Working solo shifts as a barista can have some perks … however is it well worth the dangers?
BY EMILY JOY MENESES
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Featured picture by Nguyen Tran
It’s a query that I’ve come throughout lots as a barista over the previous few years: Ought to espresso store staff be allowed to work on bar alone? Right here within the United States, many cafés are working with minimal workers. However how minimal is too minimal?
Whereas scheduling solo shifts does serve some advantages to baristas, it additionally presents quite a lot of dangers. On this installment of “Let’s Speak About”, we’re discussing working solo and asking Barista Journal On-line readers to share their perception on the matter.
Professionals & Cons
At my first espresso store job, there was a time when a lot of my teammates loved working alone. Because the café was on the smaller aspect with a extra minimal menu and a slower tempo than most different locations, there usually wasn’t sufficient to do when two baristas have been working—which meant we did a whole lot of aimless standing round.
Over time, the staff collectively determined that they needed to start working solo shifts, even for opening and shutting. In any case, it meant that we might maintain our ideas to ourselves. It additionally meant lots much less idle time and much more independence, which all of us appeared to understand.
Nevertheless, working solo additionally introduced some difficulties and dangers. For instance, as a result of we have been working alone, we technically weren’t taking our legally required lunch breaks. As well as, I at all times felt nervous closing on my own; one thing about working in such a darkish, quiet area alone late at evening made me really feel unsteady. Different baristas I labored with additionally informed tales of buyer altercations the place they’d have most popular to have had backup. Fortunately, nothing too severe ever occurred, and all of us, for essentially the most half, stayed secure. Nevertheless, that isn’t the case for each institution.
Solo Shifts Gone Flawed
It may be scary to consider, nevertheless it’s nonetheless vital to contemplate instances when working solo as a meals and beverage worker has taken a flip for the worst. For instance, the South Korean bakery chain Paris Baguette got here beneath fireplace in 2022 when one in all their staff was killed by equipment whereas working a graveyard shift alone.
Florida-based Barista Journal reader B. Rodriguez additionally shares a private story coping with a harmful state of affairs whereas scheduled to work alone. “I labored alone at a café location—one in all two spots—in part of Tampa that was within the coronary heart of a neighborhood the place a serial killer was on a rampage in 2017. This isn’t hyperbole, (there’s) loads of information studies,” Rodriguez shares. “Anyhow, I needed to open this café alone at nighttime and work all the shift alone from 6 a.m. (to) 2 p.m. We had no alarm system. After the third killing, I requested the supervisor if we might implement two openers or some safety system for defense. My request went ignored. The next week, an individual (the ultimate sufferer) was killed two blocks away, about an hour earlier than we opened. Nobody knew or realized (till) dawn.”
Whereas B. made it out of this scary state of affairs safely, it isn’t sufficient for espresso store managers to depart it to likelihood. Los Angeles-based Zayde Naquib, the unique founding father of Bar 9 who only recently ventured into Frequency Tea, shares the a number of the reason why he’s firmly in opposition to solo shifts, and why he thinks that café managers have to step as much as shield their staff.
“Before everything, solo bar shifts aren’t solely taxing for the employee, they’re ripe for a lot of points—from attending to inappropriate visitors with out help, to an incapacity to take legally mandated breaks,” he states. “As (café leaders), it’s our job to offer hospitality and care to each visitors and staff members. … If our staff members don’t really feel secure, we’re failing them—plain and easy.”
The Small-Enterprise Proprietor’s Perspective
Subsequent week, we’ll launch half two of “Let’s Speak About: Baristas Working Solo,” the place we’ll talk about scheduling issues shared by small-business house owners and learn how to discover options that shield the welfare of each them and their staff.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Pleasure Meneses (she/they) is a author and musician primarily based in Los Angeles. Her hobbies embody foraging, cortados, classic synths, and connecting along with her Filipino roots by way of music, artwork, meals, and beverage.
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