Italian Starbucks & Workplace Fun
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #144 ❤️
This week Starbucks have gone a bit mental with their new range of coffee launched in Italy with a secret ingredient, Elon Musk is still spiralling out of control, and Meta are low key trying to scam us with their new subscription package.
We also ask the question do you need to be fun at work? And discover that Gen Z are not feeling very zen in the workplace, unsurprisingly to be honest.
Let’s get into it.
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#1 - Starbucks vs. Italy
While setting up shop in Italy at all seems like a bit of a bold move, Starbucks recently broke the news that they would be introducing olive oil coffee in Italy. We also had to double check the date to see we’d skipped ahead a few weeks of the year into April 1st, but no, they’re serious.
The “Oleato” range made it’s debut in Italy last week, including a latte with olive oil and an “Iced Shaken Espresso” with oat milk, hazelnut flavour and olive oil. The off-again-on-again Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz stated in a press release that the idea came from one morning when he put olive oil in his coffee while on holiday in Sicily and being “absolutely stunned” at how “delicious” it was.
Even though this seems to have nothing to do with Italian customs, as Shultz, a non-Italian man, seems to have just pulled this idea out of you know where, he apparently got the idea from watching Sicilians eating a spoon of olive oil every morning. Sure…
Starbucks entered the Italian market with, in their own words, “humility and respect” in 2018 and now have 25 branches in the country despite predictions it wouldn’t work. It is noteworthy however that these locations are mainly in Milan and Northern Italy, which have a much higher international population.
However, this olive oil fiasco may be a step too far, as Italians took to Twitter to describe the new range as “disgusting” and “an atrocity”.
While the “Oleato” range debuted in Italy, it will hit the market in the US this year. Could this be an elaborate publicity stunt designed to get the attention of the US market while taking the calculated risk of alienating an already disinterested Italian market?
And will Starbucks stand the test of time in Italy, home to the custom of espresso shots drunk standing at the counters of family-owned coffee shops, like McDonalds, where Italy now have the fourth highest number of outlets in Europe, or will they be booted out like Dominos, who closed shop last year after poor sales.
#2 - Elon Musk Has Not Chilled Out
At the end of last year, Mr E. Musk announced that his aggressive firing policy had come to and end, no more layoffs. He has kept firing people anyway.
Last week he let go of dozens of employees across sales and engineering departments, and according to research by The Verge, he has gone through at least three round of layoffs since his promise to stop.
Apparently Musk’s burning desire to increase Twitter’s ad relevance, which he boldly called “the worst ad relevance on earth”, by making it more like Google, and to do it within an impossible deadline, may be behind these cuts.
Furthermore, this goal in itself is apparently too lofty, as the myriad of tweets from ex-Twitter engineers in response to Musk’s announcement of the imminent fixing of Twitter’s ad relevance problem. One stated, amazingly, “I can confidently say this man has no idea wtf he’s talking about” and another notes that he is not taking the precious management advice “respect what came before you.” Another referred to him as Melon Musk, which we will be stealing.
This, plus the rumours that Mr “Melon” fired an engineer because of the dwindling success of his own Twitter account, confirms our expectations that Musk’s control over Twitter continues to spiral.
#3 - Meta Is Running Out Of Ideas – Shocker
While Musk’s Twitter is trying to copy Google, it looks like the artist formerly known a Facebook is trying to copy Twitter.
Mr Z is launching a new subscription service, which gets you access to better security features, more visibility in search, and prioritises your comments. And the cherry on top? A blue verified mark.
Sound familiar? Yeah to us too. The package is strongly reminiscent of the new blue tick subscription service put out by Musk’s Twitter as part of his aggressive plotting to monetise the platform as much as possible.
While experts say that this move makes strategic sense, as platforms like Snapchat, Discord and Twitter have already gone down this road, they also risk alienating users.
Certainly, the idea that you can only pay to have access to increased security features rings alarm bells in the current climate of users becoming more attuned to the importance of safety online, not to mention the various global attempts at passing legislation to make social networks safer for users, especially children.
#4 - Do You Have To Be Fun At Work?
At the end of last year a French court ruled that an employee of a consulting firm had been wrongfully fired. The reason he was let go? Not participating in “fun” activities organised by the company, including seminars and weekend events. The official reason given was that he didn’t integrate one of the company values in his work life, the value of being “fun & pro”.
The precedent set by this ruling may provide sweet relief to those of you who hate the forced fun that often comes with working in a corporate situation. As someone who once had to do a maths-based escape room, set in a bank, with a bunch of accountants, including senior leadership, the writer of this newsletter can certainly see why…
(No offence meant to accountants, of course, but you can imagine the hilarity.)
The purpose of these activities is to break down the walls of professionalism and make work less serious and therefore more enjoyable. However, the flipside is that neurodivergent employees, such as those who suffer with social anxiety or are diagnosed with autism, can dread these situations, and therefore office “fun” will have the opposite effect on them.
Also, some people just don’t want to hang out with their co-workers or their bosses, preferring to keep work professional, do their job to the best of their abilities and get on with their personal lives outside of work.
While the court case proves that you legally do not have to partake in “work party culture”, not doing so can certainly be detrimental to your career. Research suggests that “likeable” people are promoted faster, regardless of their skills.
Let’s hope that workplaces in 2023 can respect the boundaries of their employees and treat them according to their actions in the workplace rather than how fun they were at the last office party.
#5 - Are Gen Z The Least Zen G Yet?
Apparently, Gen Z may be the most stressed generation in the workplace so far. The situation we’re currently in – coming out of a global pandemic, in the midst of economic crisis, and an unstable employment context – can apparently be described as a “permacrisis”, and while it affects all generations, it may be hitting Gen Z the hardest.
As Gen Z only recently entered the workplace, some of them during the pandemic, these “unprecedented times” are all they’ve ever known, and the stress seems to be getting to them. Research suggests that they are the most stressed demographic in the workplace, and struggling to cope. The data shows that un-manageable stress affects almost a quarter of Gen Z respondents, with a whopping 98% of them dealing with symptoms of burnout.
Experts note that unfortunately taking the strain off this youngest generation of workers is a challenge without a quick fix, especially as the current environment stays in flux. However, it’s important to find some solution as by 2025 Gen Z will make up over a quarter of the workforce, and if the majority are too stressed to work or in burnout the economic and social fallout would be a nightmare.
Employers however have a significant role to play. Commentators say that companies need to recognise how they’re contributing to Gen Z’s stress and how they can help them maintain their mental health and bring their contribution to the workplace.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
This Year’s Worst Boss So Far?
A boss who put out a call for employees to “donate” their own PTO time to cover time off for a veteran employee of 17 years who is hospitalised, but has run out of sick days of their own, has been put on blast across the internet.
We have no words for how terrible this is, but read the article below to see some of the choice words social media users had for him.
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