10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Became A Barista

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00:00 Hello There
00:51 Latte Art
02:16 The Boring Stuff
03:07 Your Wellness
05:40 Cleanliness
06:34 Mistakes
07:27 Be Comfy
08:23 The Bad Stuff
09:47 Communication
10:42 Barista Wrist
11:58 Be Proud

[morgandrinkscoffee]

What do you wish you knew before you started working in coffee/hospitality/food service?

[charliebrown]

Barista for 13+ years in a place that sells hundreds to thousands of drinks a day and Morgan, I couldn't agree more! It's a physically tough job 90% of the time, but sometimes you get to make someone's day with your coffee or your conversation, and that's really something special.

[DarkFire]

Being a barista sounds like a tough and under-appreciated job. Thanks to all the baristas out there for making delicious coffee for us!

[hannylovely]

I think an important lesson I had to learn early on is that not everyone will have my taste in drinks and that’s ok. It’s not my job to judge them for asking for extra syrup in a latte, for adding sugar and cream to a good pour over, or for wanting an extra extra extra hot cup of drip coffee. My job is to make whatever they ask for to the best of my ability and to do it joyfully knowing that they are making food choices that ultimately don’t affect me, even if I don’t agree with them.

[allisoncombs]

Currently a barista at a hotel and im only recently learning to appreciate and love hospitality. You often see people at very vulnerable places and empathy truly does go such a long way. We often talk about the more frustrating interactions in F&B, but ive had some beautiful, human moments with people in hospitality as well

[iamslplss]

10+ years in hospitality, everything from dive barback to very high end cocktail bartender, KP to Michelin level head chef, server and runner to GM, barista and now I run an amazing speciality coffee shop/restaurant

1. Make a conscious effort to stick to consistent meal times and try to eat healthy, it’s often easy to justify sporadic eating with how physically intensive the job is but the reality for me was massive weight gain and that’s something I’m actively trying to combat.

2. It’s a lot harder to not give in to vices while working this kind of job, whether it’s overcaffinating, overeating, smoking for the sake of extra breaks, drinking after shift or substance abuse due to it being the norm in so many hospitality cultures it becomes quite a challenge to keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

3. Understaffing or staffing to the line is prevalent in this industry and leads to a major sense that you feel completely to blame if you have to take a few days off for health reasons, this combined with a lot of the jobs being entry level means you’re stuck between feeling like you need to be there every second of every day or you’re letting your team down yet also dangerously replaceable.

4. It’s a challenge to hold down relationships in this industry, the times you work generally don’t correlate with the hours of people working in more office based job sectors, this means you can often feel like passing shifts, the main reason I moved from bar to kitchen was to curb the late nights and now I have a big family I love my cafe hours!

5. Hospitality is one of the best areas to gain management experience, since staff turnover in this industry is often so high you can find yourself supervising or entering even higher management very early on, while at times overwhelming this is a fantastic tool to you, regardless of what it is you’re doing management skills are completely transferable, this meant that when COVID hit I was able to pick up a well paying management role in a work from home office environment despite having no experience in the job itself.

6. Similar vein to the last one but cross-training is absolutely your friend, strive to learn every aspect of the place you work, you may love it behind the bar and not dream of ever enjoying serving customers or kitchen work but give it a try, train over, this increases your employability, increases your chance of promotion and helps you gain an understanding of the struggles of all sections leading to more empathy and thus easier conflict resolution.

7. It’s spoken about a lot but hospitality is often very incestuous, do not poke payroll, if relationships break down it can make your once safe haven workplace a living hell. Working with a partner is doable but not something I would recommend unless you’re very sure of the outcome.

8. Don’t let loyalty full your horizons, I know so many people with so much incredible potential stuck in roles that they have far outgrown, often in hospitality the management line thins greatly at the top, if you work your way to assistant manager you’re essentially waiting for your GM to leave or you’re stuck where you are, don’t be afraid to move out of your comfort zone to move up the ladder, there were times I was on the fence about doing this but whether or not the job I moved into worked out or not the experience for my CV and the skills I learned made it worth while.

9. Know your worth, similar to the last point but know the going rate for your role, if your current role falls short of that don’t be afraid to leave to get the money you deserve elsewhere, struggling businesses will underpay to cut costs and hospitality is one of the hardest sectors to survive as a new opening independent business, this leads to massively ambiguous wage differences, sketchy payroll teams and late payments.

10. The customer is pretty much never right and a good manager will always understand that, be able to resolve the conflict but have the back of a hard working employee over a serial complainer, you know it’s time to move on if you’re belittled in front of customers for things you did correctly but the customer was unhappy with.

One more bonus point, never underestimate the necessity to be first aid trained, I’ve seen people almost bleed to death, get badly badly burned, have knives pulled on them and a tonne of other things, you never know when being trained in first aid will come in handy and it’s a tool I’d rather have but not need than regret not having when something happens I could have otherwise helped with.

Much love ❤️

[mintysmom-nell]

I have been working in retail for 9 years and I am still learning about proper footwear. I finally found a good pair of shoes. My back and feet had started to YELL at me.
Also will note a lot of these things you mentioned can bridge over to retail just minus the pouring of drinks.
I think one thing I also learned is you don’t have to take every shift you are asked to do. I learned that I can say no I can’t take a shift.

[_ratsoup]

Perfect timing, I have my first shift at a brand new job tomorrow!
Been looking for a new place for a while, as my first barista job was really poor in terms of training and hygiene - I had to really put a lot into this most recent job searching period. My city's coffee community is super supportive though, and I've got two people who were really helpful in my training/searching coming along to say hi when I start :)

[LyriaSiders]

I love how many of these tips are not only applicable to being a Barista, but to many jobs in general.

[GabrielGGabGattringer]

Morgan, you honestly make Barista sound like my absolute dream job. Compared to my current job, a barista job might earn me like 5 to 600 bucks less a month but omg I´d be so much happier.

[casandrarotemberg]

The "be proud" it's such an important point. I always said to the people I trained, "if you're not willing to paid for that, the costumer either". The food industry sometimes demands numbers over quality, but we are direct responsables for the costumer experience.
I will add maybe, BE PROACTIVE about everything. Don't ever wait for someone to tell you what to do. Be always ahead.
And as much as everyone wants the pretty rosette on their latte, they want a tasty and high quality beverage even more.
Love what your doing😊❤

[juliebruce]

Thank you so much for this excellent video! I’ve been a barista for almost 2 years now. I started in my 50s as my second career after being a stay at home mom for over 20 years. My favorite part is the people I work with and the customers! Some of these things you said my kids warned me about - 3 of them have been baristas at Starbucks. I wish I knew that some days there are more negatives than positives. I wish I would’ve known that a manager doesn’t always support you and that I’d be working alone a lot. It is a much more fun job when I have a team with me 😊

[ignaciojaramillo]

Latte-do, the gentle way of coffee serving, and to serve is to care. I wish you success in all your endeavours!

[aimeelouise]

I recently left my new teaching career that I thought would be my 'next big thing' to go back into barista work, and at times this has been a harsh reality to face (often because of my own expectations of myself), but it's videos like this that remind me that as hospitality staff we actually get to do a pretty cool job.

[funnybunny]

Thx so much Morgan! #5, mistakes.. having the right manager to support is huge too ♥️♥️♥️ happier working environment

[osmar.phdz.]

I'm a quite new "barista" (still learning). I've been working in a cafe for 3 months and I could say that be a Barista is a thing. Not to much difficult but I've noticed practice is the key. Right now I know all the basics and this is the point where I I'm doing it well but it could be a lot better. Yeah I do the drinks but I think I don't have the "technic" yet and I'm working on it

[paulakidd]

Excellent advice! I've been a weekend barista for over 13 yrs now, and although I am so ready to retire, it is my regular customers that keep me coming back weekend after weekend. I wish I would have known that not all that I was taught by my training was scientifically accurate. That's what you, James and Lance are for, lol

[funnybunny]

I would say, coming from someone whose baristas made her day before she herself became one- you truly make a positive impact when you truly love making your drink and treating your customer well! They feel it

After becoming a barista, being healthy is not to be taken lightly, it impacts body mind and soul

[JennieChancey]

Just sent this to my café staff. You are a must-watch!

[allisonalr]

Every time I thought of something to comment it was your next point! 😆 As someone who can be a perfectionist/people pleaser, the mistakes, not taking things personally, and being ok with some things taking longer to learn than I would like, have all been important things.

Similar to some things you said, but some shifts are going to be sensory overloads. Going for a hike or shutting myself in my room with a good book are a couple of ways I decompress after those shifts. Or just taking a nap, which is exactly what I just did. 😆

No two days will look, or flow, exactly the same. Just when I think I can predict when the rush will hit and how long it will last, then it will start later or last longer or we’ll have a weirdly slow start.

If you (like me) became a barista later in life (I’m in my upper 30s), don’t feel like you have to defend your job choice all the time. If you love what you do then be proud.