#who kept explicitly making references to the master throughout the story

[idkaguyorsomething]

the convoluted doctor who lore gets extra funny when you realize that, at two separate points in the past, two different companions to two different doctors ended up running into rasputin but both came to the conclusion that he was a pretty nice and normal guy. which, depending on how you interpret the power of the doctor, is either a nice subversion of a lot of tropes of stories used in pre-soviet russia, or side-splittingly hilarious as you start imagining the master getting roped into various adventures with different versions of the doctor that he can’t fuck with yet or else he’ll destroy the timeline, forcing him to play nice with the humans as part of his 4D Time Chess Master Disguise Plan #3852

[orokinarchives]

Discussion: Ballas

(Ballas concept art, shown at the Art Developer Panel at TennoCon 2017)

As the Tenno have awoken from cryosleep and uncovered the buried memories of their past, one name has come up again and again: Ballas. A powerful figure responsible for the creation of the Sentients, the warframes, and even our beloved companion Cephalon Ordis, Ballas is at the centre of some of the Origin System's most intriguing mysteries. Even today, his influence can be felt by every Tenno as they dream about their history. Here, we will assemble the knowledge we have to see what can be deduced about this portentous and enigmatic character.

Ballas has appeared or been mentioned several times in the lore so far. We will look at each of his appearances, before analysing them all together.

Detron Crewman synthesis entry

The earliest mention of Ballas comes from Cephalon Simaris' Sanctuary, a project designed to glean memories of the past by scanning entities into their constituent data. Repeated synthesis of Detron Crewmen has revealed memories from Archimedian Perintol, an Orokin-era scientist or engineer. Perintol stands before a council of Orokin Executors, who are deciding on his fate. From Perintol's account, we learn several things about Ballas: first, his official title, Executor. We are not told explicitly how many Executors there are, but it is clearly a powerful position, deciding on the fate of major government initiatives (such as the creation of the Sentients and colonisation of other solar systems), as well as the people behind those initiatives.

Perintol also gives us a physical description of Ballas: he is possessed of "purity", "symmetry", and "glittering gold irises". His face is also described as "old", though this is a less precise, and perhaps subjective, description.

We are also shown Ballas' character: overbearing and imperious, but also shrewd and manipulative. The entire sentencing hearing is revealed to be a carefully-orchestrated stratagem for Ballas to get what he wants – the creation of the Sentients – while insulating himself from any potential consequences. Any fallout from the Sentient project – which likely manifested after the Sentients returned to the Origin System – would fall on Executor Tuvul, or Perintol himself. Certainly not Ballas, who was quite vocal in his opposition. And yet we see that the project was Ballas' true objective all along. Ballas is not a blind believer in the hierarchical system he occupies. He is willing to flaunt the law, including the "Seven Principles", and manipulate his fellow Executors to achieve his ends. Whatever his motivations are, they are his alone, separate from other Orokin leadership.

Lastly, we are told that Ballas resides on Mars. From context here, and with additional clues in the Corrupted Ancient synthesis entry, we can infer that Mars was a seat of Orokin power, perhaps rivalling Lua in importance. This reinforces Ballas' high position within Orokin leadership.

The Second Dream

The Second Dream quest establishes Ballas as a significant character in the lore by connecting him to the development of the original warframes. The conversations we overhear reveal further information: Ballas is talking with a woman named Margulis, who he calls his "wilted love". Margulis (who we later learn is an Archimedian) is working with the children from the Zariman 10-0, and Ballas also seems to be overseeing the project to some degree in his official capacity of Executor. The project is to be submitted to the "the Seven" for review, and Ballas urges Margulis to "renounce" – to retract her position that the children can and should be helped. Margulis, rather than renouncing, lambastes the Seven, and Orokin civilisation in general, as being corrupt, and is sentenced to death by unanimous vote. Ballas pronounces the sentence, then privately asks Margulis, mournfully, why she did not follow his advice.

The format of this hearing appears similar to that depicted in the Detron Crewman synthesis entry above: a controversial and cutting-edge project is put before a council, who vote on its fate and that of its leaders. We can reasonably conclude that these are in fact the same kind of hearing, and thus clarify a few points: Ballas is one of seven Executors, and likely holds a preeminent position among them, as he seems to be presiding over the hearings in some capacity. Despite this, he cannot save Margulis from execution when opposed by his fellow Executors. It's worth noting that Ballas also voted to execute Margulis. This is likely indicative of the relationship he has with the other Executors, and the structure of Orokin hierarchy.

In what appears to be a separate conversation some time after Margulis' sentencing, Ballas talks to an unidentified Executor about the Zariman children, who had been kept on Lua in the absence of Margulis' continued care. Possible applications of their Void-granted abilities had been explored (likely depicted in the Rhino Prime codex entry), and the Tenno were being considered for battlefield status. Ballas voices his opposition to this, which is curious. Based on his conversations with Margulis, we can assume that this is indeed his true position – he does not trust the Tenno to save the Orokin, and he perhaps even harbours a grudge against them for Margulis' death. Yet he does not engage in subterfuge, as is his wont, but entreats his fellow Executor quite openly to shutter the Transference project. Perhaps, in the wake of Margulis' death, the rest of the Seven have grown wise to his tricks. Or, perhaps, Ballas sees this issue as so important, he cannot rely on his usual tactics, and must call in every favour to ensure the Empire never has to rely on the Tenno (a course which, as we know, ultimately proves futile).

Prime Warframe cinematic trailers

Every Prime warframe released after the Second Dream (starting with Saryn Prime) has been accompanied by a cinematic trailer (DE's production delays notwithstanding), narrated by Ballas. Though these videos do not, strictly speaking, appear in-game, we will nonetheless regard them as canon, and, as such, study them to see what they can tell us about Ballas.

The Prime warframe trailers were previously analysed in a previous discussion post, so we shall simply revisit the matter.

We see that Ballas now appears to be the head of the Warframe project. He decides – or is chief among the deciders – what warframes are being made, and for what purpose. He does not appear to have lost his status as Executor – he places himself among the Orokin when he speaks, and he is still "beyond death" – so his leadership of the Warframe project is a little odd. It seems slightly beneath his station, but perhaps projects of this magnitude are accorded an Executor supervisor as a matter of course. Perhaps the Sentient project was headed by Executor Tuvul.

Or perhaps this is a new responsibility, imposed by the rest of the council. A certain interpretation of the Vauban Prime trailer raises the possibility that Ballas' relationship with Margulis was not quite a secret. If Ballas is making restitution to the council for his error in judgement, then perhaps the Executors have saddled him with the Warframe project, as both punishment and test. We see that Ballas presents each new warframe to the rest of the Executors – again, somewhat strange if an Executor was already in charge of the project. Is this another condition he must meet, to prove his judgement and loyalty?

Another theory is that he feels duty-bound to honour Margulis after her death, and views the Tenno as vital to her legacy. Maybe he chose to oversee the Warframe project as a personal penance, his motivations unknown to the other Executors. After all, the Zariman children were not destroyed after Margulis' execution as might be expected – perhaps Ballas had a hand in that.

It is also revealed that Ballas harbours some degree of dissatisfaction with the Orokin, both as people – he mourns the sterility of an immortal existence – and as a collective civilisation – he decries the pollution and excess of the Empire. The warframes may be a tool to correct the Orokin's path, but Ballas' exact intentions and goals are unclear for now.

Regardless of his motivations or obligations, we also see that the actual process of creating warframes is a gruesome, foul business, one only an Orokin mind could envisage. For all his benevolence towards Margulis (which, of course, is of dubious value), we see that Ballas is still possessed of a shocking dearth of humanity.

Cephalon fragments

The story of Ordan Karris, told through the cephalon fragments scattered throughout the solar system, is another tale of Orokin brutality. It begins as a lavish ceremony: the mercenary Ordan Karris is being honoured by his Orokin masters for his service. Ballas himself offers Ordan the Red Vial – a draught that serves to convert mere mortals into Orokin, or at least serve as the first step in such a process. But Ordan has no intention of becoming Orokin. He attacks, slaughtering many Orokin and their Dax bodyguards – to no avail. The Orokin are immortal, and shrug off his slaughter as entertainment. Ballas punishes Ordan by having him drink the Red Vial anyway, and converting him into a cephalon for a life of immortal servitude.

First, we have another description of Ballas: "peerless beauty", so perfect that Ordan wonders if it is a hologram or some other deception. Ordan gives us his title again – "Executor of the Seven". Presumably, this is referring to the fact that there are seven Executors, as deduced above from clues in the Second Dream.

Ballas presides over the ceremony, offering Ordan the Red Vial. From this we see that Executors are public figures as well, in positions of leadership among the Orokin, in addition to the considerable power they wield in closed chambers. It is likely that the Executors can be identified with the "Emperors" mentioned in the Stalker's codex entry. Of course, the degree to which they are "public" is a matter of perspective, as Ordan notes that Orokin are not frequently seen by their non-Orokin subjects.

The story serves to demonstrate Ballas' cruel side. Ordan attacked the Orokin because of the brutal acts they forced him to perform. As retaliation, Ballas ordered Ordan's mind excised from his body, stripped of memory and unprofitable emotions, and compelled to serve in whatever capacity was required. Only the faintest hints of Ordan Karris still remain – either an oversight, or, more likely, a premeditated enhancement to the torture. Once again, we see the depths of the Orokin's inhumanity, and Ballas' complicity in such a system.

It's also worth noting that this is the first direct mention of Orokin immortality, predating the Nekros Prime trailer by a couple months. The knowledge that he would live forever surely served to increase Ballas' pride.

The Silver Grove

Ballas is very briefly mentioned in the Silver Grove quest. Silvana, an Archimedian working on the Warframe Project, says that he is "beyond pleased" with the warframe Silvana has made – Titania.

Silvana's Apothics tell us that Ballas and Margulis were working on the Warframe Project contemporaneously. Margulis began the project as a therapeutic effort, but somewhere along the way it pivoted towards weapon development, with Margulis still in charge (under Ballas). It's possible that Margulis was executed for eventually rebelling against this application of her technology.

Apostasy Prologue

The Apostasy Prologue provides us with more snippets of conversation between Ballas and Margulis. He begs her to recant, so that her sentence will be lessened, but she is defiant, saying that Ballas is "no different from the rest of them." It appears that Margulis thought that Ballas was more humane than his counterparts, or that she could work in his heart to change him. Faced with her pending execution, it seems as though she was incorrect.

We then hear some of Margulis' sentencing: Ballas tells her that she can recant, and be rewarded with a "merciful death", or resist and be rewarded with something worse. From the litany of Orokin atrocities we have seen, it's clear that this is no idle threat. Margulis refuses to recant, or even address the Orokin, instead opting to say goodbye to her children, the Tenno.

Afterwards, we come to the somewhat cryptic encounter. Ballas meets face-to-face with the Lotus, addressing her as Margulis, and promising to never abandon her again. The Lotus, after initial confusion, appears to respond positively to him, and the two vanish.

This mini-quest gives us both knowledge and questions. The biggest revelation is that Ballas is alive, in the modern day. We also see that Ballas can manipulate technology and energy telepathically. This is, of course, not unreasonable, given what we know of the Orokin, but this is the first direct proof we have of these sorts of abilities. It is unclear if he has control over all technology, or just devices of Orokin construction (which the Lotus' helmet and throne may have been).

Our understanding of his relationship to the Lotus, and Margulis, are complicated in the wake of this exchange. We know that the Sentient operative Natah infiltrated the Warframe program and became the Tenno's handler, and we know that Natah took on the symbolic role of Margulis to do so. Given that Ballas was in charge of the program, it is unlikely Natah mirrored the actual appearance of Margulis, which would have been conspicuous indeed. But how much of this was Ballas aware of?

He seems to think the Lotus is Margulis, undeterred even when the Lotus insists she is not. One of them is mistaken. Has Ballas erroneously conflated the Lotus – a guardian figure to the Tenno – with his old lover? Or has the Lotus been deceived about her very nature?

When the Lotus is disconnected from her throne, she seems to have a new awareness of Ballas, almost as if Margulis is waking up from being a dormant part of the Lotus' personality. If Margulis somehow escaped execution and was fused with Natah to create the person we now know as the Lotus, Ballas was almost certainly involved. But how did he accomplish this if Margulis was ostensibly executed via Jade Light, which physically disintegrates its victims? How was she spirited away without the other Executors knowing? As yet, we do not have an answer for these questions.

Lastly, we finally see Ballas' appearance. First revealed at the TennoCon 2017 Art Panel, and now seen in-game, Ballas has bluish-gray skin and glowing white eyes (with no visible pupils), and is bedecked with golden finery, including an ornate sword on his left hip. His left arm is normal in appearance, but his right arm – often obscured under his artfully asymmetric clothing – is unsettlingly elongated, with long, golden fingernails more akin to talons. With his arm visible, Ballas can easily fall into the uncanny valley. This physical depiction of him is strangely at odds with previous descriptions by Perintol and Ordan. Shifting standards of beauty are somewhat plausible, but Perintol specifically describes him as symmetrical. Perhaps Ballas keeps his right arm hidden almost constantly. Why does he have such an appearance? Are the gray skin and asymmetric limbs desired, or are they a by-product of Orokin immortality? Or, perhaps most likely, his body has warped after millennia without state-of-the-art Orokin technology. Hopefully, further explanation is forthcoming.

Summation

Before the Collapse, Ballas was powerful, arrogant, and manipulative, using his lofty position to secure his interests, whatever they may be. He was also cruel and vindictive, applying gruesome punishments to those who stood in his way, all in an exercise of power.

He also loved Margulis, a situation that informed much of his behaviour before, and perhaps after, the Collapse. Her headstrong nature forced Ballas into choosing between his love for her and his love for power, and with the muddied circumstances of Margulis' death, it's still not quite clear what he chose. But she continued to influence his decisions after her execution, as we see in his oversight of the Warframe program. Although he views the Tenno as dangerous, it's likely he sees them as a connection to Margulis – a connection that may no longer be necessary if Margulis is still alive, freeing Ballas to eliminate the Tenno if he still sees them as a threat.

He had his misgivings about Orokin society and civilisation, possibly accentuated by a desire for revenge against the institutions that led to Margulis' death (although the latter is purely speculation). That, combined with his admiration for the warframes, hints that Ballas may have been aware of or even aided indirectly the slaughter of the Executors at the Terminus.

Of course, now we know that Ballas escaped death by the Tenno's blades (which would be plausible if he were involved), and is still alive today. The nature of his immortality is not clear, but it appears to be separate from the Continuity ritual that the Twin Queens utilise to survive. Ballas' body is distinct from anything else seen in the Origin System, so it may be his original Orokin form, or a degraded version of it.

It is curious that he waited until now to make an appearance. The development of ship-shattering Grineer superweapons, the threat of engineered Mutalist Technocyte hordes, and the resurrection of Hunhow himself were not enough to draw Ballas out of the shadows. Where has he been? What has he been doing? How much of his old pride and self-serving ambition still remain? The timing of his appearance – after the mysterious Void entity known as the Man in the Wall attained a stronger influence in the physical world – hints that Ballas may have a connection to the Void, which raises even more questions. What are his goals now that he has returned? Hopefully these questions will be addressed soon with the release of the Sacrifice quest. But for now, all we can do is study, analyse, and above all, wait.

[Navigation: Hub → Discussion → Ballas]

[voyagerafod]

Voyager: A Fire of Devotion references: Part 4

I’m sorry this took longer than I intended to get up here. I've had a lot going on in my personal life, and other things took priority.

Chapter One:

"Fortune favors the bold, but you've got to know the difference between 'bold' and 'moron.'" is yet another line based on something said by @taraatrandom on WTFIWWY. I use so many Tara Deenihan quotes in this thing I feel like I owe her royalties.

Quorzom is one of the default names you get for the species Silicoid from the Master of Orion video game series. Though not said explicitly, the description of the character is meant to imply that Quorzom in AFoD is a Silicoid., making this the second of three references to Master of Orion races in this story.

"Initiating the 'get the hell out of here' maneuver," is a line just a few words off from a similar line spoken by the character Lennier on the TV series Babylon 5.

Chapter Two:

Harry's line, "Jesus tap dancing Christ," is a South Park reference. Yes, I used to watch South Park back in the day. I was young and didn't know any better.

The name of the ship Samantha's father serves on (oh, and her parents' names are taken from one of the Star Trek video games; Bridge Commander I think. It's in her entry on Memory Alpha), the John Laurens, is named after the Revolutionary War figure. ... Yes, I was referencing Hamilton.

Janeway's line, "Winning is easy, governing's harder," is yet another Hamilton reference.

The Elerians and the Sklorno, two races referenced by Samantha when talking to her mother, are references to alien races from the Master of Orion franchise, and Scott Sigler's Galactic Football League novels respectively.

"Ktarians process emotional trauma faster than humans," is actually a nod to the Salarians from the Mass Effect franchise. There's not much A-canon info on the Ktarians (such as why of the ones we've seen on-screen only Naomi has horns), so I took some liberties.

Chapter Three:

The "Phrasing!" scene, despite what you may think is not a reference to the animated series Archer. It is a reference to the podcast The Shared Desk, hosted by authors Tee Morris and @pipballantine . Who sometimes use that scene from Archer as a drop in. Okay, I guess it kinda is an Archer reference.

The notepad in Janeway's desk labeled "mistakes" is a reference to the Battlestar Galactica reboot. President Rosalyn kept a list of what she felt were her mistakes in her desk as well.

Chapter Four:

Chakotay's line, "So, trap?" is a reference to the movie Serenity.

Hector the Collector is an in-joke; Hector is the name I gave to the Collector I unlocked as a playable character in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode. So, an in-joke for like 3 people (me, my Mom, and Step-Father).

Chapter Five:

Seven of Nine responding to the question "Are you alright?" with "No. Let's fix it," is a nod to an exchange from an episode from the first season of Heroes.

The scene where Naomi says "What would Mom do with two Sevens?" and Jadzia Dax's cut-off response was a nod to a scene from a Doctor Who short where two Amy Ponds are on the TARDIS. The Doctor asks what they could possibly do with two Amys. Rory looks like he's about to say something and gets slapped.

Chapter Six:

"We'll burn that bridge when we cross it" is something my late father used to say; a spin on the old phrase "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Seven of Nine's professed hatred of surprise parties is a nod to Internet Reviewer SF Debris. As mentioned before his show inspired this fic, and he also hates surprise parties.

Chapter Seven:

"First is forgiven" is a reference to the rules governing new arrivals at the titular arena of the sci-fi novel Grand Central Arena by Ryk E. Spoor.

When Jaffen refers to a "Masala" this is a reference to Masala the Efficient, a Quyth Worker from Scott Sigler's Galactic Football League series of YA novels. Speaking of Jaffen, two references are made to Charmed, the TV series where the actor played the father of the Halliwell sisters.

Chapter Eight:

Yes, The Doctor's reference to a story about a broken A.I. and an anti-climax was a reference to much maligned (rightly for the most part) original (meaning pre-DLC) ending of Mass Effect 3.

Chapter Nine:

The name for Chakotay's sister was never spoken on-screen, but was given in the post-Endgame novels.

The exchange between Verin and Janeway about the former only listening to a third of what the scientist Otrin says is a reference to the sitcom Mad About You; specifically, when one character says to another "Mark says a lot of things. I only listen to about a third of it."

Chapter Ten:

The fate of the Talaxian generation ship was inspired by the events of the novel Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.

The species that Talaxians were feuding with in the original episode were never named, so I named them the Badoon, after a species introduced in the pages of Marvel's Silver Surfer comics.

Brian Sofin's parents are named after Internet Reviewer @elisaintime (Maven of the Eventide), and her husband Paul Schuler (formerly Paw Dugan of Channel Awesome).

Chapter Eleven:

The big reveal early in this chapter (which was not-very-subtly hinted at in the Author's Notes for Part 1: Louder Than Sirens) was inspired by the licensed IDW Doctor Who/Star Trek TNG crossover comic.

At the time it was written, Seven of Nine's F-bomb to the Borg Queen was a reference to Atop The Fourth Wall The Movie, referring to what @atopfourthwall says to Mechakara. It wasn't until; later that I realized that scene itself was a reference to John Carpenter's The Thing.

Icheb's comment to Naomi about getting a pet rabbit was worded that way to be a nod to the (currently defunct) Internet Review show The Bunny Perspective.

The scene where Janeway starts naming the Voyager crew who'd died during the seven years in the Delta Quadrant was inspired by a similar scene from the Battlestar Galactica reboot where Starbuck names Viper pilots killed by the Cylons. Much like Janeway, Starbuck is also unable to finish the list of names without choking up.

The names of the dead crew members that were not named on the show, either on-screen or in the scripts, are given names taken from the following sources in order; The Galactic Football League series, the first Mass Effect game, and the TV series Arrow.

Jaffen's comment to Janeway, that she would go crazy inside of a week if she retired, was a reference to Commander Shepard saying basically the same thing to Mordin Solus in Mass Effect 3.

"If you get killed I'm telling Mom," is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference.

Except for the John Laurens, whose name I explained earlier, the rest of the Federation ships Voyager encounters upon their return to the Alpha Quadrant are the classes they are based on the final shot of the final episode of the actual series, and the names they are for the following reasons;

The Galaxy-class U.S.S. Allegheny is named after a Galaxy-class ship that is given to the player at the start of a mission in the PC game Star Trek Armada II

The Prometheus-class U.S.S. Palmyra is named after an ancient Semitic city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Tragically, the historical city has been (last I heard) almost completely destroyed as a result of the civil war there.

The Nebula-class U.S.S. Sutherland is the Nebula-class ship that was shown in the TNG episode “Redemption Part 2.”

The Defiant-class U.S.S. Wolverine is one the common names given to new Defiant-class ships built in the PC game Star Trek Armada II.

Hokor the Hook-chest is the coach of the Ionath Krakens, the team that is the focus of the oft-referenced throughout the fic Galactic Football League series.

The Captain of the U.S.S. Delaware is named after journalist and podcaster Allison Kilkenny. The plush cat she has on the bridge is named after one of her real-life cats.

The vessel that takes Seven of Nine and family to the Ktarian homeworld, the Lois McKendrick, is named after the freighter that is the primary location of the first three books of the Trader's Tales series of sci-fi novels by Nathan Lowell (Quarter Share, Half Share, and Full Share).

[christplays]

The Last Green Straw

November 18th, 2016.  Approx. 6:30 am:

“I want you to stay back here and bring all this trash to the dumpster.  Then make a list of everything else we just talked about, and don’t go back on the floor today until it’s done.”

Those were the words, spoken to me by my boss, that I considered the last straw.  There was a lot that led up to that breaking point. I pondered it all while running the trash, knowing that my team needed me on the floor, and that by direct orders from my boss I was not to go help them during the busiest part of the day. I saw her drive off.  After throwing the last few boxes in the dumpster, I called her cell, gave my notice, and then went up to work the floor with my team.  This is the story of how I got to this point.

I had started as a store manager in March of that year.  Baton Rouge was not necessarily where I had envisioned ending up.  I had been an assistant store manager in Houma and Lafayette for the 10 months prior.  In February of 2016, I was told that I was ready to be promoted, that there was an opening in Baton Rouge, and that if I didn’t apply for it, it would be “bad for my career.”  I reacted very adversely to having that sprung on me so suddenly.  I knew that the time was coming soon that I would need to move on up, but this really caught me off guard.  My boss and I were having regular discussions about my progress throughout my time as an ASM, and we always discussed allowing me time to really practice running the store I was at in Lafayette before moving on.  This hadn’t happened yet, so when she suddenly told me over the phone one day, “You’re ready to have your own store, there’s an opening in Baton Rouge, you need to apply,” it really felt like it came out of nowhere.  And I didn’t feel ready at all.

I put up a fight at first. I kept saying, “I don’t feel ready. This isn’t what we’ve been discussing for the past few months.  And I really don’t appreciate the thinly-veiled threats to my career.”  I didn’t hold back in making all those feelings known.  But eventually, I gave in.  I didn’t like it, but I made the decision to try to embrace it and make the best of it. I didn’t know where all this was coming from, but my boss in Lafayette was someone who I not only trusted, but also admired and respected.  I felt I owed so much of my career development to her, and realized that she was likely under pressure from her own boss to help fill a position in another district.  I had worked for her for four years by that point, and she always had my back, and always made her best effort to do the right thing for her employees.  To this day and always, I appreciate her for that and I credit her for so much in my professional and personal growth over the years.

Unfortunately, the same would not turn out to be true in Baton  Rouge.  New city, new district, new boss.  And boy were things different!  I won’t get into all the details here, as I want to focus in on precisely the chain of events that pertained to my eventual resignation.  If there’s one starting point for that chain of events, it would have to be the infamous 2016 Summer Labor Crisis.  

If you ask the people at Starbucks corporate headquarters in Seattle, they will tell you that staffing in our stores is performed by the store managers.  Thus, if there are staffing issues, it’s not a company-wide issue caused by any action or communication from Seattle.  Rather, it is isolated issues at individual stores. That is a convenient spin on things for them, but the problem is that it’s just not true.  Staffing at Starbucks stores is largely performed by computer software. There is software that tells you how many people you should have on staff at your individual store.  There is software that projects how much business you are projected to have, each week, each day, and even each 15-minute increment.  There is software that tells you how many people you should have on the payroll during each of those 15-minute increments.  And there is software that tells you, after the fact, based on the business you actually had, whether or not you earned the payroll that you gave.  

The company will refer to all of this software as “tools” to help the store manager make good staffing decisions.  In actuality, the software is essentially one of your bosses.  It tells you what to staff, and you either follow it or face reprimand from your DM.  Meanwhile, the people in Seattle, many of whom have never donned a green apron a day in their lives, are the ones controlling the software!  And if they decide some adjustments need to be made to trim payroll so that the company can hit some of its financial metrics for the quarter, they can and will do so.  So then, out of the blue, your normal staffing levels are showing up on the software as “overstaffing,” and you have to cut staffing or, again, face severe reprimand from your DM.  And the store managers get blamed for causing the situation in the first place because they weren’t “using the tools.”  And at the same time, on the other side of its mouth, the company will deny there’s a problem at all.

Talk about mixed messages. Seriously, in the course of a few weeks last June, I was told by my DM that the reason we were having to cut labor was because we store managers hadn’t been using our staffing tools correctly and had been overstaffing for months and now the company has to understaff for awhile to compensate.  And yet, the same DM also denied on many occasions before and after that there was any labor cuts coming from the company at all.  And at the same time, a Seattle exec. is sending internal communications about “perceived labor cuts,” implying that the hundreds of partners complaining about this on the Partner Hub are just imagining things.  And at the same time, my Regional Director is admitting, “Yes, I do believe that the company changed the labor metrics.”  ?????????????????????????????????????????????

That conversation with the Regional Director was a pivotal point for me.  To her credit, it seems to me that she was more candid than anyone else was being at the time.  She said, I think in sincerity, “I truly believe that Starbucks is a great company and we do a lot of great things for our partners, but sometimes we have to feed the beast.”  And I recall telling her right then and there, “Well, I’m going to have to think long and hard about whether that’s something I can be a part of.”

Turns out, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of time for thinking long and hard about anything.  I was working 70-80 hours per week on average. Most of that on the floor, just helping with coverage.  That was the expectation for store managers at the time.  And I don’t mean just an implied expectation.  I mean explicitly stated.  “If you’re that concerned with staffing at your store, then you should be in there working.”  Not that I ever had an issue with long hours in principle, as an occasional necessity, or even a frequent necessity while I was still getting my feet wet as a manager. Often enough, the long hours were a consequence of my own mistakes and my own lack of efficiency, and I had no problem owning that.  But when the direction comes from above, “Cut hours from your part-time employees, and then you, as a salaried manager, should go in to help with the staffing, since we don’t have to pay you anything beyond your 40 hours,” I have a problem with that.  And honestly, by that point, I had probably officially put myself on my boss’s shitlist because I told her directly that though I would be as lean as I realistically could, I would not understaff my store to the extent that she wanted me to.  “If you’re store is overstaffed this week, it could be career-altering.”  “If that’s the case, then so be it,” I said, “but I’m not going to cut 50 hours from my baristas in one weekend.”  I would find out in a conversation weeks later that she somehow interpreted that as me saying that I wouldn’t even try.  I don’t know how she got that from what I said, but I think that our relationship just wasn’t ever the same after that.  I think that once she saw me as someone willing to be blatantly subordinate, she just saw me differently.  

I was also seeing many things differently by this point.  I was seeing my boss differently, and I was seeing the company differently. For years I had essentially been a poster child for Starbucks.  I loved the people I worked with (and still do).  I loved the company mission and values, their ethical sourcing practices, their culture of passion for coffee.  I kept getting more and more into it as the years went by.  Coffee Master, Barista Champion, Store Manager. I was an ambassador.  People that knew me during that time must’ve had the impression that Starbucks was just the greatest employer in the world, because I talked about it so often and so enthusiastically.  And it was 100% sincere.  And there are some things that I still view the same way I always did. But I also got a view of the dark side. I don’t just mean that I saw that the company had its faults.  I always knew that, of course.  I wasn’t so naïve to think that it was perfect.  But in seeing how quickly and easily the company resorted to taking money out of the pockets of its own employees before they would ever risk disappointing their stockholders, I began to see that my heart could probably never be in it again in the same way that it was before.  I saw them lie about it, cover it up, and I knew that in similar circumstances, it would always play out that way.  “New ways to grow our company,” is the Value above all values, and everything else would be sacrificed before that one.

Fast forward to August and the floods.  I don’t want to talk about this in detail because many people lost their homes and all of their possessions, and I wouldn’t trivialize that by putting my little work problems into that context.  The one thing I need to mention here is that it did cause a sudden and dramatic spike in my store’s business.  The only store in our area that had to close for an extended time was the one closest to us along the Interstate.  So we absorbed many of their customers, and our traffic went up by about 25% overnight. Odd as it may sound, there are some ways in which I actually felt re-energized by this.  It presented some challenges to be sure, especially with inventory, but I honestly had the most amazing team at my store.  They persevered, they worked hard, and they made me proud with how well they adjusted.  Throughout it all, our store continued to maintain the best drive-thru times in our district.  We were also consistently in the top 2 or 3 stores in food sales, in the top tier for customer feedback, and the top store by far for sales comps over previous year.

When it came to my relationship with my boss, things just continued to deteriorate.  I could see the writing on the wall.  On our weekly district conference calls with all the store managers, she seemed more and more reluctant to recognize any of my team’s accomplishments.  If we were trying to focus on a particular metric to improve in as a district, and other stores were doing well, she would recognize the store manager during the call and ask about what they were doing to drive results.  If my store happened to be the one doing well that week, then it just wasn’t on the agenda.  

I got a surprising confidence boost in September, though as high as that peak was, the valley that followed was much deeper.  What happened was, there was a new federal law that was going into effect by the end of the year.  The law was changing the threshold at which salaried employees could legally be exempt for being paid for overtime, and it was going up quite significantly. Previously, a salaried employee had to be paid at least $41,000 annually in order to not be compensated for hours worked beyond 40.  Under the new law, that number was raised to $48,500.  So we were all getting major raises!

I don’t know if it was a company-wide thing or just my boss’s thing, but someone decided it would be best to discuss this government-mandated raise in the same conversation as our performance reviews.  So, when I was notified of this raise in September, it was all discussed in the context of rewards for performance.  I knew about the law, but I still kinda took the bait of linking the raise to my boss’s view of how I was doing as a store manager.  I was really on a high because I started to think, “Wow, maybe things aren’t as bad as I thought.  Maybe she’s seeing the results in my store and changing her tune a little bit.”  I was terribly mistaken and wouldn’t it realize until the following month.

Just a few weeks later, after the confidence-boosting “performance and rewards” conversation, with nothing in the meantime that would have indicated anything different, my boss shows up at my store unannounced.  She asks if we can sit and talk.  She pulls a folder out of her bag, and out of the folder comes a document: one page, type-written, filled with text on one side and a little on the back side.  This is where we have the “real” performance conversation.  She gives me a copy.  “This is documentation for the conversation we’re having today. It’s an outline of some of the things that must improve in the next 30 days.”  

It’s structured in the terms of the company mission and values and success profiles.  “Ken has demonstrated a failure to Help Others Succeed by actions a, b, and c, and in the next 30 days he must do x, y, and z.” “Ken has demonstrated a failure to Live the Mission and Values by actions a, b, and c, and in the next 30 days he must do x, y, and z.”  And the list went on.  Half the stuff on the list was stuff we had never had a single conversation about prior to that day.  And she felt like it was good idea to talk about it all at once.  I was astonished, blindsided, and insulted.  I had lived the mission and values of the company for five years, and she didn’t know the first thing about it.

She also brought up a picture from my Instagram that I had posted of my sister and I going to an LSU game. Bear in mind, I had very little contact with friends or family since moving to Baton Rouge.  Me doing anything social at all was extremely rare during this time.  That week, my store had some inventory constraints from some delayed deliveries, so she felt I should’ve been spending that time driving to New Orleans to borrow product instead of spending time with my sister (even though the delivery problems were state-wide and most stores were experience product shortages).  That really made it personal.  If she felt I hadn’t done everything I could to address our inventory problems, that’s one thing.  We could talk about that.  But why did it matter precisely what I was doing during that evening?  Why did she have to save that picture on her phone and show it to me during our meeting, like some kind of smoking gun?  I wasn’t trying to hide anything.  

Even through that, there was something in me that still wanted to press on.  My old boss in Lafayette would always say to “give it at least a year.” There were two things that kept me going more than anything during that time: I didn’t want to disappoint my old boss, and I didn��t want to disappoint my team.  I made up my mind to try harder, to work more hours, to dig in deeper. And it just seemed like my best efforts weren’t enough.  For just one example, one of the things on the list was that I had 30 days to get our back room 100% to company standard.  I hadn’t the first clue where to start.  But I got a team of our baristas to work on it with me and we made some great strides.  When I told my boss that we had made some strides that I was proud of and it was a big improvement, all she said was, “Is it 100% to standard?”  My learning space had been yanked out from beneath me.  It had to be perfect or she didn’t care.

As we approached the end of the 30 days, with me feeling that for all my efforts, I had very little to show for it. I knew that I couldn’t even get through the 1-year mark. I felt like a failure, and a disappointment to everyone who had invested time in my development over the years. For the first time in my life, I felt isolated and lonely.  I didn’t know anyone in Baton  Rouge, and the extreme work hours prohibited me from doing much of anything to make connections. I felt wedged further and further away from my passion for coffee and for the things that I originally loved about Starbucks.  I felt unvalued by my boss and by the company.  And I just couldn’t stand that.  It wasn’t worth it.  I had just gotten that huge raise, and I was maxing out my bonus every quarter, and I could hardly care less.  In 9 months, my boss never even got that about me.  She was always trying to talk about pay and bonuses, and never understood that I took very little incentive from that.  I would walk away from it in a heartbeat if I was unhappy with what I was doing.

I told her all of this around early November.  I expressed that my preference would be to remain with the company as a barista. She asked if I was going to move back to Lafayette, and I told her I was planning to when my apartment lease was up in March.  She asked if I would be willing to stay in the managerial role until that time, which would allow for plenty of time to find a replacement and have a smooth transition.  I was all for that.  Though one comment that she made was a little curious.  She talked about my staying until March as an opportunity to “get the store in better shape” for the next manager.  So I told her that I was perfectly willing to stay in role during that time, but that I was a little concerned about what her expectations from me were.  What exactly was it that she was expecting me to accomplish in the next 4 months, that I wasn’t able to accomplish in the previous 8?  I don’t even recall what her response to that question was, but we had an agreement.

There wasn’t much time to think about all of that anyway.  Business was still booming as it was since the floods, and the next week we had to do the new set for holiday.  This would be a “dark set,” meaning it all gets done during off hours. The store manager and a team of 4 or 5 baristas start doing the set immediately after close (9 pm for our store) and it’s supposed to take about 4 hours or so.  This was my first time doing such a thing, and admittedly it’s not my forte.  We were there past 2 am and there was still some parts undone, but I couldn’t stay by myself and my team needed to go home.  So we were going to have to find time later in the week to finish.  It seemed like fairly minor stuff to me, stuff that would make very little, if any, impact on our sales or presentation in our store.  

She didn’t feel the same way.  A few days later she visited the store, saw the stuff that hadn’t been completed, and was furious.  I had an opening shift that day, which meant I had been there since 4:30 am.  It was about noon when she came in, and as soon as I saw her, I realized it was going to be a long day.  I got off the floor at 2 and she immediately started barking orders for things we needed to do to complete the set.  She kept asking condescending questions about “What were y’all doing the night of the set?” and “Which part did you find to be the hardest?” as though we must’ve just been there goofing off the whole time.  

She told me she had an interview meeting her there at 4pm. When her interviewee got there, she gave me a few more instructions for things to finish.  I did what she asked, and finished around 4:30pm.  I had been there for 12 hours.  I didn’t want to interrupt her interview and I was kinda ticked at her, so I went home. She called me when her interview was done, but I just wasn’t in the mood to talk at that moment.  I was going to call her later in the evening.  I got home, ate dinner, and fell asleep on my couch in short order.  Woke up around 10 pm, saw that she had called again at some point, and then retired to my bed since I had to be back at work for 6 am.  

 November 18th, 2016:

I get to work a little before 6 am, and as I walk to the backroom, I see it’s completely transformed.  Everything is rearranged and organized immaculately.  I had never seen any Starbucks backroom look that good, certainly not ours.  “Geez. How late was she here that she did all this?”  She popped in around 6:10 and started chewing me out immediately:  “What happened to you yesterday?  I thought we were going to finish the set together?”

 “I’m sorry, I honestly thought we were done.  I had been here for 12 hours, you were in your interview, so I went home.”

“Well do you notice anything different?”  

 “Yeah it looks amazing back here, how late did you stay?”

 “I was here until 9.”  

 “I started at 4:30 am yesterday.  Had I stayed with you, it would’ve been a 17 hour day.  This is what I’m trying to tell you I can’t keep doing all the way through March.

“You want to know how many hours I work?” was her only response. She would later try to tell me that she never would have asked me to stay that late, but I don’t buy it.

 We went outside to see the piles of boxes from all the stuff she had unpacked from our truck the day before. She ran through a list of things she wanted me to do to finish up Project Back Room that she had started. She instructed me:  “I want you to stay back here and bring all this trash to the dumpster.  Then make a list of everything else we just talked about, and don’t go back on the floor today until it’s done.”  That was the last (green) straw.  I told her I felt like she humiliated me in front of my entire team, that I couldn’t keep doing this for another 4 months, and that I would like to resign after I finished training the new shift supervisor I had just hired.  My last day would be December 11th.  

I still wanted to remain with the company for awhile as a barista.  I had no car, so I could continue working at my current store, or I could work at either of the 2 locations that were within a reasonable commute of the public transit.  She insisted that I could only work at the College  Dr. location, which of all the stores in Baton  Rouge, was the farthest away from where I live.  Getting there by bus would require transfers and 90 minutes of commute time each way, if everything was running on time. Commuting by Uber would cost me almost $30 a day.  She wouldn’t budge, saying that the other locations were overstaffed.  So that was it.  December 11th would be my last day not just as a manager but as a Starbucks partner.

I didn’t expect anyone to beg me to stay, but it really was a punch in the gut how non-chalantly it was handled.  No exit interview.  No attempt at retention.  I expressed a strong desire to stay with the company, and they essentially said, “Nah, you can go.”

I spent a lot of time disappointed, angry, bitter, sad.  Questioning whether I made good decisions.  Questioning if the fault belonged squarely on my shoulders. Questioning if I was just an idiot for walking away from a job that paid well and a company I had loved for so long. Scared to even reach out to my old bosses and co-workers in Lafayette.  I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone telling me I was screwing up and to rethink things, because I just felt so far beyond the point of rethinking.  I felt chewed up and spit out.  I didn’t like being spit out, but I didn’t want anyone telling me to go back in to get chewed up again either.

When things don’t go according to plan, sometimes things happen that are better than what you planned. And sometimes you even come up with better plans.  My time at Starbucks was great for its time, and I am grateful for all the good that came from it.  I’m proud of what I accomplished and the legacy that I left.  I was passionate and heartfelt in what I did, and I know that it rubbed off on a few people along the way, and that means a lot to me.  

I hope that the people I love that are still partners continue to Simplify, to follow that True North, and to present coffee in a way that honors the work of the farmers all over the world and that honors the craft of the barista.  For baristas everywhere, Starbucks or otherwise, I will still be a champion.