Starbucks baristas staff are voicing frustration with entitled customers after a video on the subject went viral on TikTok.
According to The Guardian, Starbucks workers have complained of being verbally abused or physically assaulted by customers over coronavirus safety protocols.
Many more baristas believe themselves to be severely overworked as a result of an increase in orders during the pandemic.
One barista from Maryland told The Guardian: "With mobile order or delivery, we can’t always clarify what they want and people will get very mad over sort of little stuff when you’ve made the drink almost perfectly.
"It’s frustrating to feel like you can’t say we can’t really make it that way, so people treat us like coffee-making robots."
Meanwhile, a Starbucks shift supervisor from New York told the above publication: "Starbucks definitely took this turn into becoming just another fast-food drive-thru.
"They want us to just be these robots that move fast, we’re just little drones to them that just need to pump out as many lattes as we can in a half-hour."
Conversations about working conditions for Starbucks staff members have intensified after one barista was fired in May 2021 after making a tweet complaining about an overly specific drink order.
In a since-deleted tweet, 22-year-old Starbucks employee Josie Morales uploaded a picture of an extremely specific drinks order that boasted several custom requests - captioning it: "On today's episode of why I wanna quit my job."
The tweet showed a receipt listing the sale of a double blended Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, featuring five pieces of banana, extra caramel, extra whip, extra ice, extra cinnamon, extra caramel crunch, and heavy cream.
The tweet clearly resonated with other baristas, who took to Twitter to share similar experiences:
The same barista then shared a video of himself driving to work in his Starbucks uniform on TikTok and seemingly voiced further complaints about allegedly pedantic customers.
Alongside the clip, the disgruntled employee wrote: "On my way to get verbally harassed by Karens.
"Because I didn't make their overpriced venti skinny vanilla latte, no foam, extra-hot, extra-whip, upside down, made with devil's tears the RIGHT WAY and their cup of water. [sic]"
Responding to the incident, a Starbucks spokesperson later told Fox News: "Customizing beverages at Starbucks and our baristas' expertise in helping customers find and craft the right beverage has, and always will be, the heart of the Starbucks Experience.
"There are many ways for customers to modify their favorite beverage at Starbucks and most customizations are reasonable requests from customers."
