Starbucks barista claims she was fired for calling customer a “bitch”

Lauren Lewis
Starbucks drink

A Starbucks employee was fired from her position, after a formal complaint was made when she called a customer a “bitch.”

A woman took to Reddit to share her outrage at an incident at work. She says: “I was fired from from my position as a Barista yesterday morning because I referred to a customer that was rude to me as a b**ch.”

After revealing what took place, she does make it clear that she didn’t cuss directly at the customer, but rather told the “acting shift supervisor in private.”

She says that she carried on with her day preparing orders, thinking nothing of the conversation, however, she was in for a shock. 

“The next day the shift supervisor I spoke with decided to write a customer incident report which included the part about me calling the customer a b*tch. 

“A couple days later I came into work for my 8am shift and my manager told me that HR reviewed the report and based on my use of profane language they decided the best action moving forward was separation effective immediately.”

The poster said that the worst part was about the incident was the double standard, as she’d heard another employee refer to another customer as a b**ch the very same day. 

People weigh in on Starbucks firing incident

After the post went live, people were eager to weigh in with their thoughts on what took place. Many people on the thread were fellow baristas, and warned: 

“Don’t trust any of your coworkers, ever. Even if they act kind around you, don’t trust them. I’ve had a few coworkers I thought were cool throw me under the bus, or at least try.”

“I work at Starbucks right now. It’s a whole different world. It felt like culture shock or something. I feel like i’m living in mean girls circa 2004 every time I go in. I miss liking my coworkers,” another wrote, clearly saddened.

One attempted to explain why the fellow employee made a decision to file a complaint, writing: “They’re more afraid of Starbucks upper management than hurting your feelings. Dog eat dog.”

Another Starbucks barista went viral when they cried after a customer took over the cash register.

About The Author

Lauren is a fast food writer at Dexerto. Covering some of the biggest brands in the industry, you'll find her writing about McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Taco Bell, and Domino's Pizza, to name a few. Lauren has a Master's degree in English Literature, and loves nothing more than putting pen to paper. You can contact Lauren at lauren.lewis@dexerto.com.