For Five Coffee Roasters swoops in to fill on-campus vacancy left by controversial Katora Coffee shop

by ENYA CEA-LAVIN

Staff Writer

As the Fall 2024 semester begins and a new on-campus coffee shop opens, previous Katora staff currently employed at the new cafe start to see positive improvements as they navigate some of the negative aspects of For Five Coffee Roaster’s first few weeks. 

As previously reported in The Weekly Ringer, Katora Coffee began a downward spiral starting last spring when employees stopped receiving paychecks on-time and it was revealed that the company was in the depths of financial woes. According to several employees, during this period, excessive pressure was placed on members of staff and unfair expectations created a lack of trust amongst employees and a decrease in communication from management.

Now with the opening of For Five, payment is contracted under Sodexo—UMW’s dining company—which has helped create consistency and security in pay.

Previous Katora employee and current For Five employee, sophomore psychology and communication and digital studies double major Beaumont Sherman, expressed that the pay he is receiving feels sufficient at the new coffee shop. Katora’s standard hourly pay was $12, For Five starts at an hourly rate of $15.60. 

“I feel like I’m actually being paid fairly now for the amount of work that I’m doing,” Sherman said. 

Inconsistencies surrounding payment were the primary issue with Katora, according to several employees and personal experience. The unreliability surrounding pay caused unnecessary stress. 

During my time at Katora, I observed firsthand the negative impact this stress had on the work environment. An additional point of strife was perceived—and occasionally blatant—favoritism. Some of my coworkers were paid more and promoted quicker, despite their lack of experience compared to other employees. 

Sydney Tadlock, a junior music major and previous Katora shift lead, spoke about the difference in pay.

“People were hired at different starting rates, which led to some conflict because it objectively wasn’t fair,” she said.

It was a difficult situation for all employees, as everyone felt that they were being paid too little for their efforts. As a shift lead, Tadlock felt immense pressure from upper management despite inadequate compensation. Because of this, she was grateful Katora would not be returning to the UMW campus. 

“I was uncomfortable with the amount of dependence the owners had on me and one other specific coworker, so I was honestly relieved when I was told Katora was not returning to UMW,” Tadlock said.

In my experience as a Katora employee, I saw the unfair treatment of my coworkers and the dependency placed on us. I ultimately resigned from Katora due to the lack of pay and poor treatment by upper management towards myself and my coworkers. 

Oliver Kemp, a sophomore studio art and cybersecurity double major, was hired as a Katora employee close to the coffee shop’s closure in April. He currently works at For Five but says that his previous employer did not properly train or prepare staff. 

“It was a good experience to learn how to make coffee, but, like, I wasn’t really even making coffee, just pressing buttons,” he said. 

He felt like there was not much being done to support him, and that his training was more of a self-taught experience. 

“I was not trained. I ‘yoloed’ the coffee, I ‘yoloed’ the food.”

Now that For Five has opened, not only do customers seem happy, but the employees have seen a great change. Several For Five student staff members have expressed their appreciation for their supervisors.

 “My supervisors Ty, Eric and Zeriah are all good leaders and are very sweet and enjoyable to work with,” said Tadlock.

The demeanor of our supervisor staff has been more positive and understanding. We all are collectively learning how to run For Five together and it adds a stronger connection between student, non-student and supervisor employees. 

In addition to improvements in the general work environment and employee-manager relations, the quality of the products has also greatly improved.  

“The coffee is genuinely way better, and I am being paid a standard barista wage instead of minimum wage,” said Tadlock. 

As For Five continues to work out the kinks that accompany many new businesses, some students have complained about the high prices and lack of consistent menu offerings. 

“The food that we can make is really, really good, but it’s really expensive, and a lot of the time we don’t even have all of the ingredients to make most of the things on the menu, which is just ridiculous at this point,” said Sherman.

Overall For Five seems to be a better environment for student employees. We get our pay and customers are happy with their food. Where Katora lacked in their ethics, For Five made up for it.