A group of Starbucks employees have gone viral on TikTok for giving out free drinks to customers after getting fired.
In a viral video, TikToker Kira (_kiraamariee) filmed herself and her colleagues at their Starbucks store in the Montclair Mall, getting ready to give out a bunch of free drinks to customers all day.
Kira turned the camera to show a male barista holding a tray of Frappuccinos, before following him through the mall and into a Kids Foot Locker, where he delivered a tray of drinks to an employee. “POV: We got fired so we giving out free fraps,” she wrote over clip.
“I just know y’all are fun to be around,” one viewer commented. “Wait what, how?” another questioned, to which Kira replied, “We went on strike then they terminated us for doing a no call no show.”
In a follow-up clip, Kira revealed that she was employed at a licensed Starbucks location, and that the store had been shut down for over a week because the owner hadn’t paid the water bill.
Consequently, she and her co-workers went weeks without receiving their pay. “We all asked for unemployment reinforcement. They all denied it. That was that” Kira explained.
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She also said that despite being a shift lead, she received the same hourly wage as a newly hired barista. The situation worsened when, as she recounted, the company posted job openings on Indeed with higher pay rates than what current employees were receiving.
Kira claimed to have raised her concerns with HR alongside her co-workers in a group chat. They received a response after a five-day wait, which read: “OK. If you guys strike, you’re getting terminated.”
The content creator said that she and her colleagues didn’t show up for their shift the next day, resulting in their termination. Upon visiting the store the following day, she found it understaffed and struggling.
One of her former colleagues had to get rid of the mocha syrup as a result, however, Kira had an alternative solution. “Go make some Frappuccinos and let’s pass it out,” she stated. “That’s really the tea,” she concluded.