Letter to Starbucks

Workplace Health & Safety Complaint

11/02/2020

Axxxxxxxx xxxxx Starbucks Cxxxxxxxxxx Store Manager,

Mxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Starbucks District Manger,
and any others this may concern:

On Friday Oct 30th, myself and other partners were informed of new policies and given directions by a shift
supervisor and the store manager regarding Covid-19 which endanger partners as well as violate LA County
Public Health orders and OSHA regulations regarding workplace safety.

I appreciate the offer of Leave of Absence made to me by Axxxxxxxx xxx on Friday in response to my concerns
and fear regarding the new direction and disregard for Covid-19 safety procedures. May I have more
information about this leave? Is it covered by FMLA? How long would it last? Will my pay and health coverage
continue during the leave?

I would like to take the opportunity to explain my concerns.

PLEASE NOTE - While I am referencing issues raised on Friday, I would like to be clear that I understand these
issues to be much larger than can be explained by a possible misunderstanding between myself and my shift
supervisors or store manager. I feel that these issues result from pressure placed on supervisors by higher
management and relate to stores across our district if not larger corporate pressure. I have spoken with
partners at my store as well as other stores in the district, and I am aware that many of us are gravely
concerned about the Covid safety risks we face daily, unsatisfied with the response to our concerns, and
unsettled by the lack of warning, training, and information we were provided at each stage of the store's
reopening.

The policies of which I was informed on Friday, as well as the commentary with which they were given to me
and the greater context of these issues, have left me deeply concerned and uncomfortable with continuing to
work at Starbucks.

I am further concerned because all of these issues were previously discussed in my meeting with Axxxxxxxx xxx
and Mxxxxxxxxxxxxx on September 18th. That meeting was a follow-up to my letter sent on September 17th
after I was instructed to cease issuing reminders to customers to keep their mask on at all times indoors and
was told that customers were allowed to drink their beverages indoors.

I had believed that we had resolved these issues at that meeting, which ended with the assurance that it had

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been a "misunderstanding". Much of our meeting focused on the tone of customer interactions and agreed that
"encouragement" was the appropriate approach rather than "policing". At the end of the meeting I understood
from Mxxxxxxxxxxxxx there was "no approved or officially sanctioned times in which customers can eat, drink,
or unmask indoors" and that he trusted me to use my "judgment and discretion" to continue issuing reminders
to customers, which I considered to be a reasonable accommodation for my safety concerns, even without a
commitment to whether other staff would be given training and coaching to do the same. I was also given
assurances that other health code & Covid safety items, which we were not currently meeting, were a goal for
the store to strive towards following.

Without those assurances, I would not have felt comfortable with continuing to work at Starbucks. It is my
feeling that those assurances were undone by what I was told on Friday.

While I am paraphrasing, these are some of the directions that were given to me on Friday:

1. When assigned to POS (cash register), do not speak to any customers other than those directly in front of
you at your register.

2. No mask reminders or conversation other than offering a mask to someone who enters unmasked and/or
stopping them from eating. Do not speak to any customer regarding their mask being under their nose or
otherwise improperly worn.

In addition, the following statements or situations made me uncomfortable and concerned (again, paraphrased):

3. Do not give any additional information to customers at the hand-off plane; give them items they ask for
without discussion. All effort to ensure their order is accurate and includes any sides (sugar, cream) must
be done from the POS when they order and should not include any explanation of Starbucks policies or LA
Health Code as to why we are supposed to be adding sides to the drink on their behalf and are not allowed
to give them out, or in regards to unmasking and indoor dining.

4. I was told by my store manager that we have been doing "all this extra" and the customers are "not getting
any better" so we will not be "doing any more coaching".

5. My store manager said that "this is not downtown" (presumably in reference to Covid case rates) and that
"no one has gotten sick here yet" so "we're fine".

6. My manager mentioned an instance in which I had asked a man in front of me at the POS, to "please keep
his mask all the way on" - referring either to it being under his nose or him pulling it away from his face
while speaking to me. (Both situations had occurred.) I was told that I should not have done that and that
"you have plexiglass, you're wearing a mask, I don't understand why you have a problem, you're safe".

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7. Every time that myself and other staff have expressed our discomfort with the lack of Covid distancing
signage (and/or removal of signage), we have been told that corporate wants things to "look as normal as
possible" and that staff should be "verbally coaching" customers regarding issues like capacity.

While I could explain point by point my concerns with each of these statements and directions, I'll summarize
some of my concerns which address multiple statements:

A. The fact that no staff have yet been known to have contracted Covid does not mean that we are safe. In
fact, Covid cases have spiked significantly in this last week to the point that LA County Public Health issued
a statement imploring businesses to be more mindful of Covid health code protocols as we enter a new
level of risk. (See, attached.) Being informed that same week that we were giving up on "coaching" and
scaling back our attempts to encourage social distancing is deeply concerning. I feel this is an example of
the larger attitude within our district of disregard for Covid safety.

B. My mask, as with any fabric mask worn by a staff person, protects the customers from me. Masks DO NOT
protect staff from the customers. Staff are protected by being in a workplace in which all customers are
fully masked and the potential amount of coronavirus particles emitted into the air is reduced.

C. The plexiglass pieces do not fully shield the staff from customers at POS or at hand-off plane. Customers
lean around them to speak to staff, frequently while unmasking to speak more clearly. However, even if the
plexiglass were extended, it would not protect the staff from the aerosolized, airborne particles which
carry coronavirus and float in the air considerably further than six feet.

D. Our store is located in LA County, therefore LA County rules apply to us, regardless of not being downtown
or of being near the county line. Referencing our specific geographic location as an excuse to circumvent
LA County health code mirrors what I had been told at my previous store, Txxxxxxxxx, in the summer -
masks weren't mandated in Ventura County at the time (although the store was located in LA County) and
that was given as a reason to not offer masks to unmasked customers. I am concerned that government
jurisdiction is being ignored by management in favor of their own personal experiences and that Starbucks
is placing more emphasis on corporate policy than local government ordinances.

E. To be informed that the corporate stance is to rely on verbal coaching, and then to be prohibited from
speaking to customers about certain public safety topics or prohibited from addressing customers from a
certain position, is counter-intuitive and counterproductive. We are already endangered by the lack of
signage; customer reactions are much harsher when first being informed of something verbally than if they
had been pre-exposed by signage, including indications to line up and traffic flow directions. Our store had
this signage but removed it at the request of the District and Regional Managers. To compound this lack of
signage with a prohibition against clear verbal communication is concerning.

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F. Significant amounts of time at my store are spent with only two staff present. During these times, the only
person who can handle capacity or mask issues is the person working at POS, as the person on bar has
limited visibility of the lobby and loud sounds near them. Furthermore, even with more staff working, the
POS person is the only one with the entrance door in their line of vision. Preventing the POS person from
handling capacity or customers entering unmasked directly results in capacity being exceeded and
customers entering the store and moving around it unmasked - both of which occurred on Friday as a
result of the new directions.

G. Finally, it is my understanding that these changes on Friday were implemented as a direct result of a drop
in our store's Customer Connection scores for the previous week.

While there are a number of factors which may have impacted the scores - including a small sample size
giving undue weight to a few negative complaints and, perhaps most significantly, the fact that the
previous week had included a high amount of incident reports filed when customers are aggressive or
inappropriate with staff. It is incredibly difficult for staff to maintain the same degree of cheerfulness after
being threatened, having items thrown at them, and having obscenities shouted at them.

The survey questions related to the Customer Connection scores, which ask if the barista went "above and
beyond" and made an attempt to make a "personal connection" with the customer pose an extremely
high bar. The choice to prioritize such an extremely high level of customer interaction over public safety at
a time when staff are suffering emotional and psychological abuse as well as a life-threatening pandemic is
not one I can support.

H. Staff need to be provided with training on how to appropriately coach customers on Covid safety to avoid
language that escalates the situation or increases the physical threat to staff and other customers. It is
highly problematic that “poor” attempts at coaching customers on masking and distancing have often
resulted in staff being instructed to cease coaching.

I. The same training, with the same standards and expectations, needs to be provided to all stores in the city
xx xxxxxxxxxxxx, if not our entire district. The inconsistencies in which parts of the Health Code or Covid
protocols each store is choosing to follow leads to customer dissatisfaction and staff harassment.

Thank you,
Noelle Tankard
Starbucks Partner 144xxxxxx

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