If you enjoy high-pressure sales tactics and negative reinforcement - then this job is for you!
Pros
* Once you reach 20 hours per week, you will start receiving benefits. At full time, your benefits will improve further. *Unlimited free drinks while on shift, and a Partner Card with Starbucks, which allows you some free drinks and discounts on other things *Lots of potential for upwards promotions if you are very good at sales, and an overall trustworthy, dedicated employee
Cons
*The company does everything it can to make sure part-time employees stay below the threshold of benefits. *Hours are given according to sales, so if you have a bad week, you won't have many hours the next. *The company thrives on a "Never Good Enough" type of corporate culture. They'll give you goals, and even if you attain or exceed them, they will then ask why anything else faltered a bit while you were doing the focused-push they requested. If you manage to meet ALL expectations, they'll find a new one you didn't know existed, and ask you why you failed at that one. It's extremely demoralizing. *They offer bonuses for reaching sales goals, but they set them extremely high. Unless you are in a flagship store, or one with very high volume of merchandise sales (not tea bar), you're unlikely to ever earn more than maybe $20-60 in bonuses. At Christmas time, when most employees get excited because they know the increased sales will mean they will meet their bonus quotas, the company increases the quotas - increasing it more each week the closer you get to Christmas - to make sure no one really earns much in the way of bonuses. *They REALLY emphasize high-pressure sales tactics, and train you in lots of double-talk to try and confuse customers into buying more than they need. The approach is difficult for most employees to pull off without really turning off customers, or coming across as a hustler. *People think that because Starbucks bought them out, that they will provide the same kind of high quality pay and treatment of employees as Starbucks does - and they are wrong. They do NOT (at least in Canada) pay management anywhere near what Starbucks does. Assistant Managers at Starbucks start around $14-$15/hr, you'll be getting about $12 with Teavana. *They do not take into account store volume when coming up with sales goals, and will expect extremely tiny stores to sell on par with flagship stores, and continually pressure management and staff alike. *Because sales are so closely tracked, and hours are based on sales numbers, it ends up breeding an extremely toxic competition among store staff. Management is also expected to always be the top sellers in the store, so it's EXTREMELY common to hear of management ringing up employee sales under their own numbers to ensure that they are staying on top of the board in order to keep their jobs. Employees often end up fighting over customers, and accusing one another of stealing sales. It's very toxic.
