The Starbucks Blending Rule That's Infuriating Employees On Reddit
Employers are allowed to set the standards and rules for their business and employees as they wish. This could include ethical guidelines, specific ways for employees to dress, desired advertising practices, and more. Starbucks is no exception. The company requires baristas to stick to a neutral color palette when it comes to clothing but is more lenient on hair color and tattoos — although face and neck tattoos are not allowed (via Starbucks' Dress Code Lookbook).
Of course, Starbucks has also set reasonable rules for its customers to abide by, such as no smoking or sleeping in its stores and being respectful to the store and its employees (per Starbucks). Some barista rules such as personal hygiene and neat aprons make sense and are no problem to follow. Other Starbucks rules for workers are weird and seem like they were made for no reason, and one particular regulation seems to have gotten under Redditors' skin.
Baristas aren't allowed to blend drinks in batches
According to Starbucks documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal, baristas should only work on a maximum of two drinks at once. This rule's purpose is to minimize errors made by hasty baristas and to make sure each hand-crafted beverage is of the highest quality. However, a lot of employees are not too pleased with this rule.
One person posted on Reddit, "Me when batch blending becomes illegal," with a hilarious screenshot from Spongebob showing the titular character being handcuffed by fish police. Fellow baristas chimed in saying, "I don't care, I will do it until they fire me for it lol we have ONE ... BLENDER. Eat me," and "Yeah [I] absolutely will never stop double batching. ... I care way more about my sanity then [sic] getting fired."
Another user provided a possible explanation for the rule, writing, "The parts in the blender are designed to handle what is expected. Sure, it can go on longer doing a single cup over and over, but if you put three ventis, your [sic] pushing the parts inside the blender to work harder than it should." One Redditor agreed, saying, "[T]he blender pitchers have the max line for a reason," and this is true. Among the most common blender mistakes, overfilling your blender is the most important one to avoid. Per KitchenAid, you should not fill your blender past the maximum fill line to allow enough room for air and proper mixing.