Tastetea | Management Handbook
First off, welcome to the Tastetea Management Team! We are so happy to have you as a part of our team. This handbook has been created by the Human Resources Department to inform you with important information that you will need to know as a management member. We strongly advise you to read through every section, as they will be useful during your time as a management member!
Code of Conduct
As a management member, you are expected to be a role model to the lower ranks. This means following our management code of conduct at all times. Refusing to do so may result in consequences.
Respect
As a part of the Management Team, you must be showing respect, honesty, and integrity towards our members. Respect will always be required and mandatory within this industry and disrespect (toxic behavior, drama, or any rude intuition) will never be tolerated.
Professionalism
As a Management member at Tastetea, we will be expecting you to remain professional. We want you all to be role models and the faces for Tastetea. Being professional includes advanced vocabulary, grammar, leadership skills, respect, activity, being reliable to us, and amazing work ethic.
Leaking
Disclosing confidential/classified information from Management channels or direct messages about Tastetea will result in an instant termination. If you do fail to listen to this rule, not only will you be terminated, but you will show lack of respect and privacy, you’ll be showing your “true colors" and we will question you.
→ Leaking: The act of showing confidential information to someone who is not allowed to view it.
Grammar
Grammar must be used at all times except either in PMs (optional) or once the training sessions are concluded and that there are no baristas in-game (completely optional if you don’t/do want to utilize grammar after all the baristas leave). However, apart from the training sessions, you should be using grammar at all times.
Drama
In no way, shape or form should you be causing drama with someone. You should be respecting people, even if you don’t like their opinion on certain things or situations. If you fail to listen to this rule, you will receive severe consequences. We will be strict with this topic, as we have had issues before with this rule.
Statuses
As a management member, you should not be having anything disrespectful or inappropriate in your statuses. This can include the excessive use of curse words, leaking management messages, and more. If we see you with a status that violates these guidelines, you will receive a warning.
Accounts
As a management member, you are not allowed to share your account with anyone, whether it’s a friend or a relative. There is confidential information within your ROBLOX and Discord account, and if that is shared, it is considered leaking, which is one of our management rules.
While employed at Tastetea, you are allowed to change your username, although you must notify a member of the Human Resources Department. Failure to do so, will result in confusion, and possibly consequences. Consequences will be enforced if the situation seems fair enough to do so.
Discord Nicknames
Tastetea’s Management Team is supposed to be setting a good example for the baristas employed at Tastetea, as well as demonstrating professionalism to others. Something as simple as an inappropriate username can put your position in Tastetea at risk, as you would be putting out a bad image of yourself, and potentially Tastetea as well.
Additionally, your nickname should remain simple and easily readable. Using fonts or adding characters in front of your nickname will make it difficult for others to find you and read your nickname. Refusing to change your nickname when requested to will result in consequences.
→ Example of what your nickname should look like: astralanthems ❀ lauren
→ Example of what your nickname should not look like: 𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔞𝔩𝔞𝔫𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔪𝔰 - 𝔩𝔞𝔲𝔯𝔢𝔫
Trolling & Misconduct
Any kind of misconduct from anyone is to be handled professionally and in a calm manner. If a management member seems to be trolling, spamming, exploiting, bypassing, threatening you, being inappropriate, doing raids for different groups or our group, being disrespectful, causing drama, being racist, leaking, advertising in your DMs or advertises Tastetea in different groups other than our GRP sessions, admin abusing, etc., it is to be reported to a corporate as soon as possible. Misconduct is not tolerated, and appropriate consequences will be enforced in the event of this scenario.
As a Management member of Tastetea, you are representing the group. Showing misconduct or trolling at any other facility outside of Tastetea reflects back on us, affects and gives us a bad reputation. If you are caught trolling or showing misconduct at any other group, you will receive major consequences.
Administrative Commands
As a Management member, you are expected to know how to be responsible with administrative commands and be aware of which commands to use. Abusing any admin command will result in severe consequences. Please refer to our Administrative Usage section to be informed of our whitelisted commands.
→ Admin Abuse: The act of using administrative powers in a negative way that has a bad effect on a player or game.
Please note that we are strict when not using enough of someone’s username when kicking, banning, teleporting, etc. This includes using ‘all’ in a command because someone’s username had that term. This is considered admin abuse and will result in a suspension.
Management Reports
If you wish to report a management member, be sure to report them to the correct department. Your first port of call would be a corporate from Human Resources. If you are going to report someone, please make sure you do so immediately. Reporting a staff member to us about something that happened months ago is deemed as an invalid report. If a report is found as invalid, we will investigate the staff member who originally reported and potentially take action against them.
Common Sense
There may not be other rules listed in the Code of Conduct at the moment. However, finding loopholes or breaking rules that may be deemed a regulation in the future will result in consequences. It is expected of you to decide what is right and wrong.
Sessions & Shifts
Joining the Training Center
As a member of the Management Team, it’s best to join the Training Center exactly 30 minutes before the session commences. This shows that you can be on-time, prepared, and eager to work. Joining later than 30 minutes ahead is alright, although, it is very much appreciated if you do join exactly 30 minutes ahead.
Assignment of Roles
When the host assigns roles, it is first come, first serve. Whoever can access the corresponding line gets the role. For example, if 2 MRs wanted the role of “Mentor” at a Training, whoever reaches the Mentor line first would obtain the “Mentor” role first.
The host will group you with your corresponding role. Please do not group yourself, as that could result in complications. The host has a right to ask if you can also obtain a secondary role in the session, if we seem to be low on staff members at a session.
Going AFK
In order to go AFK, you must notify your session’s host before doing so. To notify your host, you can utilize your PM command to do so. If your session host has agreed to allow you to be AFK, please hurry.
Going AFK should not be a routine thing, and should only be done if necessary. If you feel that you cannot be present throughout the whole session, please do not attend the session, as this shows that you cannot be attentive.
Logging Sessions
To log a scheduled Training, use the format in pinned messages in the session attendance channel to log attendees. This goes for GRP and unscheduled sessions as well.
To log a private Training, you would head over to Trello, access the Session Hub, and navigate over to the Private Sessions. Fill out a card using the template provided. Make sure to use the correct labels and log your attendees with the template provided.
Session Cheating
Session cheating is prohibited at Tastetea. If you are caught doing so, you will be warned or demoted depending on how often it is happening.
→ Session Cheating: The act of attending sessions and going AFK/idle without notifying the host to gain activity points.
As you know, we have logs of all training session attendees and we can pull them up to examine suspicious activity. Our corporates are attending sessions daily to ensure no one is session cheating.
Weekly Requirements & Activity Logs
Management Requirements
All members of the Management Team are expected to fulfill weekly requirements. Those weekly requirements include:
→ Attending at least 3 sessions per week (This includes training sessions or GRP sessions).
→ Spending at least 60 minutes at the cafe (You can do this while attending a shift, or just coming to the cafe when you can).
Saturday Activity Logs
Saturday is the day where the Human Resources Department starts counting all of the sessions hosted and attended to during that week, as well as how many minutes each management member spent at the cafe over the week. Sessions or shifts hosted and attended to after 9 PM EST will not be counted for the week.
Once a member from the Human Resources Department announces that the boards are clear, all sessions from then on will be counted for the next week. This means if an HRD member announces that the boards are cleared at 8 PM EST and you host a session at 9 PM EST, that 9 PM EST session will count for next week, not the current week.
Cheating the System
Attempting to “cheat” the activity system is strictly prohibited and will result in a warning if you are caught doing so.
→ Activity Cheating: The act of trying to find a way to get points for sessions or minutes without actually doing anything.
Examples of activity cheating are going AFK without notifying the Host at training sessions, standing in one place for a long time at the cafe to get minutes, going AFK without a forcefield at the cafe, etc.
Hinting
An issue that we seem to find at times is hinting. This can include hinting for a promotion, either in our communications server, or hinting for a promotion in Tastetea facilities.
→ Hinting: The act of commenting or complaining about not getting a promotion or letting it be known that you want a promotion.
Hinting is never tolerated here at Tastetea. Hinting will result in consequences, such as a warning, or can be as consequential as having yourself terminated from your position at Tastetea.
Inactivity Notices
Expectations
If you do decide to go on an Inactivity Notice, you must have your request approved in the Inactivity Notice channel. Your Inactivity Notice must be longer than 5 days, to avoid confusion. While on your Inactivity Notice, we expect that you are not playing any games on your ROBLOX account.
Playing games on your account while on your Inactivity Notice shows that you are, in fact, capable of fulfilling your requirements for the week. This can result in consequences, such as a warning, or can be as consequential as having yourself terminated from your position at Tastetea.
Invalid Reasons
→ School: We understand that school can get overwhelming and get in the way of your time at Tastetea. However, as a management member who applied knowing you needed to have time for this group, it is your job to manage and organize your school schedule so that you meet and/or exceed requirements each week at Tastetea. If you need time off for exams or catch up on assignments, we will accept that as a valid reason. However, saying that you generally have school will result in an invalid inactivity notice.
→ Mental Health or a Break: We’re all human beings. We take mental health very seriously at Tastetea. However, just saying “I need to focus on my mental health” or “I need a break” or anything along those lines will result in an immediate decline. You will need to be more specific on your mental health issue or why you need a break, whether that’s in #inactivity-notice or in a corporate’s DMs, in order for your notice to be considered.
→ Focusing on Other Groups: We know that many of our staff members work at other groups where they also have to fulfill activity requirements. However, you should also be able to balance your time with the groups you work at and Tastetea, and you applied knowing you need to dedicate yourself to this group. With that being said, if you say “I need to focus on other groups” for your inactivity notice reason, it will be automatically declined, unless said otherwise by a corporate.
Resignations
Our Policy
When you are thinking of resigning at Tastetea either because of school, mental health, motivation, etc., you would need to contact someone from the Human Resources Department your resignation letter or a quick message explaining why and if you have anything else to say to our staff. Once you have your last words, you will be demoted to Customer, Noted Customer, or Senior Barista and will be given the Former Management role.
Resignation Letters
When making a resignation letter, please send it to the Human Resources Department to quickly review it before sending it to the Management members. You should never include “past drama” or negative things about Tastetea, nor the staff members in your letter. If you do, we won’t allow you to send your resignation letter.
Returning to Management
Upon resigning, you will have 24 hours to decide whether to stay as a former management member or return as your original rank. Once that time is up, the opportunity passes. Resigning twice within the same week upon returning will result in a staff blacklist.
We are more than happy to have you back as a Management member, although, there are stipulations. When returning to the Management team, be sure not to bring up any past issues or drama to our community, as this can result in your removal from the team, and a staff blacklist. Please note that resigning twice may result in a staff blacklist.
Mass Resignations
Mass resignations are strictly prohibited at Tastetea. If a mass resignation occurs, those involved will be staff blacklisted.
→ Mass Resignation: The act of resigning with more than three staff members at once.
Rank Information
Management Intern (40)
The Management Intern is the lowest Management Rank. They are the most recent addition to the Management Team and are still learning the ropes of being a Middle Rank. They are expected to supervise the café and spectate/assist at training sessions.
Staff Assistant (35)
A Staff Assistant contributes to supervising and moderating the café daily and can train/assist in training sessions. They have proven that they have gained experience from being a Management Intern.
Supervising Team (25)
The Supervising Team rank continues to contribute to supervising and monitoring the café, as well as training and assisting in training sessions. They are officially qualified for hosting in training sessions as an Assistant Manager.
Assistant Manager (20)
The Assistant Manager rank continues to supervise and moderate the café, and they now have the power to promote and demote baristas at training sessions. They are now granted the opportunity to host at training sessions.
General Manager (10)
A General Manager continues to carry out the responsibilities and standards listed in the aforementioned ranks as well as playing a role-model standard for Management members. They are now qualified to potentially become a part of the Corporate Team.
Administrative Usage
Whitelisted commands are commands that you ARE allowed to use during training sessions and while supervising the cafe. Usage of any other command may result in a termination.
- view [ex. view melissuhs]
- unview [ex. unview melissuhs]
- refresh/ref [ex. refresh melissuhs]
- info [ex. info melissuhs]
- chatlogs [ex. chatlogs]
- logs [ex. logs]
- shutdown [ex. shutdown] (Requires permission from a corporate at the cafe)
- sit (Photos only) [ex. sit me]
- pm [ex. pm melissuhs Hello!]
- !add [ex. !add melissuhs 1] (Trainings only)
- !subtract [ex. !subtract melissuhs 1] (Trainings only)
- !group [ex. !group melissuhs Host] (Trainings only)
- m/sm [ex. m We are going to play a game! | sm Welcome to Tastetea Trainings!] (Requires permission from a corporate at the cafe)
- bring [ex. bring melissuhs]
- to [ex. to melissuhs]
- tp [ex. tp melissuhs ilovedoritosss]
- pbans [ex. pbans]
- ff (AFK only) [ex. ff me]
- removetools [ex. removetools me]
- play [ex. play 238472381] (Requires permission from the Host at trainings and permission from a corporate at the cafe)
- slock/unslock [ex. slock | unslock ] (Trainings only)
Admin Abuse
Admin abusing is when you use your admin commands in ways that aren’t allowed. This can include equipping things that aren’t yours to get, disrupting with admin commands, and using blacklisted admin commands. Admin abuse is NOT tolerated and will result in an automatic termination and player ban from the group.
Accidental Abuse
Accidental abuse is also NOT tolerated, but is handled differently. If proven to be accidental, you will still receive consequences, but they will be determined by the severity of the situation.
Supervision
Behavior
While supervising at the cafe, you must remain professional, and calm at all times. Acting immature and carelessly during tough situations can put out an unwanted image for Tastetea. While at the cafe, try your best to remain poised, and friendly.
Cheating
When supervising at the cafe, be sure to be attentive. Becoming AFK for long periods of time at the cafe can be considered cheating, as your minutes are still counted at the cafe, whether you are AFK or not. If you absolutely need to go AFK, please do not take longer than 3 minutes. Leave the game and come back on, if you need to take longer than 3 minutes.
Dealing with Trolling
You can deal with a troller with the remind-kick-ban system. You would tell them to stop, and if they are persisting, utilize the kick command, by typing “kick (user)”. If they decide to return and continue, server-ban them. You can do so by typing “ban (user)”. Make sure you are providing a reason to the ban/kick, otherwise you may receive consequences from Human Resources.
Dealing with Exploiting
Exploiters receive no warnings. You are to get screenshots or videos as proof and contact an Executive Assistant or higher to permanently ban them.
Dealing with Bypassing
Bypassers get permanently banned immediately. You may contact an Executive Assistant or higher to pban them or you may get perms from an EA+ to pban them yourself (ST+). Make sure you are providing a reason to the ban, otherwise you may receive consequences from Human Resources.
Dealing with Staff Trollers
If you encounter a barista trolling or showing misconduct, you are expected to remind them 3 times to stop. If they continue afterwards, you should contact an Assistant Manager or higher to demote them. If you are the demoter, remember to log the demotion in #lr-promotion-demotion. After you have demoted them, you should refresh them, inform them of their demotion, and kick them from the server.
If they are at a training session, you should follow the same protocol. You should not be kicking baristas from the session unless they have been demoted or failed the training session.
Dealing with Spamming
Dealing with spammers could go two ways. Minor spamming can be addressed with the warn-kick-ban system, like you would with trollers.
Major spamming, on the other hand, becomes an automatic ban. You are to ban them if they seem to be majorly spamming. Make sure you are providing a reason to the ban, otherwise you may receive consequences from Human Resources. Be sure that this is a major spam, and not a minor spam, as those two can be confused.
Dealing with Raids
With raids, you are to immediately ban all of the participants in the raid, right away. Don’t hesitate to call a corporate in #management-discussion to help you with the raid, as raids can become a handful. You may also ping @[-] Emergency Response.
Dealing with Racist, Disrespectful, or Homophobic Behavior
If someone appears to be acting racist or homophobic, you should immediately pban them from the server just like you’d deal with a bypasser. Make sure you are either getting an EA+ to pban or an ST+ with permissions.
Dealing with Inappropriate Apparel
When coming across someone wearing inappropriate apparel, you would warn them like you would with a troller, but instead of asking them to stop, you would ask them to change into appropriate attire. Give them 2 minutes to do so. If they do not seem to be cooperating with you, you may proceed to ban them from the server.
Closing the Server
When concluding a Training session, you would dismiss everyone who came, and shutdown the server. In order to do so, you would notify your session attendees that they are all dismissed, and run the “shutdown” command.
If you need to shutdown the cafe in a rare event, such as an exploiter destroying the map or a major bug occurring, you may get permissions to shutdown as an Assistant Manager+ from an Executive Assistant+.
Consequences
Reminders
MRs are DMed any sort of letters. These letters can include consequential letters, or promotional letters. Receiving a reminder should be taken as a gentle signal on what you can do to improve. Reminders are sent to MRs for reasons such as: constant grammar mistakes at Tastetea facilities, minore, but frequent mistakes with Trainings, and minor dilemmas. It depends on the severity of the situation.
Warnings
Receiving a warning means that you have done something that has seemed to alarm the Human Resources Department. When receiving a warning letter, there will be reasons attached as to what has alarmed the Human Resources Department. A warning letter may be sent out for reasons such as not meeting your minimum activity requirements and minor misbehavior in Tastetea facilities. Warnings should be taken more seriously than reminders, as they are more consequential.
Suspensions
Receiving a suspension means that you have done something that has questioned your position and your responsibilities to our Human Resources Department. When you’re on a suspension, you are given a certain amount of days where your rank is removed and you are demoted to ‘Customer’ depending on what the situation is. Once your suspension is over, you will be reranked.
Demotions & Terminations
When being demoted, you are brought from your current rank to a rank below your current rank. It could be as minor as General Manager to Assistant Manager, or General Manager to Senior Barista. Reasons for a demotion can include becoming inactive for weeks on end, or misbehavior at Tastetea facilities, and many other reasons.
When being terminated, this means that you are fired from your position all together, and will be ranked as Customer. Reasons for a termination can include drama and major disrespect/misconduct. Being terminated from Tastetea is more consequential than being demoted.
Staff Blacklists
Reasons why you may be staff blacklisted can include resigning from your position at Tastetea as a Management Intern, causing toxicity/drama in the community, and many other severe scenarios. When you are staff blacklisted, it means that you will not be able to obtain an MR+ position in Tastetea.
Any other inquiries or questions you may have should be directed to a Executive Assistant of Human Resources or above. If you happen to identify any flaws within this handbook, please contact the Head Corporate of Human Resources or higher.
Published by the Tastetea Human Resources Department
October 19, 2020