barista

surveillant du service alimentaire

baker

serveur au comptoir

superviseur

Second Cup

A typical day at work consists of many short interactions with a variety of people. Rushes would come rather spontaneously throughout the day and last for various periods of time. At designated times certain tasks were needed to be completed, and throughout the day various tasks needed to be taken care of as required. As an example of this, all merchandise needed to be stocked through out the day and coffee needed to be readily available. Our goal was to give customers a great experience, so that is what we strived to do through cleanliness, our service, and the products we had available. 
   
   While working at Second Cup I learned to be extremely organized and complete tasks efficiently and effectively.  While making drinks for the guests I discovered the tool of self improvement and striving to be better through both learning new Latte art patterns and aiming to be as efficient as possible. Through being a barista I also learned to problem solve and adapt to fulfil the needs of a variety of customers, I learned to take criticism as a way to improve.  At this workplace I truly learnt the benefits of having a team mindset as well as the benefits it brings the company, this was a must in order to function to the best of our abilities and bring the best experience to the customers. 

   At this workplace both the management and coworkers were wonderful. The management made clear the importance of teamwork, and advocated a family like feel in the workplace. Management also encouraged us to be our best, hours were extremely reasonable, expectations were realistic and attainable. 
The coworkers at second cup were just as amazing as the management. We worked together towards a common goal; a phenomenal experience for our fellow employees and the guests we served. Growth was encouraged within each other along with a positive attitude no matter the circumstance. Overall the workplace was a positive environment to be in. 

  Though surrounded by such an incredible environment, this job like any had hard parts to it. The hardest part of my career at second cup would have to be balancing my work and life. It was extremely difficult to say no to tasks that were given to me while I was off shift, and I would generally do anything possible to help the business run smoothly. 

   There were so many enjoyable parts to my position. When thinking of the one that stands out the most, I would have to say interacting with the customers and even building relationships with some of them. The best part of the job was making someone a latte, having the perfect latte art and seeing their eyes light up at the sight. In a tie with that I would say building the actual relationships would also bring a great deal of enjoyment. Though generally just a two- three minute conversation, learning about someone new and having them share with you is a wonderful experience.

I was working as a full time barista, and was constantly begging for more hours, and instead of giving the available hours to staff that needed them they would hire new staff. I started the job making minimum wage and was told after training I would receive a raise. After the training the raise didn't come as soon as I had anticipated and the store was taken over by corporate, before this we were independently owned. Once corporate took over all staff received hire packages I had spoken with the head office lady and was assured that the raise I was entitled to would be applied. When I received my first paycheck I had received a raise well above what I was said to receive. I brought this issue up with my manager who in turn said nothing. So I left it be, at this point rather then 11.50 I was making 12.50. approximately 2 months went by at this rate and the day before my payday my manager told me that corporate found a mistake and that my pay would be decreased to 11.50 again and they would be taking back pay off my pay check. I was pretty upset and went home for the day and contacted the head office lady I had spoken to before about my wage and she said she would fix it. I still got the deduction to 11.50 but they did not take off the back pay. It started to go downhill from there, my manager inputted the wrong amount of hours on my paycheck and wasn't able to fix it for 2 weeks. 2 weeks later I recieved the remaining $ of my paycheck. A co-worker one day didn't show up for a shift I had opened the store on time, but the food order was late. I called said employee and she never returned my calls, it was a busy morning and i was overwhelmed, I had called my manager and he did not answer for a few hours, and when he finally did about an hour later he said well i have someone else scheduled in in an hour you'll be fine until then. So at that point I had opened the store and ran it alone with no help from my manager for 4 hours of my shift. A similar situation, A fellow co worker who works part time and has two jobs was promoted to "manager" and all other staff didn't agree that he was deserving. He let it go to his head where he would threaten jobs and do "paperwork" in the back the whole shift. One morning I wasn't sure when I worked, I usually worked 530 am until around 1 so I went in at 530 and wasn't scheduled until six. The "manager" was scheduled for 530, I went home (across the street) and had breakfast with my boyfriend and was back at 6am (opening). When I arrived at 6am the "manager" hadn't shown up and none of the opening was done. I had to lock the doors to keep customers out while I struggled to open alone. I put a sign on the door and called my manager to inform him the store was not open and the "manager" had not shown up for his shift. After half an hour of not hearing back from my manager I locked up the store and went home because I could not operate a store by myself as I had done in the past. I quit the same day.

The quality of this job is highly dependent on your manager, just like any franchise. 

No benefits were provided. Minimum wage was all that was offered, and after 7 months of hard work I was never offered a raise. I am an extremely hard worker, but Second Cup is in a lot of debt. They can't afford to provide health and dental or give raises. 

Advancement doesn't exist. At my Second Cup, there were two positions: baristas or the owner. There was nothing to amount to. No manager, assistant manager, or shift supervisor. You were always at the bottom.  

My manager admitted she bought a Second Cup because she wanted to make money off of other peoples hard work. 

At that point, I knew everything about this company was doomed. Anyone can buy one. Even if they have absolutely no business or food industry background. If you fail an inspection, you pay a fee. That's all. 

The only good thing that came from working here, was meeting some great people and being able to build my own schedule. Literally, the entire staff made their own schedules because the manager couldn't. It was pathetic, but also helpful. 

All in all, don't work for a Second Cup. Yes, they're Canadian. But because it's franchised, there's absolutely no consistency in this business, and it's in mass amount of debt. Things aren't looking up any time soon. 

I have worked at a Starbucks previously, and although at the time I felt like it was slave labour, they are actually quite a fair employer. If you are interested in the barista business at all, I highly encourage either a local cafe or a Starbucks. Somewhere with ethics.

I worked for two years as a barista and gained a few responsibilities within the first 3 to 6 months. Most barista jobs include basic management tasks such as handling money, making sure that the store is respecting company standards and teaching the job to new baristas. You might also have to learn how to manage stocks and orders. Great to develop leadership, customer service and basic management skills.

Unfortunately, this company works almost exclusively with a franchising system. The main issue i have occured is the poor quality of management. The head office does not obligat the owners to use a specific management set-up.

One of the things that often happens with restaurant businesses is the obsession to save every peny to actually make profit..
This might include creating a work culture that is suggesting employees to not ask to be paid for the extra hours of work... 
As an employee, I often heard the boss saying that we are rich(the employees) because of the tip we are making. The owner also often complained about the fact that people are doing protests concerning minimum wage...

The same idea of saving money off employees applies for the fact that the owners dont always hire managers or shift supervisors. This can be problematic when you are supposed to take decisions. Many situations can be unclear and you dont always have the time to call your boss or vote out the situation... You have to assume the decisions yourself and face the consequences without having the management experience, title and salary...

A typical day at work is dealing with customers at the counter, running errands at the cafe store, cleaning, wiping, tidying up, clutter, making coffee, other beverages served there and preheating baked goods etc. 
What I learned to be proactive, diligent, dignified, humble, assertive, productivity, being pragmatic, independence, cooperation with my team members staff, team leaders, and the customers. 
Management was rather hectic as seldom times, but for the most part, I had to wait and be patient until my supervisor was done making an order for a customer until she got to me to train me. Therefore, they require an additional person to work, at the workplace, so yeah. One to manage and one to incorporate the cooperative training at the workplace for me, as I do acquire accommodation for my learning disability or any other type of permanent disability that requires mandate supervision and assistance coherently. 
Workplace culture - was rather diverse, vibrant and multicultural in the cafe store shop of Second Cup; both customers and baristas or employees and workers. 
The hardest part of the job was making and adjusting the coffee jars to the coffee machines with the timing and managing all that other tricky stuff. 
The most enjoyable part of the job was cleaning or wiping the countertops, tables, chairs, sweeping the floor with a broom, taking out the trash, basically the easy, menial lenient tasks, duties, roles and errands as chores such as the washing the dishes and organizing the clutter of utensils into the bins and like baking the goods into the new tech preheated oven.

It was ok, but the more I worked here, the more I hated. You dont get paid enough for what you do and half the time you do your bosses job without their benefits. It's frustrating. Minimum wage for running an entire store is robbery. The stuff you do isnt difficult per say, but the longer you work the more responsibilities you have without the reward. I ended up doing order processing, inventory checking, and even invoicing for my boss because they forgot. Oh and the management, dont even get me started. Half the time I feel like they dont even listen to your schedule until you snap at them. During my last year of college, I had the largest workload. I couldnt work for a majority of the weekday yet my boss kept calling me in asking if I could work, and even BEGGED me in the group chat. It was frustrating. However I cant be too mad at my manager, because recently, more corporate managers are forced to manage 2 different locations at once, which I can only assume is alot on them as well.
Tips are so-so, Honestly some customers you meet are really nice and tip decently and it depends on the location but dont be surprised if you dont get alot of tips because in the year 2022 this company still has NOT moved on from cash only tips. Dealing with corporate is as frustrating as it sounds, as they believe that usually its 1 person closing per shift. Really? and youre going to pay me minimum wage to run an entire store by myself? all the time? cool. Thanks.
oh and good luck going on break when You're by yourself all the time.

As anyone who can tell you that worked at a retail company, it sucks.  Pay is very low, some managers are incompetent, and you will run into customers who insist on attacking your dignity.

That being said, it's a very enjoyable and social job with the right mentality.  I'm a very introverted person who's not good at socializing but a few years working at Second Cup taught me a lot.  I'm still introverted but I can socialize if and whenever I wanted to whereas before, I had no clue what to do.

In the right store, you can have an enjoyable time working with coworkers who are in the same boat as you and are just doing their best to live their life.  If you do your job, socializing would not be seen as a bad thing.  There have been some coworkers who doesn't get that and you can end up with more share of the work than is necessary.

Management swings in every direction. You can have great managers who are great leaders and you can have managers who are just there because they're the owner's son.  There's a host of resources outlining the difference between the two leadership styles of managers and leaders so I won't elaborate.  Just know that it's here, like in every other job.

All that being said, I think being in retail for a while is a good job to take up.  I find that people who had to deal with all the bull involved are more centered and have better work ethics.

A typical day at work is being there at 6:30 am 5 days a week, to get things ready to open the café, doing my  café walk-through, serves customers, anticipate the long line up for the whole day but it was always fun because the busy it was the faster the time go by. The ambiance was very busy but friendly atmosphere. it is what I miss the most.

I have learned to be patience with customers co workers.
Panicking when its busy at the café does not help at all. I have learned to be calm under pressure.

As a supervisor, I have learn to hire and train new staff, health and safety, 7 essentials that Compass offered us to take. I was train to make schedules, do epay, inventory, place milk order and gfs order. I have also learn to deal with different people, provide excellent customer service. I can also work fast.

Workplace culture: I worked with staff from different culture, it was great because it gave us the chance as well learn each others culture and personalities. 

The hardest part of the job: The job was great, I love everything about it that's why I stayed for 10 years. Leaving that job was my personal reason. 

The most enjoyable part of the job: To have a responsibility that I was able to perform. Getting up in the morning everyday has become my daily routine. Serving regular customer and remembering their drinks always felt nice. Serving new customers and able to get them back is very challenging but felt rewarding.

I worked at three different Second Cup locations over the years. The first one was a laid back, mostly stress free environment with some pretty great coworkers and regulars. Unfortunately that changed when a new owner / manager took over, and he made being there uncomfortable for staff and customers alike. The second location was a bit busier but still just as enjoyable as the first had originally been. I was a full time closer at both locations, which I loved since I'm a night owl, but that changed at the third location where I first worked swing shift and then opening shift (full time), both of which were rough for me.

The biggest drawback of working at any of the locations was the low pay (usually minimum wage or slightly higher), but the tips helped ... except in one location that was in a hospital so the customers rarely tipped. The biggest plus was that I didn't have to subjugate my personal style. Unlike other cafés I could mention, they didn't care how many earrings or rings I wore, or if my tattoos were showing, or if I dyed my hair funky colours, or wore platform boots. 

Overall, it was definitely one of my favourite places to work.

Second Cup is a great place to work if you are a student attending York University. The workers there are friendly and fun to work with making the job enjoyable and exciting. A typical shift would involve serving drinks to friendly customers and keeping the store clean.

I learned to serve customers and to interact with them in a professional matter in any situation as well as how to maintain the store efficiently.

The management is tough and advancement in position is very limited. There are no benefits and the chance of pay increase is unlikely unless you have been there for two or more years. The schedule is inflexible but can be managed if committed to the job.

The hardest part of the job is working at a fast pace to get all necessary task done by the end of your shift and the store can get extremely busy. A balance of serving customer's quickly/professionally and maintaining the store for closing or for the next shift can take a lot of effort.

The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to work with great co-workers and interacting with friendly customers. Supervisors are also friendly and everyone has a good time being around one another. Team work, customers and the support given makes the job productive as well as enjoyable.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Barista 48 salaries reported	$17.46 per hour
Surveillant du service alimentaire 14 salaries reported	$33.90 per hour
Baker 4 salaries reported	$18.47 per hour
Serveur au comptoir 2 salaries reported	$15.65 per hour
Superviseur 4 salaries reported	$17.55 per hour

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