Can you live with a Starbucks co-worker?
Question: âSorry if this has been asked before: I am in a bad living situation and one of my shifts offered to take me in for a while. At first i refused, but in desperation i took it one step further and offered to be his roommate full time. I wasn't aware of the part in the handbook about relationships and conflicts of interest until another shift told me. We've already had two shifts forced out by our DM due to a similar situation. I dont want him fired, but don't want to seem flaky. What can i do? â
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Good question!
At my store, weâve had several partners who dated each other .... but, they were all baristas. We never had a Shift or manager live or go out anyone at the store, and because of that, Iâm not sure what the exact policy is.Â
Thatâs why I decided to ask for you.Â
Here are the some of responses Iâve gotten from current partners:
Also for reference is the actual policy (which apparently came out earlier this year and covers âclose relationshipsâ as well)
âI would recommend a transfer for one of them, if that's feasible. I can see the conflict of interest issue, and this may be a conversation to have with SM and/or DM. Explain the situation to them, and see if a solution can be reached. Sometimes if you talk to the higher ups and let them know why this has to happen, they are more understanding.â
âBut they aren't dating, correct? Just going to be roommates. There shouldn't be an issue with that. At mine, our previous sm had a partner living with her until he was on his feet enough to afford his own place. The dm was aware and never said it wasn't allowed.â
âYou aren't supposed to socialize with your subordinates. So if you a shift is dating/friends with a barista one would transfer. Same for if an ASM was friends with outside of work or dating a shift or barista. One of them would need to transfer. If they are the same position it is fine to work at the same store. Not every sm or even dm cares though and will just ignore it so it'll depend on that manager.â
âYou definitely can't date someone at your own store, but the solution isn't to fire anyone, it's to transfer someone. As for living together, that's more up to your store manager, but it's definitely discouraged especially if one is a superior to the other. Again, the solution hopefully is not termination, but just one of them transferring to a different store.â
âAt my store, a barista and a SS CANNOT live together or be in a relationship. The only way that could work is if the partners are at separate stores. We only had one exception at our store and that was because the two girls were already roommates before one of them were promoted to SS. Our SM just had to make sure the two were never scheduled together.â
âI was in literally THIS same situation, except 2 SMs were encouraging it. The only reason I was okay with it was because I (the ss in this situation) was transferring in a month. It's not against policy, but I wouldn't recommend it. But, if one of you transfers, then it's fine and no one should have issues.â
âWe had this at my store, and one of them was transferred. I don't see anyone getting fired over it, just make sure communication with your SM and DM are there :)â
âA living situation might not necessarily be a close relationship. You might hardly talk to each other or do anything outside of working and living together. Just my viewpoint because I know two people in exact situation.â












