Tray And Tray Again

(The bagel and sandwich shop I work at switches from disposable paper plates to re-washable plastic trays for our ‘for here’ orders. We haven’t been supplied with an exceedingly large amount of the trays. Many of our customers end up dumping them in the trash when they’re finished.)

Boss: “[Me]! Grab some plastic bags and gloves, and follow me outside.”

Me: “Okay, what are we doing?”

Boss: “Trash diving.”

Me: “…”

(He’s not kidding. We triple bag our shoes and jump in the dumpster to cut through our trash and fish out as many trays as we can. We manage to find nearly three dozen in among eight trash bags.)

Me: “[Boss], I want a raise.”

Boss: “I’ll think about it.”

(Later, fed up with more trays disappearing, the Boss brings in a role of caution tape. He uses it to tape a tray onto the push-door of each of our trash cans. Then he secures another tray to the area where trays are supposed to be left. The end result is a VERY obvious visual giving the message of, “Don’t throw away these trays, place them HERE!”)

Boss: “OKAY! So, how long do you think it’s going to be before another customer throws a tray away?”

Me: “People are pretty stupid. I wouldn’t be surprised if the first one does.”

Boss: “Seriously, right?”

(Sure enough, a few minutes later a customer gets up to leave. She goes to toss her trash and gets caught up as she sees the taped tray to the door. We watch as she slowly looks at the trash can, then up to the tray-receptacle, then back down to the trash can. Then she dumps it all, tray included, into the trash can. My boss throws a silent fit until the customer leaves. We all crack up at him as he rushes out front to dig the tray out of the trash.)

Boss: “I GIVE UP ON PEOPLE!”