quittingDear Liliana Lazo,
My name is Thomas Gantt, a former shift supervisor of the Montgomery Village Starbucks store no. 11850. I’m writing to you about an event that had occurred on Sunday, August 3rd around 12:45 pm. The incident includes myself, and store manager Johnnie Tilman. The occurrence was during the turnover of shift duties to me from Mr. Tilman. When I arrived to the store approximately 15 minutes before my shift began I had noticed the store had been in fair disarray, but I fully understood that Mr. Tilman hadn’t scheduled a designated co-opener for that day. There were about seven customers in the store upon my entering, two of which were in line, three waiting for their drinks to be made, and two more at the condiment bar.
Before I decided to clock in for my shift I went to check the schedule to see what the appropriate time my shift was supposed to begin. I was scheduled from 12:30 pm to 9:00 pm for that day. At this time it was just two minutes past 12:15 pm and I looked around the store for any thing I could do to help Mr. Tilman and Herrisha Young with, because of the ambiguous scheduling. The first thing I did was count in while Mr. Tilman was on register and Herrisha on bar. I remained clocked out, yet in dress code while I then proceeded to the bar to help Herrisha on bar as a line developed. I remained at the C.B.S to make the new Vivano drinks, iced coffee, and frappuccinos while she worked on hot bar. After the line had diminished I then cleaned up after myself while Herrisha took it upon herself to take out the trash. At this time there was no line and no customers who were waiting for a drink.
From there I proceeded to clock in, clean several tables, and then the opposite counter of the bar where the customers pick up the beverage. I also had noticed that Johnnie’s coffee timers had run out, while he found that I had prepped the next quarter batch of decaf and full caffeinated Pike Place for him. After cleaning the bar area I went to the already prepared cubes of coffee and cream frappucino bases to date dot them and place them in the B.O.H. refrigerator. Herrisha had now come back from taking out the trash while taking her break. Herrisha had commented that I was, “moving to fast” and that I should slow down, but I told her that there was much to be done to get the store back to where it needed to be. The last thing that I was able to get done before I was stopped was filling the ice bin next to the frappuccino machine. The ice bin itself was completely empty, so I took it upon myself to fill it up. When the ice machine makes fresh ice, it drops in forms according to the structure of the rack the ice is in. Before I shovel the ice into the bin, I take the scoop and I chop it up into smaller pieces and load them into the bucket. After my third run of taking ice out to the bar, Mr. Tilman stepped partially into the doorway and asked me, “Is there something I should know about.”
I was puzzled at first when he asked I didn’t know what he was referring to and the look on his face was of inquisition. I replied with a, “no” and continued to the floor just outside of the back room and set the ice bucket down on the ledge. I wasn’t in any kind of mood; I was just determined and very focused on completing my task. At this point I had done everything I wanted to do except add coffee base to the dispenser because it was empty. After I gave Mr. Tilman my response he began to yell, “I will not have this! Do you hear me? I will not have this!” This was when everything began to go downhill. I have never in my entire life been yelled at by anyone of a managerial authority, especially in front of a fellow employee and for the entire store to hear. My eyes widened and I took a step backwards toward the wall. Mr. Tilman maintained his approach with a very irritated look on his face. I felt very belittled and cornered with my mind racing with something to say. I had asked him what he was talking about and he said, “You mean to tell me you didn’t walk into the back room and hit the wall.” After he had said that I thought about it for a second and remembered that I have a habit of grabbing the doorframe and swinging into the backroom. I didn’t think it made a loud noise, but I suppose it upset him to the point where he needed to raise his voice at me and make a fool out of me in front of the entire store. I explained to him that I use the wall to get around the corner and he seemed to accept it, but wasn’t satisfied. He then proceeded to yelling at me, asking what I was doing moving around the store so fast.
I explained that when I came into the store before my shift, that I knew the circumstance of what the scheduling error and that I wanted to “pick up the slack” and get them where the needed to be. I kept my tone low, because I felt so threatened. Mr. Tilman then told me that I was making to much noise and that I was upsetting the customers in the store. If I was upsetting the customers so much, why was he raising his voice so loud? I felt a lot of pressure; I really didn’t know what to do. When there was an awkward pause in his verbal lashing, I closed my eyes and felt that I needed to get out of the situation immediately. I said, “I can’t take this, I quit”, and walked to my left towards the front entrance while removing the store shift’s keys and placing them on a ledge. Perhaps it wasn’t right at the time, but I said, “By far you are the worst manager I’ve ever had”, and continued out the door.
I wanted to give you my piece of this puzzle, as I’ve heard my termination was finalized by fellow employees. I loved working with my fellow shifts and baristas, and have never had the chance to build a connection with co-workers at any other job. I’ve also never had to deal with a manager who wasn’t capable of fulfilling his duties assigned to him by his title. I would like to note that Mr. Tilman had also overlooked my six-month review while he completed the review of a fellow partner and the upcoming review of a transferred partner. At time throughout my work experience I have felt that Mr. Tilman hasn’t felt comfortable with me and I could feel his tension when I was around. I felt that his verbal assault against me was uncalled for and could have handled in a much more meaningful and constructive way.
I have spent the last year at Starbucks learning so much about the coffee that I was the only partner out of Montgomery Village to be considered a coffee master. I have helped developed the palate of other partners and enjoyed their growth in the company. I have also taken an active role in being the store’s equipment maintenance specialist, before I was reduced to weekend only availability. I would like to continue to work for Starbucks, but only with your permission that I work for another store with a different manager. The situation at Montgomery Village has become grim when the news of the stores closure was inevitable. As a shift that tried to nourish the store and see it grow, it’s sad that it has to be closed. If you don’t see it in the company’s best interest to rehire me, then I would only ask that this injustice against a partner not be ignored. It wouldn’t be fair for other partner’s to feel like their manager is quick to lash out against his partners and create an atmosphere of fear instead of a third place environment. Thank you for your consideration.
