A sign outside the Germantown Barista Parlor says the store is closed for maintenance
Former employees of Barista Parlor allege that at least 10 employees were fired or quit this week following months of toxicity and favoritism from upper management at the popular Germantown location.
The Scene spoke with two former employees, who provided similar accounts. They say about a month ago, three baristas from the locally based chain’s Gulch location moved to the Germantown outpost. This came after months of what Chloe Byrd, who had been employed at the Germantown location for a little more than a year, called a “super weird power dynamic” where managers would openly gossip and talk negatively to baristas about other baristas.
Byrd says things “quickly got way more toxic.” She alleges that there was clear favoritism shown by upper management toward the employees from the Gulch location.
“I was kind of treated the best by management,” says Katte Noel, another former employee. “I was given the best shifts, the best hours. And I was aware of this, and it wasn’t fair.”
Noel says at an all-staff meeting two weeks ago, employees aired their grievances over a toxic work environment. Prior to this, Noel says the general manager of the Germantown location told her she was planning to “weed out” the original Germantown employees.
On June 10, Noel says employees’ hours began getting cut, and the store started closing early. She claims employees were concerned with being able to make a living wage due to low pay and hours. As a shift manager, she says she was paid $13 an hour, but starting pay was $11 an hour. She says that on Sunday, only four people were scheduled to work on a day that typically sees eight to 10 employees, despite people being willing and able to work. While the minimum wage in Tennessee is $7.25, Nashville’s living wage for a single adult is closer to $18.
Employees say that on Tuesday afternoon, management scheduled one-on-one meetings to take place on Wednesday. That was when Byrd reached out to the @workersdignityunion Instagram page, which is run by Cecilia Prado, the former director of labor organization Workers’ Dignity. (The Instagram account is not affiliated with Workers’ Dignity, which fired Prado, sparking weeks of protest from some staffers at the workers center.) Noel says they then had a Zoom meeting with members of Organized Efforts of the Workers Dignity United to plan out how to proceed and craft a letter to management.
So when it came time for the first meeting, Noel says seven of the employees showed up together, and were met with three members of upper management. She says this was followed by four hours of management stepping in and out, making phone calls, and telling the employees they were not ready to discuss anything.
Finally, Noel and Byrd say, five of the seven employees who were there were fired, including Byrd. Noel and one other employee, both of whom had moved to the Germantown location from the Gulch shop, say they quit on the spot in solidarity. Byrd says an additional employee was fired over email, and the final employee quit after they were told by the other employees what had happened.
On Thursday, the Germantown location of Barista Parlor was closed, with a sign posted on the door reading: “BPxGT is closed today for cafe maintenance.”
A 10th employee says she resigned on Thursday in solidarity with the workers. Sam Privitera was the social media manager for the company, and says she was paid $23 an hour, but was not given enough hours to make it a full-time job.
“I resigned yesterday effective immediately due to the working conditions that are going on currently at Barista Parlor,” says Privitera. “Specifically regarding the situation that happened at Germantown, just the unfairness that's going on.”
The Scene reached out to Barista Parlor ownership and received the following statement: "Any employee termination is solely determined by job performance and documented conduct violations. Beyond that we have do not comment on specific personnel matters."
In June of last year, labor advocates protested a firing at the Gulch location of Barista Parlor, accusing the chain of union busting.
