How Do These People Keep Getting Hired?! Part 4
I once worked at a famous burger place, and at the time of this story, I was getting trained. My career was less than a week long. In truth, I had been preparing to hop to work related to my new degree, but a friend of mine asked me if I was willing to do a bit of a favor for her.
I was being “recommended” at this particular burger place because she knew that it was a house of blocks that needed to fall, and she knew I had worked as a manager. She wanted my “shiny spine and knowledge of employee rights”. This intrigued me enough to give it a shot since I had some time on my hands.
Day One:
I walked in, and the manager working that night gave me my first look at the absolute mess I was coming into. I was all but dumped on [Friend] for training. The problem with this was that [Friend] had no authority and was not a trainer. It was [Manager’s] job to do training, and the mere act of dumping me on [Friend] was a strike against the manager.
[Friend] began giving me the rundown of how to run the garnish station. It was explained that things like lettuce and tomatoes had a two-hour “shelf life” before they were tossed and we got a new bowl of whatever it was; the lettuce wilts, pickles get rubbery, the tomatoes get soggy, and stuff like that.
So, of course, this was where the manager piped in because, even though she was not training me, she had to flex.
Manager: “[Friend], only train [My Name] on what she needs to garnish a burger. That’s all she needs to know right now!”
Me: “Um, don’t I need to know how to actually run the station? Don’t I need to learn how to do everything?!”
Apparently, the answer to that was no; I didn’t actually need to know that. I just needed to be taught how to put mustard, ketchup, mayo, onions, etc., on a cooked burger. Food safety and the organization of completed burgers were unimportant.
I threw a “WTF” look to [Friend]. She grinned like a gremlin about to throw a large object into the engine of a plane. I was then informed that I should operate under a particular Golden Rule: “Do no harm, but take no s***.”
Apparently, [Manager’s] brain is wired… differently. And I don’t even know if there’s a diagnosis for it. The rundown is: “[Manager] is stupid and incompetent, refuses to learn from her mistakes, and will get a Blue Screen Of Death if you stand up to her. If you let her, she’ll steamroll you to tears and drive you to quit. If you confront her with her stupidity and being wrong, her brain will suffer a fatal error, and she’ll have to hard reset and never speak of it again.”
About an hour later, I got to witness this weirdly glorious situation for myself. [Manager] turned to me.
Manager: “Can you tell me which burger goes in which slot of the warmer?”
There were six slots, and (I learned later) we put burgers, cheeseburgers, doubles, chicken burgers, etc., all in different slots.
Me: “Um, no… [Friend] never told me what goes where; we haven’t covered that yet.”
Manager: “Well, that’s part of your job. She should have trained you on this. I’m going to have to talk to [Friend] about that.”
Me: “You told her only to train me exactly how I was supposed to garnish a burger. You told her not to train me on the other side bits to this station.”
[Manager] looked like she had a Blue Screen Of Death just behind her eyes because they went briefly blank. She went to [Friend], only to get the same answer. Furthermore, [Friend] laid a second smackdown.
Friend: “You also know that I’m not actually allowed to train, but I agreed to do so as a favor to you. If you want to train, I will happily step aside and let you get on with it.”
A full Blue Screen Of Death occurred. [Manager]’s mouth hung open for a moment and then closed, and then she wandered off to hide in the office. She didn’t acknowledge us again that night. From there, [Friend] assured me, we wouldn’t get in trouble.
[Friend] then went back to training me properly.
Day Two:
I walked in, and as I went to clock in, [Manager] stopped me.
Manager: “Don’t clock in. You’re still being trained. You shouldn’t have clocked in yesterday.”
I stared at her.
Manager: “I’m not paying you if you can’t do your job without having your hand held. When your training is done at the end of four days, you can start clocking in and getting paid.”
Me: “Then I’m going home.”
Manager: “Leave, and I’ll put you on no-call/no-show.”
Me: “If I am being trained, then you pay me. If I don’t get paid, I leave and report you to the labor board for illegally making me work without pay. The fines can get up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your call.”
This once again tripped her Blue Screen Of Death and she disappeared again.
[Friend] began helping me through my day; I could do the garnish job mostly without help and just needed a reminder or two.
Other staff members were starting to watch me as though I were some sort of mythical creature — out of the corner of their eyes and with a sense of wonder and fascination. Everyone there other than [Friend] and I were new to the workforce and unfamiliar with their rights. Apparently, these rights — which were supposed to be posted where staff could see them — went mysteriously missing shortly after [Manager] came on board.
A call was made to an employee complaint hotline that [Friend] gave me.
Day Three, Part One:
[Manager] started giving us a hard time about using the bathroom during breaks. In fact, she gave us a hard time about taking state-mandated breaks at all. No bathroom. No lunchtime. We were too busy for that. If you had time to sit on your butt for a few minutes, you could be helping other staff with their jobs.
I went off on her because she accosted me for going to the bathroom to change my tampon. I waved a spare (unused, obviously) tampon around in front of God and everybody and told her:
Me: “If you have time to drive to [Other Fast Food Chain] for lunch—” *gestures to the logoed bag in her hands* “—then I can be spared to change a tampon. If we don’t get our state-mandated breaks, we can all walk out on you.”
She Blue-Screened on me and walked off. I made yet another call and named my witnesses.
Day Three, Part Two:
This happened after work, as [Manager] decided that treating me as a warm body was safest. However, subtlety was an unknown term to [Manager] when it came to stupid and illegal decisions.
I was heading off shift when a coworker came in early for hers. She announced that she was pregnant. Amidst happy gasps, cheers, and congratulations from the staff, [Manager]’s face turned to stone.
Manager: “Congratulations. Also, you’re fired. I would rather replace you than deal with a pregnant employee and all that goes with that.”
Then, she spun on her heel and went into her office. Oh, and did I mention that the manager did this not only in front of staff but in front of several customers, as well?
As the pregnant coworker’s eyes filled with tears, she was mobbed by supporters. Even several customers told her flat out that what [Manager] did was massively illegal.
The customer complaint hotline was handed out, and several were on the phone almost the instant it was in their hot little hands. Some of them hadn’t even placed their orders yet.
I had a low, hurried conversation with the coworker. She got the names and phone numbers of staff and a couple of customers, as well, who would testify as witnesses. She was on the phone in her car less than five minutes later.
Day Four:
[Manager] had yet another Blue Screen Of Death, this time from a customer. The manager decided to alter a customer’s order without their permission.
Customer: “Wait, I ordered a regular cheeseburger. I don’t want the [super shiny burger that costs a ridiculous amount].”
Manager: “Well, that’s what you’re getting. Pay up.”
The explosion of expletives was impressive, and I’m pretty sure some of them were in at least two different languages other than English. [Manager] just shut down and walked away mid-tantrum, leaving us to deal with the aftermath.
[Friend] frantically stepped in and tried to appease the customer but could only offer the complaint number, since she couldn’t authorize a comped meal. The customer stopped bellowing swear words — only because some very professional-looking people came in the door at that moment, and one introduced themselves as [Very Bigwig] and asked if the customer could be helped.
When the customer told them the story, they very politely inquired as to where [Manager] was. A unanimous pointing to the office by all staff resulted in only one bigwig remaining to talk to the customer to get details from them and to speak to the staff about the incident. The others wordlessly filed out of sight.
[Manager] didn’t come in the next day — or ever again. I submitted my notice and moved on to my preferred career. The pregnant employee’s situation was apparently “made right”, though I don’t have details about it. I suspect it was very generous, though, since they didn’t want a well-worded letter from an attorney to come out of that situation.
Related:
How Do These People Keep Getting Hired?! Part 3
How Do These People Keep Getting Hired?!
How Do These People Keep Getting Hired?
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