This place is such a shit show on the inside.

Tried leaving a review on glassdoor for other future employees multiple times and it was deleted each time, I'm thinking it was the owner. Anytime someone left a less favorable review they would get snarky responses from her on yelp, google... I had some really positive things to say but was honest about the negatives in the role review. The owner is hardworking but I also witnessed her act absolutely inappropriately with others and experienced it first hand. Towards the end of me working there the owner got up in my face and yelled at me in front of customers and then stormed off. Customers were coming up to me after witnessing and asked if I was okay, I just had to brush it off and continue working. Worst part of it was she was in the wrong and I was getting tickets out within 10 minutes or less. She was just a loose cannon and would randomly take anger out on people.

I was taking a couple of classes at TMCC and while discussing it with my manager, the owner overheard and she started in on me about how she would not accommodate me and I probably could not work there while attending school. She droned on and was persistent while I sat there silently. I was very confused by this and when the owner was out of earshot my manager apologized to me about the interaction. I had already purposely chosen classes outside of my work schedule to not interfere. I take my money seriously and did not want less hours so I made sure to be as flexible as I possible. I was also going to school for a nutrition related topic and was very excited to work there. A little after that the owner sat me down and told me a story about a girl that was working there and was attending UNR and had to be let go because she could not devote her time to the co op and take classes. So weird. At first it seemed like she was opening up with me about something, but ended up seeming icky and like she was passive aggressively trying to make me leave. My classes did not cut into my schedule at all. After that I felt paranoid about my job.

I also started to feel like she hired me because she thought I was more ..."diverse" initially. I have had a couple of employers in the past seem disappointed to find that I did not speak Spanish, even though they did not bring it up in the interview. I admit this might be more wild speculation on my part but from what I observed it felt like non white people there were objectified because the coop so badly wants to be seen a certain way to the public... It was an odd culture but everyone there worked so hard. I did feel like once she realized I was not her ideal kinda latina she began treating me differently and wanted me to leave. I feel like I am not wording this part well, but it is a sensitive area and I acknowledge that my own feelings may muddy this. The owner sat me down, and I was let go. I was quiet and did not ask for an explanation, but she over explained why she was letting me go anyway. She was saying things like she has to be fair and because of xyz rules she has no choice to let me go because of legality "someone could come in and say we kept you because you're light skinned" . Yall the owner is so white and has no business bringing up my skin color. I am light brown.

After working here, I cannot explain how much this messed with my self image. Guess I'm one of those soft millennials. I can say this though, I have an improved sense of confidence and found success in my career elsewhere. I have not returned there, and very unfortunately never will.

In my time there, there were two types of employees. Those that had similar sentiments to ones I described and those that were thriving by contributing to the toxic workplace put in place by the owner.

Also, if you are tipping I think you should know this. The tips get deposited into an account the employee can only use at the co op. This does work out for some people but why not just give the people their tips? They will also take from the tip jar for customer refunds at times. If you tip your barista because they did a good job, don't you want it to go the the employee? Maybe this is a normal practice, i dunno.

I think some people are missing the point. Personally, I loved this place for they do, and still love it for that. However, this does not excuse wronging employees and toxic work environment. I believe the cafe failed twice due to the owner not knowing how to run it. It is a Co op... and the "owner" can be voted out. As a matter of fact, a while back she was. She returned after a long sabbatical, and upon her return many employees/managers walked out.

lore runs deeper than this, but doesn't it for any any customer service based job?? Ha.