You can’t get upset with someone for doing something wrong when it’s there first time and you’ve been doing it for years. Give them the energy and help you wish you had when you were in the same position.
It’s easy to forget how much your habits and techniques have developed over the years. You’re able to do things without thinking after having spent a lot of time testing strategies. You’ve locked down your efficiency, limited room for mistakes and mishaps, and built up the muscle memory to do it with ease. With that, sometimes it’s difficult to give a newbie the benefit of the doubt.
I’ve been lucky enough to have trained a few new baristas at work. I was hyped to have this opportunity because this way I know everyone will be on the same page and doing things they way they should. With the training process came a lot of hiccups though and a lot of tests of my patience and ability to correct.
Making espresso drinks may appear easy from the outside, but there are a ton of intricate details that need to be learned in order to create proper drinks. Over the process of teaching all these skills, the new baristas made a lot of mistakes and I had to remind myself that I was in their position once.
Every so often, I’d sense a little annoyance when they steamed the milk poorly, didn’t pay attention to cleanliness, rushed a process, and so on. When things like this came up, I needed o=to remind myself that I used to do all the same things. I can’t expect them to get everything right after just teaching them or even after a few shifts. There’s a lot to pay attention to and a lot of room for mistakes.
All you can do in these situations is help. Getting mad at them or taking over won’t teach them anything. You want them to be comfortable with making mistakes and learning how they can correct them. You need to offer them the guidance you wish you had when you were in their place. This means catching them when they’re doing something wrong and kindly offering the better methods or corrections and continuing to do so no matter how many times they make the same blunder.
No one is going to get it down immediately – I guarantee you didn’t either. You need to exercise your patience and guide them throughout the entire process. If you want them to do something right, help get them there for as long as it takes. Don’t rush them, yell at them, push them aside, or say nothing. Be there for them, answer their questions, and build their foundation. Be the teacher you wish you had.
November 4, 2024
