A transgender man employed at Starbucks cries and sobs throughout a video he records after learning he is expected to work an eight-hour shift. On October 29, 2022, twenty-year-old transgender Starbucks employee Eva Sunshine (who goes by the name Evan) uploaded a video to Twitter in which she explained the grueling eight hours she had just worked for the popular coffee chain.
In the astonishing video, the coffee shop worker expressed their grievances about their extensive shift at Starbucks and how customers were coming in to actually order drinks. Evan, a college student, wished his shift would be slow and for the coffee chain he worked at to lose money due to lack of sales. Unfortunately, the shop was busy, and he had to work hard to satisfy all the customers coming in to order lattes and Frappuccinos.
“People wonder why we need a union at Starbucks,” Evan, on the verge of tears, said in the video. “And I’m literally about to quit. I don’t know if I’m going to do it, but I want to. I almost walked out today, and I’m crying in the backroom now, and I almost cried on the floor.”
Evan exposes how distressing it is to work an eight-hour shift at Starbucks, trying to accommodate the demands of dozens of customers.
“I’m a full-time student. I get scheduled for like twenty-five hours per week, and on weekends they schedule me the entire day – open to close. I was scheduled for eight and a half hours on both Saturday and Sunday. I’m three and a half hours into my shift, and there are so many customers. We have four people on the floor all day. Only five people were put on the schedule, and one had to call out. Only four people are in the whole store, and there are so many customers.”
Evan begged, “Why did they only schedule five people? We only have thirteen people employed at this store and so many customers.”
“It’s just not sustainable,” Evan stated.
The video of the incident has blown up on social media, with people seemingly divided over whether to mock or feel bad for Evan. Some have commented that the Starbucks employee is simply a victim of low wages and long hours, while others say that he should stop “complaining” about an eight-hour workday. The video has been called “bizarre” by some, while others think Evan was merely expressing his anger at having to work excessive hours.
Though people hold diverse opinions about the video, it has cast a light on the difficulty Starbucks employees experience with long hours and meager pay. It also acts as an important reminder that many individuals are struggling to make ends meet—even those employed in what most would consider “good” jobs.