Saturday, March 20, 2010

So, new job

Well, my new job is still in food, but working with subs rather than burgers. Honestly, it's not that hard to really pick up on, save for a few minor things like settings for cooking things like bread and such, but nothing so intellectually challenging. I'm already annoyed that people seem to think I should be dumber.. it's like I understand it from the new morons I'd deal with training at mcd's, but at the same time, it feels just a bit insulting.

There are some things I'm worried about, such as people complaining that they seem to promote from outside rather than inside the company, how some people are slow/lazy, how we're scheduled to work until 11 if we're a closer but since that's only when we actually close the store, we still stay later than scheduled doing actual closing duties... has me a bit worried, so I'm still looking at classified ads just in case.

I did already have one customer that I just wasn't sure what to think. He comes up and insists that he's going to teach me how to make a sandwich, because he likes his stuff put on the sandwich in a certain way. I make it how he wants it made and then he made some comment about women in the kitchen cooking.

Me: Actually, I don't really cook, my husband cooks.
Him: What? That's silly.
Me: We made a deal that he does all the cooking, and I do all the cleaning. Besides, cooking was a traditionally male occupation, as you see in chefs.
Him: So, does he wear the panties of the pair of you, or do you wear them?
Me: (wtf?????) Er... sometimes we switch.

He left it at that. I mean, wtf? That's just weird and insulting.. and I didn't really feel I could say much because he is apparently a regular, and being old has probably cemented certain views in his head. It was still just weird.

I suppose the job isn't that bad. The people in the connecting grocery/gas store come over to help when needed, it isn't nearly as hectic, usually is something to do, and I actually get paid more and get a few more hours. So it'll probably do me pretty well for now.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Yay, surveys!

I'm so glad that I'm quitting. It's gotten to be the time of the year for surveys at mcd's. What does that mean?

It means that people are being pressured into giving a certain answer so that the store looks better! I remember my first survey.. we had one of the assistant managers (salaried) standing over us telling us that we had to answer a certain way for certain questions so as to make the store look more positive. I'm sorry, but if the point is to find out what I actually think, and I'm being pressured to answer in a certain way, then what's the point? Since I'm quitting, I don't have to deal with taking those, but the other people.. well, they get pulled off of the floor in order to do those so that they're all done within a week's time.

People are getting weird around me at work. The store manager in particular has gotten huggy and lovey towards me. I honestly don't know how to react about it, but I know that today is my last day and then no more of this. However, this is the same store manager who actually did put up a sign asking people to sign up if they think they can hack being a manager, because apparently they're looking to promote 3 of them, what with one of them stepping down and them just needing 2 more besides that for the summer. Where the hell was this a year ago when I was wanting to be promoted then? I still get mad at the idea that the store manager thought I might not want to be promoted, what with my baby and all.. that's the very reason WHY I'd want to be promoted!

But if I was to be promoted, I'd have to deal with people like the dumb deaf guy with the shitty hearing aid. He came through drive thru the other day. I try to take his order at first, but he was having such a hard time hearing me that I told him to pull around to my window. He told me he wanted "an angus meal with a coffee instead of a drink" which I tell him we can do. So he pulls around and here's the conversation:

Him: I want a number 13.
Me: You want a fish meal instead of the...
Him: NO! I want an angus meal!
Me: Which one sir? We have three, the deluxe, the bacon and cheese, and the mushroom and swiss.
Him: What difference does it make? Just give me an angus burger, the one with all the stuff on it!
Me: Ok, do you want that meal medium sized or large?
Him: What do you mean by that?
Me: Do you want the french fry medium or large?
Him: *getting flustered* Just give me the large!
Me: Ok, and that's with a coffee..
Him: Yes, with 3 creams!
Me: In the coffee or on the side?
Him: In the coffee, dammit! How much is my total?
I tell him the total, he pays, and then I deal with the huge line that resulted from this guy hogging the window. I find out later that the guy complained about me, *again*, this time for caring more about the money than the customer. Well, that's true, but at the same time, he's pissy because I care enough to ask questions to ensure that the order is correct, and questions that other people don't bother to ask. I'm sorry for giving a shit about your order! I relayed the above convo to the manager who took the complaint, and she agreed that dude was an idiot.

And things like that I won't miss at all.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Put in my resignation

Yesterday I gave the management my resignation letter, which was a nice polite ditty and even thanked them for the time I've spent there. I gave it to the store manager and she read it while I got my last schedule.

And honestly, it made me even more annoyed. She claimed that she didn't know that I had wanted to move up, and then claimed she thought I wouldn't want to because of baby. First of all, me having a baby gives me MORE incentive to want to move up. Right now I am capped at what I can make, meaning that a promotion is the ONLY way I'd get a raise. (I had started up making a bit more than I should have, but that was due to reasons I won't get into). I've worked at mcd for over a year, and all that time, not been able to get a raise, yet I was busting my butt doing the work of at least two people. Honestly, it just wasn't worth it.

Then the store manager kinda sorta tried to keep me by asking if I would reconsider if I was promoted.. except if she hadn't actually wanted to promote me during the year I worked there, I don't see good things coming from being promoted to avoid me quitting. She claimed that she was looking to get more managers, yet when I chat with another salaried manager (in charge of scheduling), that manager says it was only a rumor. So in other words the store manager was going to try to promise something that she may or may not have delivered on. Nice.

So I have less than a week before I leave and go on to greener pastures. It won't be an ideal job, still in the food industry, but it won't be nearly as busy and I might actually get somewhat calmer. I would make slightly more, get a shot at having real full time hours (not this <30 hour crap I've been doing currently), and a real chance at a promotion.. I am going for it and not looking back.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Just a short list of annoyances

The little things can really add up for something big.

1) Grandmotherly manager was once again running for drive thru and getting frustrated and confused over the whole running process. She had asked for an order to be made ahead of the others because it was an addition to the order for window, and she was rebuffed, basically due to how she asked. By asking I actually mean "overexplain the shit until the guys don't give a shit".

I suggested that she'd have better interaction with the grill team if she would stop treating them like idiots and talked to them like they were competent at their job (even suggested just how she could have asked for her order) and she basically ignored me. Even said that she shouldn't be questioned to begin with, because she's a manager. It's somewhat fair to say, but honestly, we get treated like retards by the customers enough, why do that as a manager?

2) Seriously, do something already! I was getting more and more frustrated because of the lack of common sense evident on our counter people. They just stand there.. never mind that things could be cleaned, lobby checked on, things stocked.. nope, they'll just stand there chatting, and the managers will let them. I can only keep after them to do stuff for just so long.

3) When you have two ordertakers in drive thru constantly ringing up the wrong item, combined with the customer ignoring all that the ordertaker is saying and ignoring everything on the screen *except* for their total (the pre-tax one, of course!).. well, I have to deal with it. I was constantly having to remake drinks, ring something extra up, even get the managers to offer refunds when something was rung up that shouldn't have been rung up. Add that in addition to the sauces, waters, etc that customers couldn't bother to ask for when they were ordering, and that makes for a slower than usual drive thru.

4) Being nice can make all the difference. Two customers had made my day after the cigarette guy last night, and this was due to their attitude about honest mistakes. I had rung a man up for an extra sandwich, and he was polite while I got a manager for a refund (I didn't see I had rung an extra up until after I had cashed it out), and even smiled afterwards. And at drive thru, when I made the wrong drink for a woman (she wanted hot, I made it iced), she accepted it without an issue. And that made me feel better, at least for a bit until someone else came along and bitched about something.

5) We're not total morons. I hate it when someone asks "Are you sure this is diet?" Look, I have absolutely nothing to do with the actual making of your soft drink, it's all an automated process that stems from what the cashier rings up. And the drinks are set up to be handed out in advance.. there are few ways that the presenter can fuck up your drinks. The main way that mistakes happen are when the cashier rings up the wrong item which causes the wrong drink to be sent to the automated beverage station (or ABS), and the customer didn't bother to stick around to verify that he did have the right drink rung up.

6) If a manager makes a placement chart, at least actually follow it! I get sick of seeing a placement chart made up when I'm in a nice spot only to have that reverie ruined because they ignore it and stick me as presenter. If you're not going to follow even the basics of what you wrote down, why are you wasting the paper in doing a chart up?

All of those are minor, to be sure. All of them built up, though.. well, that makes a difference.

Filled with rage at management

Earlier today I was sitting in the lobby on my break when I smelled the distinct smell of cigarette smoke. I look up and notice that a customer has strolled into lobby with a lit cigarette. I am pretty sensitive to smoke, so I felt like gagging, and I get up and call out to one of the managers, figuring that she would tell the guy that he needed to put that cigarette out. Imagine my surprise when instead nothing is said to said "gentleman" and he is merely handed his food and told to have a nice day. I go sit back down for my food.

However, before this asshole leaves, he just has to show that he basically won by blowing his smoke in my face. Who wants to take a guess as to whether or not something as done?

So in other words, getting this customer's few measly dollars was more important than insuring the health and safety of their workers, as well as enforcing the law. Yeah, makes me feel good to know where I am on the totem pole. I can't wait to get a new job to put this one behind me. Which hopefully it will pan out with a job interview that I had had the other day, which resulted in the old pee test and background check deal that they typically do before actually "offering" a job.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Rudeness

So the other day I had gone in 2 hours before I was supposed to.. I was due to work 1-7, and I thought I was scheduled 11-5. Thinking I was supposed to be in, I just clock in as usual at 11, only to have 2 managers ask me why I was there, because I wasn't supposed to be there til 1. I clock out and check the schedule to verify (I always verify, because of issues I've had at other jobs), and lo and behold, the managers are right.

However, rather than actually letting me answer the question of whether or not I'd like to stay, they immediately prep a till for me for back booth.. I'm there anyway, I can just clock back in and let someone else leave early! So I stayed the two extra hours, resenting every single solitary minute of it. How freaking rude is that, to not even let me answer the question of whether I would stay the two extra hours, but to just assume it? If I had been allowed to answer, I would have just gone home and spent that time with the little one, instead of hanging out in back booth just taking money while some idiot woman was taking orders and letting dishes pile up because she's slow. Doesn't give me a real reason to want to stay loyal to a place like this.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Some people just don't get it

Last night we worked with grandmotherly manager again. She's a manager that some of the other managers start to dread working with, because some of the things that she does just makes it worse. Like the other night, she had made two fudge sundaes, but she had them regular. The customer ordered them with extra fudge, which for us means putting fudge on the top and the bottom. I tell her that they need to be remade, but she tells me to ask if they just want the extra fudge on the side. I ask the customers, "We made these regular, but if you want, we can put the extra fudge on the side, would you want that?" They say no.

So I go throw the sundaes away and remake them. Then grandmotherly manager takes it upon herself to go to the window and go into a whole explanation about why how the way we offered to fix it was indeed better, and convinces them to take it.. but since I had already thrown the previous two away, and remade them properly, they got the ones I had made. Now every time those customers come in, they're going to want the sundaes made the way G.M. had suggested.

Of course, this manager has a tendency to talk too much and overshare too much. We've all cringed over her medical issues, for instance. She also has a tendency to talk down to us and not really realize it. Last night she had one of the grill crew trainers in an fit because he's working on training someone on table in doing the basics, and she keeps stepping in because of some minor procedure that the trainee isn't being taught right then and there. Honestly, I'd really focus on them getting the basics down pat first, and then working on the details, but no, she has to step in every chance she gets to interfere with the crew trainer's work and make some minor point. It gets pretty insulting after a while.. it's only this particular trainee's third day, and he's still trying to figure out the basics, such as what goes on what sandwich, and getting his speed up. Work on the basics first before freaking out over the little stuff (such as those little paper sleeves for the third pounder sandwiches, which honestly, no one cares about anyway).

Well, after G.M. butts in one too many times while the crew trainer is training, the crew trainer stalks off to cool his jets for a few, since he was about to explode at the manager. I suggest to the floor manager (a pretty good friend of mine) that he talk to the G.M. about how she's making it harder to train someone, and floor manager agrees. He waffles a bit over how to do it, until I tell manager that if he didn't, I would, and I'm well known for being a bit too blunt. So he tries to tell G.M. in a nice way, only she denies doing anything out of sorts and doesn't understand what the fuss is about. Flew right over her head.

I suppose it doesn't surprise me, because a lot of times managers lose knowledge when it comes to certain positions because they don't work those positions often enough as managers. So really, when you have a crew trainer who does work the spot every day, or a manager who doesn't, the crew trainer is the better one to train.. only the manager gets listened to above a crew trainer because, well, they're a manager. It's pretty insulting.