Starbucks CEO says he'll work a shift at the company's cafes once a month

Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan told employees Thursday that he'll enactment a fractional time each period astatine 1 of the java giant's locations.

Narasimhan took the helm connected Monday and volition pb the company's shareholder gathering Thursday. He joined Starbucks successful October, spending months learning the business. That included 40 hours of barista grooming and donning the baristas' iconic greenish apron.

But he's not hanging up the apron conscionable yet.

"To support america adjacent to the civilization and our customers, arsenic good arsenic to our challenges and opportunities, I mean to proceed moving successful stores for a fractional time each month, and I expect each subordinate of the enactment squad to besides guarantee our enactment centers enactment connected and engaged successful the realities of our stores for treatment and improvement," helium wrote successful a missive to employees Thursday morning.

His pledge comes astatine a rocky clip for the company's narration with its baristas. As of Friday, much than 190 company-owned Starbucks locations person voted to unionize, according to National Labor Relations Board data. Workers person cited unsafe moving conditions, understaffing and unreliable scheduling arsenic immoderate of the reasons wherefore they're successful favour of a union.

Before joining Starbucks, Narasimhan was main enforcement of Reckitt, which owns brands similar Lysol and Durex. Previously, helium worked astatine PepsiCo and McKinsey.