Active_Account

The room seemed pretty comfortable. It was just our coworkers, managers, and some iPads, so we made ourselves at home. The manager also brought a ton of snacks and Dominos so we were in good condition.

A lot of the training was focused on awareness. Awareness of our own biases and how to notice them; awareness of our differences and how to embrace them. The latter was practiced during the training by pairing up and asking questions about each other, which I think led to some really great conversations. The former was achieved by explaining some concepts you'd learn in a social-psych 101 class. Stuff like implicit associations [unconsciously connecting a stimulus (like a person's skin color) with a concept (like a stereotype based on that skin color)], and racial anxiety (when a person of one race is self-conscious about how they'll be perceived by a person of another race).

Our manager did the training, guided by an iPad program

Starbucks is developing 12 MyTraining modules (mandatory, online training pamphlets/exercises for all employees) for this training program, which will then be added to the curriculum for incoming employees. I've yet to see those and I'm unsure how effective they'll be, but they definitely seem to be accounting for turnover. And I'm unfamiliar with the other training shutdown, sorry

Ultimately, I don't think customers should worry about this new policy. Starbucks employees will still reserve the right to remove people who are disruptive or behaving inappropriately, and if it turns out that the policy is yielding low-satisfaction rates among paying customers, then the company will probably amend it.

That being said, if a significant change does happen, it would be to our nighttime shifts which already attract a larger number of homeless people than the daytime shifts. And of course, the new policy could very well make our stores just all the more attractive to people who otherwise don't have the greatest source of shelter at night. It makes sense. I have some coworkers who worry about this, but I'm rather optimistic that the change will be negligible. I'm not opposed to changing my tune if I'm proven wrong, however.