ok job - Barista Pilgrim Coffee Employee Review

The tips were pretty good, the espresso machine is nice.

The management here was terrible. It's family run and incredibly toxic. There are "favorite" employees and other employees get talked down to regularly, accused of doing things wrong when they did not, and given all the worst tasks. Often the family members managing would give conflicting instruction/advice and then stand by will you got publicly berated for another family member for following instruction. Don't take this job if you want to be treated with respect and not constantly gaslighted for trying to stand up for yourself, especially if you are a woman.

Coworkers were bomb, and it felt like a family. I only had a problem with one coworker, but he was the owners son so they would never fire him.

Bud tollie, the main owner, was hard to work for. He micro managed, never listened to you without interrupting, I felt he was prejudice towards my black coworkers- he would over micromanage when they were on shift- bud and all of the male family members did not treat me the same as my male co workers, and would NOT fire his grandson who bullied one employee to the point her father had to pick her up from work and take her home because her mental health had deteriorated so far. This grandson was so rude, was either screaming at me on shift or wouldn’t say a single word. Oh, did I mention he was a manager, a SUPERIOR TO THE REST OF US AND HE ALSO TREATED THE WOMEN LIKE CRAP. Honestly, I don’t understand how they haven’t been sued by that employee who suffered mentally and emotionally because he was so cruel. Every girl that was scheduled with him would cry at least once on shift. The whole family is ameshed in the running of the business... however, non of them know how to use their own POS without interrupting your task to ask for help. The family will also micromanage you as you make drinks, even though they don’t know any of their OWN RECIPES, and will make you remake their drink ‘even if it doesn’t taste right.’... I’ve made them the same way twice and they literally think it’s right the second time. The pay is horrible. As a manager, they make you wait 3 months before a pay increase.... of .25 cents. They also don’t pay you for training, which is 12 hours. They clean their mugs with denture cleaner. The owners are so concerned with money, they will berate you about upselling/the handling of cash. For example, we received a counterfeit $100, yet were never given the markers to reveal counterfeits, bud still harassed the baristas who were on shift; shaming them about their honest mistake. My first week on the job the extended family came up to the POS and I treated them kindly, as I do every customer, and when I didn’t give them their precious discount they were so rude and unkind. They spoke to me like I was an idiot, and made me get the manager on duty to explain to me, they wanted the manager to correct me/would interrupt my manager to correct me, while I was standing in front of them and the whole rest of the line so they could listen. How am I supposed to magically know who is family and who isn’t? Sorry that I didn’t memorize the whole tollie family tree. It was so harsh. One of our coworkers was bullied into quitting because the owner found out he got another job..... to help pay bills during covid because they cut all of our hours to 4 a week and would completely cut people they didn’t like without even telling them. Management ignored these problems that were brought up SEVERAL TIMES, stating ‘there was so much going on behind the scenes that you don’t know about.’ Yet never changed a thing. Finally the employees decided to ask for a meeting with bud and the manager, but they refused saying ‘we will have on on ones with you, but not a group meeting.’ Really though, it was a two on one; bud, manager, and one employee. What’s that communicate to your employee? We have the upper hand, because two of us and one of you. It’s a power trip and manipulation from the top down. It’s really sad how the shop is run, especially because the crew was the best crew I’ve ever worked with. I’ve been in the coffee industry for almost 10 years. Do not work here unless you are okay with being treated unequally as a woman, talked down to because I guess I’m an idiot, micro managed because obviously they must know more about coffee than the barista (even though they’ll be the first to tell you they don’t know anything about coffee.) and harassed, never validated or listened to. If you’re Gucci with all of that, then by all means- please apply.