疫情當(dāng)下，星巴克們還好嗎

For millions of people, visiting Starbucks is a daily ritual. But these are extraordinary times for one of the world’s most popular brands.

對(duì)于數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，去星巴克是每天的例行公事。但對(duì)于這個(gè)世界上最受歡迎的品牌之一來(lái)說(shuō)，此刻是一個(gè)非常時(shí)期。

The last few weeks have been “very challenging times for all of us,” said Rossann Williams, the executive who oversees the company’s 200,000 workers in the United States. “We’re all learning as we go.”

過去幾周，“對(duì)我們所有人來(lái)說(shuō)，都是非常具有挑戰(zhàn)性的時(shí)期，”負(fù)責(zé)管理公司美國(guó)20萬(wàn)名員工的高管羅森·威廉姆斯(Rossann Williams)說(shuō)。“我們邊走邊學(xué)。”

Starbucks has long marketed itself as a social gathering spot — a “third place” between work and home, a symbol of normalcy for millions of people who buy coffee every day. Its bustling cafes are designed to build community and promote interaction between customers and baristas.

一直以來(lái)，星巴克把自己定位為一個(gè)社交聚會(huì)場(chǎng)所——介于工作和家庭之間的“第三個(gè)地方”，是數(shù)百萬(wàn)每天購(gòu)買咖啡者正常生活的象征。它那些熙熙攘攘的咖啡館旨在打造社區(qū)，促進(jìn)顧客和咖啡師之間的互動(dòng)。

In recent days, however, that philosophy has come up against the threat of a rapidly spreading pandemic that has made people anxious about gathering in public places and sent shock waves through the global economy.

然而，最近幾天，迅速蔓延的疫情讓人們對(duì)聚集在公共場(chǎng)所感到焦慮，并給全球經(jīng)濟(jì)帶來(lái)了沖擊，星巴克的這種理念也遇到了沖擊。

Now cafes could start to empty out, as public health authorities urge people to work from home and avoid crowds. For service workers like the baristas at Starbucks, the threat of infection is especially severe.

現(xiàn)在，隨著公共衛(wèi)生部門敦促人們?cè)诩夜ぷ鳎荛_人群，咖啡館可能會(huì)無(wú)人問津。對(duì)于像星巴克咖啡師這樣的服務(wù)人員來(lái)說(shuō)，感染的威脅尤其嚴(yán)重。

To reassure the public, Starbucks has prohibited customers from using their own cups and established an intensive cleaning regimen, requiring employees to wash their hands and disinfect “high touch” surfaces every half-hour. Even stricter protocols may lie ahead if the situation worsens, Ms. Williams said, like mandatory gloves and face masks for employees or the removal of chairs and tables. She said stores in the United States could be temporarily closed in extreme cases.

為了讓公眾放心，星巴克禁止顧客使用自己的杯子，并制定了嚴(yán)格的清潔制度，要求員工每半小時(shí)洗手并對(duì)“高接觸”表面消毒。威廉姆斯說(shuō)，如果情況進(jìn)一步惡化，未來(lái)可能還會(huì)出臺(tái)更嚴(yán)格的規(guī)定，比如強(qiáng)制員工戴手套和口罩，或移除桌椅。她說(shuō)，在極端情況下，美國(guó)的店面可能會(huì)暫時(shí)關(guān)閉。

The outbreak is already hurting Starbucks’ bottom line. Starbucks’ stock price has fallen more than 25 percent over the last month.

疫情已經(jīng)損害了星巴克的利潤(rùn)。在過去一個(gè)月里，星巴克的股價(jià)下跌了超過25%。

The virus’s toll on the company’s workers could also be significant.

該病毒對(duì)該公司員工造成的損失可能也是巨大的。

“They’re the ones who are more likely to be exposed, because they’re out in the public, and also more likely to pass it on again,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

“他們是更有可能暴露在病毒之下的人，因?yàn)樗麄兠鎸?duì)公眾，而且也更有可能把病毒再次傳播出去，”經(jīng)濟(jì)政策研究所(Economic Policy Institute)高級(jí)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家伊莉斯·古爾德(Elise Gould)表示。

Across the industry, they are also less likely to have health insurance or paid sick leave. “It exposes the economic inequality that already exists,” Ms. Gould said.

整個(gè)行業(yè)也不太可能有醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)或帶薪病假。“它暴露了已有的經(jīng)濟(jì)不平等，”古爾德說(shuō)。

On March 5, Starbucks temporarily closed a store near the Seattle Art Museum after an employee tested positive for the virus. The news reached senior leaders at 9 p.m. By 9 a.m. the next morning, the store had been thoroughly sanitized, and it reopened on Monday. All the employees who had worked closely with the person who tested positive were told to stay home for two weeks, with pay.

3月5日，在一名員工的檢測(cè)結(jié)果呈陽(yáng)性后，星巴克暫時(shí)關(guān)閉了西雅圖美術(shù)館附近的一家店面。消息在晚上9點(diǎn)傳到了高層領(lǐng)導(dǎo)那里。到第二天早上9點(diǎn)，這家店已經(jīng)徹底消毒，并于周一重新開張。所有與那名檢測(cè)結(jié)果呈陽(yáng)性者有密切接觸的員工都被告知在家休兩周帶薪假。

In its marketing, Starbuck has long highlighted its efforts to promote the well-being of employees, whom the company calls “partners,” such as offering health insurance to part-time workers.

在市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷中，星巴克長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)一直強(qiáng)調(diào)其致力于促進(jìn)員工的福利，例如向兼職員工提供健康保險(xiǎn)。該公司將員工稱為“合作伙伴”。

Even while its stores were closed, Starbucks continued to pay the majority of its salaried workers, a group that includes many baristas, according to a recent securities filing.

根據(jù)最近的一份證券備案文件，即使星巴克的商店關(guān)門，星巴克仍繼續(xù)向包括許多咖啡師在內(nèi)的大部分付薪員工支付工資。

And on Wednesday, Starbucks told its workers in the United States that it would provide up to two weeks of paid leave to any employee who was infected with the virus or had extended contact with a co-worker or household member who tested positive. (Under its previously established policy, Starbucks allowed employees to accrue an hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked: A barista working 23 hours a week would accumulate about five sick days over a year.)

周三，星巴克對(duì)美國(guó)員工表示，它將為感染病毒或與檢測(cè)結(jié)果呈陽(yáng)性的同事或家屬密切接觸的員工提供長(zhǎng)達(dá)兩周的帶薪休假。(根據(jù)先前制定的政策，星巴克允許員工每工作30個(gè)小時(shí)就可以累積一小時(shí)的病假時(shí)間：每周工作23個(gè)小時(shí)的咖啡師一年可以休5天左右的病假。)

Still, in interviews, Starbucks employees expressed concern that the enhanced safety measures were at odds with on-the-ground realities. While few questioned the wisdom of the new protocols, some said the policies were putting more pressure on staff who already felt overworked.

盡管如此，在采訪中，星巴克員工仍對(duì)加強(qiáng)后的安全措施不適于實(shí)際情況表示擔(dān)憂。盡管很少有人質(zhì)疑新協(xié)議的合理性，但一些人表示，該政策正給已經(jīng)超負(fù)荷工作的員工帶來(lái)更大壓力。

A Seattle-area employee who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the company said it was unrealistic for employees to perform the full cleaning process every 30 minutes when cafes were busy. An Atlanta-area worker who also declined to be named said the cleaning duties had pulled workers away from the counter, creating longer lines and larger crowds that may have inadvertently increased the risk of contagion even as the company tried to defuse it.

一位要求匿名的西雅圖地區(qū)員工說(shuō)，在咖啡館繁忙時(shí)，員工每30分鐘執(zhí)行一次完整的消毒過程是不現(xiàn)實(shí)的。一位不愿透露姓名的亞特蘭大地區(qū)員工說(shuō)，清潔工作使員工暫停服務(wù)，造成了更多的顧客排更長(zhǎng)的隊(duì)，即使公司試圖消殺病毒，也可能無(wú)意中增加了傳染的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

Underlying the strain at Starbucks is the company’s so-called lean staffing model, a common feature of retail and fast-food outlets in which managers seek to minimize the number of workers assigned to each store, often with the help of software that predicts customer traffic. The goal is typically to have just enough workers to cover demand, and no more, leaving little margin for error.

該公司所謂的精益人員配置模式是造成星巴克壓力的根本原因，該模式常見于零售和快餐店，管理人員通常借助可預(yù)測(cè)客戶流量的軟件，設(shè)法最大程度地減少分配給每家店鋪的員工數(shù)量。其目標(biāo)通常是計(jì)算出剛好能滿足需求的員工數(shù)量，從而不再多雇人，誤差幅度很小。

Like many other companies, Starbucks gives managers strict “labor budgets,” and over the years some have said they were disciplined for exceeding them.

與許多公司一樣，星巴克為經(jīng)理們提供了嚴(yán)格的“勞動(dòng)力預(yù)算”，多年來(lái)，總有人說(shuō)他們因超出預(yù)算而受到處分。

“The lean model can be quite unforgiving,” said Saravanan Kesavan, a retail expert at the University of North Carolina. “Store managers are going to have a lot more difficulty managing absenteeism in stores that employ lean staffing compared to other stores that do not.”

“精益模式可能會(huì)過于嚴(yán)格，”北卡羅萊納大學(xué)的零售專家薩拉瓦南·科薩萬(wàn)(Saravanan Kesavan)表示：“相比其他門店，那些采用精益人員配置的門店經(jīng)理在缺勤管理上面臨更多困難。”

The fast-food and retail industries have long known that they are vulnerable to epidemics. But they have sometimes played down the threat.

長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，快餐和零售行業(yè)深知它們易受流行病影響。但是他們有時(shí)也會(huì)淡化威脅。

Not long after the SARS outbreak in 2003, the possibility of a pandemic was the first threat to its business that Starbucks listed in the “risk factors” section of its 2005 annual report. In its most recent annual filing, however, the company placed pandemic risk far lower on the list, after weakening economic conditions, changing consumer tastes, rising real estate costs, and natural or man-made disasters.

在2003年SARS暴發(fā)后不久，星巴克在其2005年度報(bào)告的“風(fēng)險(xiǎn)因素”部分，排在首位的威脅是發(fā)生大流行病的可能。然而，該公司在其最新的年度報(bào)告中，將大流行風(fēng)險(xiǎn)放在了靠后的位置，排在經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況疲軟、消費(fèi)者口味改變、房地產(chǎn)成本上漲以及自然或人為災(zāi)難之后。

Across the service industry, many employees face pressure to work even when they are sick. More than half of people who work at hotels and in food service do not receive paid sick leave, according to the Department of Labor. That is also true of about one-third of workers in the retail industry.

在整個(gè)服務(wù)行業(yè)，許多員工即使生病也面臨工作壓力。勞工部稱，超過一半的在旅館和餐飲服務(wù)業(yè)的員工沒有帶薪病假。零售業(yè)中，約三分之一的員工也是如此。

Two McDonald’s workers said in interviews that they almost always worked when sick for fear of missing a paycheck. “We have no choice,” said Fran Marion, a McDonald’s worker in Kansas City, Mo. “If I’m sick, call off, that means I have to miss half my rent, putting food on the table for my kids.”

麥當(dāng)勞的兩名員工在接受采訪時(shí)說(shuō)，他們生病時(shí)也幾乎總是工作，因?yàn)閾?dān)心沒有工資。“我們別無(wú)選擇，”位于密蘇里州堪薩斯城的麥當(dāng)勞員工弗蘭·馬里昂(Fran Marion)說(shuō)，“如果我生了病，請(qǐng)了假，這意味著我不得不失去一半的房租錢，無(wú)法將食物擺上孩子的餐桌。”