Starbucks fires barista for heating ‘personal food’ in work oven, ignites debate

A seemingly arbitrary workplace policy has sparked social media chatter after a Starbucks employee was fired from their job for supposedly using the company's oven to warm up their own food.

After the heinous daylight robbery, the former barista even had the nerve to document their misdemeanour on TikTok, causing a stir on the internet.

As it turns out, Starbucks has this pesky little policy that forbids employees from using their professional-grade oven for personal meals.

But fear not, dear customers, you can still enjoy a perfectly toasted sandwich at your local Starbucks without any meddling from the rule-breaking staff.

In a recent TikTok video, user @fugnarr uploaded a video of them making steak tacos while working a shift at Starbucks, with the employee detailing the full rundown of how they made their meal using the Starbucks convection oven. However, the video then cuts to an image of the workers, with the caption “Goodbye Starbucks, that steak was fire.” The video also shows what looks to be a “notice of separation” document.

The video, which has reportedly amassed 5,00,000 TikTok views, was captioned, “steak so scrumptious HR investigated me for the secret recipe.”

In the posts’ comments section, @fugnarr revealed that a coworker had “tattled” on them and as a result, their supervisor was notified about the situation. However, they didn’t seem too bothered, even detailing the recipe for the steak tacos. “Turkey pesto button x3 times then flip and 3 more Turkey pestos,” they explained.

And while it is still unclear whether or not they were fired from Starbucks solely for reheating their food in the oven, a Starbucks worker explained in a Reddit thread that it is against policy for employees to do so.

“Per Starbucks policy and food and safety procedures, we are not supposed to warm up our own personal food we bring from home in the ovens.”