no stability and that you'll be replaceable because many are fighting for hours and going to different stores to cover shifts. Also, they have not raised wages unless the county/state does, but they continue to increase the workload without compensation.

Next, how is management? Terrible too. A lot of the Store Managers are great people but the ones with power are those above them. They have  a lot of high expectations to those below them, when in reality, they would not last a week working in the environment the store staff/baristas are working. They have decreased labor to maximize profit, only for customers to realize that the staff is overworked, only to then, give back a little bit of hours.

So what are my overall thoughts about working at Philz? Treat it like another disposable part time job because in the end thats how they look at their people. Philz is no longer the Philz's Coffee it use to be. 

Overall, I had a pleasant experience working with Philz. For the most part, you will most likely enjoy your time at work if you make the effort to connect with your team and utilize any down-time you have to enjoy the cult-culture family environment that is evident in most stores. Everyone's mostly aware that this isn't a long-term employment career choice but it introduces you to a diverse community of genuine people and is a great opportunity to make some great connections.

Pouring water on ground coffee beans never gets old, pretty easy, but potentially horrible for your physical health. Bad ergonomics. Watch your posture. Take breaks as needed. Nothing's more important than your health.

Management is a mixed bag, some people are really great and have made a huge impact on my life in many ways. Others, not really worth mentioning. Overall, huge focus on sales and maximizing profits (yes, quite strong capitalist values), stay in your lane if you seek to rise in the ranks. Listen, observe, and follow procedures. But don't expect to resonate with the companies underlying values once getting promoted. You will fall prey to their fake company culture. They want money and they will get it. With or without you. But it's alright, that's most of the U.S. Just enjoy yourself, it isn't that serious. Unless you make it serious.

DON'T GET LOST HERE. Get some experience, connect, and be yourself. You will have great success in finding a better job if you stay here for some time. The work-force loves customer service experience. This is the place to learn and grow. Don't get stuck.


Had three managers in the span of 6 or 7 months. First was terrible, second was alright, and third was great--but I only had her for a couple weeks before leaving. There was lots of turnaround at my store in general. Your manager will really make or break your experience, but there's a lot of corporate policies that force managers into terrible positions that aren't their fault.

Taking sick days is impossible. I and multiple coworkers were told we had to come into work despite being very ill with documented doctor's notes. California law mandates you can call out sick day of, so because of Philz's terrible policy employees are often forced to call out sick last minute--despite having knowingly been sick already. This creates unnecessary havoc and stress while managers scramble to find coverage.

Speaking of, managers will not help you find coverage for a shift, even if you have an emergency. It's your responsibility to find coverage no matter the circumstance--this includes sickness often. I understand this is a corporate policy, and fine most of the time, but it's unreasonable in extenuating circumstances. 

Work culture is generally really good when it comes to other employees, and everyone is friendly and mostly inclusive--at my location there were a couple people who very blatantly looked down on a coworker whose second language was English. This was not a systemic problem, but still very terrible. Otherwise people were generally fun and easy to work with.

You'll make good money in tips, but hourly wage needs to be higher considering the amount of work you're expected to complete during a shift. All in all an alright place to work, but highly dependent on the location.

The benefits are really good, even though the health insurance plan is pretty expensive. I had never worked at a coffee shop with any benefits at all before Philz, so it was a huge draw for me. Philz is also very good at hiring a type of person without hiring the same person over and over again, if that makes sense. If you get hired, odds are you will at the very least get along well with your coworkers in a professional capacity. Your store location really matters - each location has it's own unique culture. If you're between a few locations, try to scout them out yourself and identify which one feels like the best fit for you.

While the store-level day to day experience will vary widely, your experience with Philz Home Office will not. Unfortunately, Philz used to be a very cool place to work that was connected to its mission statement, but now it feels like it's just trying to be Starbucks. Decisions from up top are not based in the reality of the business model. I've worked in coffee for a loooong time and I am very accustomed to keeping pace in busy stores, but a lot of the decisions from up top were about maximizing profit while understaffing us and cutting our hours. This was a perfect job with the exception of any and all interactions that we have with Home Office. Employee safety was also not a large concern when I worked here, and this was disheartening because you see some crazy stuff happen in Santa Monica in general, let alone in the store itself.

worked at philz for almost 4 years, and was able to see where it started to how it became. 4 years ago i would recommend working there for the good tips (working at a busy location), accommodating schedules being a student, cool coworkers, and accepting workplace on being yourself. over the years, the same pattern started to happen where it feels like you're doing the work for three employees (understaffed) but say they don't have money to hire more people, and when you want more hours to be able to stay afloat in this terrible economic time, they would say there is too much labor and can't. they started being hypocritical in their values on respecting their employees and encouraging your own personality, and you felt like a cog in the machine making money for the CEO. constantly expanding and making new locations every couple months, it's about to become the next starbucks, without the hours, pay and benefits starbucks offers. your experience greatly differs on who your manager is, and when my location got a new one, it got even more downhill. expect to do the work of five people now, because your manager may or may not be on the floor, you're drowning in orders and they're busy scrolling through amazon on the work computer finding a new office chair. if you only wanna work 15 hours a week, you can make it work if you need the schedule flexibility because they offer short four hour shifts, but if you need something to pay the bills, this is not it. and get ready to explain one hundred times a day that philz doesn't serve espresso.

It was really great until it wasn't anymore. When I first started, it was fun, and everyone enjoyed being at work. Then it all just changed. Everyone doesn't like being there, so the vibe is always off. It's like, "who do I need to walk on eggshells around today?" for the last few months. Everyone is always angry, managers included. 

The management can be very unsupportive and often view their jobs as babysitting baristas. They use a group chat to communicate 'who was good today who wasn't'; it creates an odd dynamic. 

A typical day looks like making as many drinks as possible from the moment you clock in until you clock out. Other baristas and managers are known to put more drink tickets on your bar, so they don't have to work. If you're on the register, good luck because no one is coming to help you. There's no AC which is brutal during the summer months. There was talk of many management changes when I left, so maybe things will change for the better? Who knows? 

If you want a job that is low stress and you have supportive co-workers... look elsewhere. I worked here only for a brief period of time and realized it wasn't worth it. I hope some changes are made because Philz was great at one point. The overall mission is great, maybe it's just this store.

I worked at various locations, and I can honestly say that your experience with the company varies greatly depending on which store you work at. Some stores are more regulatory, others are more open-minded. Some stores only like employees to do things their way, others like employees to follow the standard company practice. The culture hinders some managers from actually managing, since Philz is more about "leading" moreso than managing, and employees get away with a lot that they shouldn't. It is rare that anyone gets fired, even if they rarely show up, and it is common for people to quit and come back later. In the two stores that I worked at consistently I would say the hardest part and most enjoyable part of the jobs were different. At one store I truly enjoyed the customers, some of whom I still keep in contact with today, but I found it hard to work with a management team that would not reprimand anyone for blatant laziness and disobedience to the rules. At the other store I found it hard to work with the team because they were the exact opposite, very meticulous, and were easily frustrated by petty things, and I strongly disliked a majority of the customers. I did find doing inventory and background tasks somewhat enjoyable at this store though.

Philz promotes itself as a 'People First' company.. yet once you get in and the honeymoon stage is over, it's the complete opposite. Favoritism, drama and lack of professionalism plague this company. There is zero accountability for the way upper management bullies people they don't like just because of their own personal reasons. Ironic given the mission statement. VERY unorganized, zero structure and would rather open more stores than help staff and support stores who are swamped with labor and structure issues. $$$. Will quickly give you feedback but in return will ignore/discredit your feedback to them. AVOID if you want to challenge yourself and grow in your skills in management, HR or operations. They will use your work as their own then quickly deny it. Sells the brand/ growth opportunities well.. but be warned, it's not what it seems as the turnover rate is EXTREMELY high.

I worked in retail first, then in corporate. Over the course of my many years at this company, the pay was never enough to live on in San Francisco. However, working in-store, the tips were good enough to make it work.

The worst part was when I was in corporate, and there were no tips---internal hires were taken advantage of, hired at very low rates, and then outside hires were brought in at double or triple the annual salary of others. The corporate Team Members interfacing with retail were on food stamps, and they were training-in new hires who had second homes. 

The new CEO has only made this problem worse, spending exorbitantly on new roles hired from outside, and then laying off long term Team Members and cutting company-wide benefits to pay for those extra positions. I saw many people laid off who'd worked for the company for 6,7,10 years only to be replaced by a higher-paid outsider who was whiter, older, and more ready to make Philz a cookie-cutter coffee company without any diversity or personality.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shift manager 17 salaries reported	$19.10 per hour
Barista 5 salaries reported	$20.80 per hour
Team leader 6 salaries reported	$22.16 per hour
Store manager 2 salaries reported	$23.00 per hour
Engineering team leader 2 salaries reported	$40,000 per year

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