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So yesterday at work things were pretty dead most of the day. It's summer and we just recently ended the $5 foot long promotion so things have been dead around here.
Due to this, we typically have fewer people on for a given shift than we did during the special. For example from 5:00-10:00 we would typically have at least three people on during the special, now we have two. The exception is, people who are being trained don't count as being "on shift." Primarily because they can't do the workload of a fully trained employee.
So around 6:30 we have one of the few rushes of customers we have had all day. Pretty much everyone in the store is in a rare good mood, including the customers.
I had been training the new guy since two, but since we had just gotten a decent rush of customers in I decided to move him down to the register where he wouldn't slow the sandwich making process up (it typically takes someone a few shifts before they get to full-speed sandwich making.)
Both me and the other guy on the line have been working here awhile, so we were pumping sandwiches down at a pretty good clip, faster than the new guy could ring them up, actually (but he was still doing register way faster than he could have done any sandwich making task.)
We've trained him to do cash drops already, but some of the intricacies are lost on him. For example, when you do a cash drop, the drop has to be verified by another employee before it is dropped into the safe. When it came time to do a cash drop during this rush, he just grabbed a $100 bundle of $1s from the register, typed in a $100 drop, and dropped the bundle into the safe.
This wasn't a smart move, but this guy was in the Army for three years after High School and aside from that he has never held any other job. He's never worked a cash register before, handled cash drops or et cetera. So honestly, I'm not going to berate the guy for messing something up when he's totally inexperienced, no one is great at their job when they are totally untrained and inexperienced.
He even realizes what a numbskull move he's just made, because he instantly "Ack, I just dropped almost all our 1s into the safe." I just tell him that I will open the safe as soon as I can, and for him to tell me when we are actually out of 1s. If I'm going to have to stop in the middle of the rush to open the safe and replenish 1s it is going to slow down the line any way, but on the off chance we finish up the rush without using up the 1s, there won't be a slow down so I opt for not filling 1s until we run out or the rush is over (whichever comes first.)
For a few more customers, things are moving smoothly, but then we run out of 1s. Around this time, today's SC is getting his sub started.
He wanted a foot long Spicy Italian, toasted. Unfortunately for him, I had just made three subs for a woman, and she wanted them all toasted. I had three foot long subs in the toaster, this means you're looking at over a minute's toasting time. There's no way to make this time shorter, the toaster can't work "faster." If he wants his sub toasted, he has to wait that minute or so. While those three subs are toasting, I have one customer waiting to get veggies on his sub. I also have one customer waiting to get change at the register (because the 1s are now gone.) I politely tell the customer waiting for veggies that I need to open the safe to put some 1s in so that we can make change, he says it is no problem.
I quickly open the safe, put the $100 in 1s back in the register and put $100 in 20s into the safe. Right as I finish that, the toaster goes off. I take the three foot longs out so they don't burn, and the other guy on the line puts the SC's Spicy Italian into the toaster. I finish up the one guy's veggies, then start on the woman's three subs. She happens to get a lot of different veggies on each of the three subs. This means right about the time I'm finishing the first of her subs, the SC's Spicy Italian comes out of the toaster. The other guy on the line takes it out and then starts helping me put veggies on all the subs, since the SC is the last customer of the rush.
In quick order we finish up the woman's subs, but right around the time we are finishing the SC says, "Hey, who's like the manager here?" I tell him I'm the assistant manager, and that the store manager is xxxx and is not in right now. We finish the woman and I start on his sub. Before telling me what veggies he wants, he just says, "Well, this is the slowest Subway experience I've ever had, and you guys don't have like any customers in here."
Not feeling like any sort of confrontation, nor caring enough to explain that he just saw us make three subs for one customer and that the dining room is full of people we've just served, I just say, "Sorry about that, what would you like on your sub?" He rattles off the veggies and as I'm putting them on, he keeps at it. "You guys should really hire some new people, because this place is really slow."
I'm just letting it roll off me, because honestly I'm in a good mood and don't really care that he is in a bad mood. Then the new guy pipes in, and says "Hey, I can't get the register to open, what's wrong?" I say "Hold on, one second." Because I'm finishing this guy's sub up. I finish it, and then look over at the register.
Right now, there is still the woman who has three subs waiting to be rung up, I leave the SC's sub on the counter and walk over to find out what is wrong. The register is out of receipt paper, without receipt paper, the drawer won't open. So I tell my other co worker to fill the receipt paper, and start explaining to the trainee what to do in this situation. This is when the SC out of nowhere yells, "DUDE, JUST FINISH MY SUB, QUIT TALKING TO THAT IDIOT AND GET MY SANDWICH FINISHED."
On his part, this is totally stupid, because his sub is finished No, it hasn't been wrapped. But that takes under five seconds. Furthermore, until the customer in front of him has been rung up, and until he has been rung up and paid, he doesn't need his sandwich wrapped up and in his hands. If he had kept his mouth shut and let me fix the register, then the moment he paid, his sub would be in his hands, easily.
But because he yelled in the store, and called one of the employees an idiot, I decided right then and there it was time to get a little bit rude with this guy. I tell him, "You need to calm down. If you can refrain from shouting or name calling, I'll let you check out. Otherwise you can leave."
He replies, "This is FUCKING RIDICULOUS." Considering I had just asked him to stop yelling, and now he's yelling "fucking" in a dining room that has several small children in it, I've decided he won't be getting a sub from us today. In a calm voice I just tell him, "Alright, out, now." He starts bitching more, "YOU GUYS ARE SLOW AS SHIT, I WANT MY SUB. I'VE WAITED HERE FOR LIKE TWENTY MINUTES, GIVE ME MY GOD DAMN SUB AND I'LL GET OUT OF HERE."
At this point I tell him that he hasn't paid for the sub yet, it isn't his sub. That because he refused to behave, he's not being served by us today. He keeps yelling and at that point I just tell him what I tell people when things get to this point, "If you don't leave immediately I'll call the police and have you removed for trespassing."
Now, this guy's behavior isn't really what interest me, it is just the general concept of berating service workers when you perceive your service to be bad. Me, I work on the general concept that I don't yell or act rude towards anyone who hasn't acted rudely to me first.
I've been in restaurants where I've had to wait a ridiculously long time for my food. One restaurant, it was one hour after we'd ordered, our drinks hadn't been refilled in twenty minutes, our server hadn't updated us on the status of our food in half and hour. I go up to the front of the restaurant and ask to speak to a manager, I explain to him, "Hey, I don't want to be rude but we ordered an hour ago and we haven't received our food or even heard anything about it." The manager comped us the meals and the server apologized.
I have no idea why the service was slow, it could have been the waitress' mind was fried, it could have been a problem in the kitchen, whatever. Either way, the restaurant did mess up. But just because someone messes up service, that doesn't entitle you, as a customer, to name call or yell. That's just my philosophy.
Does it entitle you to make a complaint? I think so, a calm, reasonable complaint like the one I made to the manager.
However, I've gone to dinner with other friends that will flip out over issues like that, or even issues which are less grievous. I've had a friend yell at a waitress over his steak being under cooked, to my horror. I just totally do not understand that, if your food is messed up, or you are unhappy with your service you do have a right to say something but I don't feel any level of bad service entitle you to start yelling--unless you have been treated in an overtly rude manner or something of that nature.
This particular SC, yes, it took him a bit longer than usual to get his sub. Usually, toasting times aren't like 90 seconds, but when a customer has three subs, that might happen. There was nothing we could have done to increase the speed he received his sub.
The woman with three subs, and the guy who was in line when the register ran out of 1s--they were actually delayed by a screw up in the line. They were justified in some minor annoyance--but they remained polite the entire time, and never voiced any real dissatisfaction. Like normal human beings, they recognized sometimes the line moves a little slower. This SC noticed the jam-up in the line, and for some reason he associated that with the reason it took him a little longer to get a sub.
Even if the delay was entirely our fault, that doesn't entitle him to start yelling at the staff, just my opinion.
Due to this, we typically have fewer people on for a given shift than we did during the special. For example from 5:00-10:00 we would typically have at least three people on during the special, now we have two. The exception is, people who are being trained don't count as being "on shift." Primarily because they can't do the workload of a fully trained employee.
So around 6:30 we have one of the few rushes of customers we have had all day. Pretty much everyone in the store is in a rare good mood, including the customers.
I had been training the new guy since two, but since we had just gotten a decent rush of customers in I decided to move him down to the register where he wouldn't slow the sandwich making process up (it typically takes someone a few shifts before they get to full-speed sandwich making.)
Both me and the other guy on the line have been working here awhile, so we were pumping sandwiches down at a pretty good clip, faster than the new guy could ring them up, actually (but he was still doing register way faster than he could have done any sandwich making task.)
We've trained him to do cash drops already, but some of the intricacies are lost on him. For example, when you do a cash drop, the drop has to be verified by another employee before it is dropped into the safe. When it came time to do a cash drop during this rush, he just grabbed a $100 bundle of $1s from the register, typed in a $100 drop, and dropped the bundle into the safe.
This wasn't a smart move, but this guy was in the Army for three years after High School and aside from that he has never held any other job. He's never worked a cash register before, handled cash drops or et cetera. So honestly, I'm not going to berate the guy for messing something up when he's totally inexperienced, no one is great at their job when they are totally untrained and inexperienced.
He even realizes what a numbskull move he's just made, because he instantly "Ack, I just dropped almost all our 1s into the safe." I just tell him that I will open the safe as soon as I can, and for him to tell me when we are actually out of 1s. If I'm going to have to stop in the middle of the rush to open the safe and replenish 1s it is going to slow down the line any way, but on the off chance we finish up the rush without using up the 1s, there won't be a slow down so I opt for not filling 1s until we run out or the rush is over (whichever comes first.)
For a few more customers, things are moving smoothly, but then we run out of 1s. Around this time, today's SC is getting his sub started.
He wanted a foot long Spicy Italian, toasted. Unfortunately for him, I had just made three subs for a woman, and she wanted them all toasted. I had three foot long subs in the toaster, this means you're looking at over a minute's toasting time. There's no way to make this time shorter, the toaster can't work "faster." If he wants his sub toasted, he has to wait that minute or so. While those three subs are toasting, I have one customer waiting to get veggies on his sub. I also have one customer waiting to get change at the register (because the 1s are now gone.) I politely tell the customer waiting for veggies that I need to open the safe to put some 1s in so that we can make change, he says it is no problem.
I quickly open the safe, put the $100 in 1s back in the register and put $100 in 20s into the safe. Right as I finish that, the toaster goes off. I take the three foot longs out so they don't burn, and the other guy on the line puts the SC's Spicy Italian into the toaster. I finish up the one guy's veggies, then start on the woman's three subs. She happens to get a lot of different veggies on each of the three subs. This means right about the time I'm finishing the first of her subs, the SC's Spicy Italian comes out of the toaster. The other guy on the line takes it out and then starts helping me put veggies on all the subs, since the SC is the last customer of the rush.
In quick order we finish up the woman's subs, but right around the time we are finishing the SC says, "Hey, who's like the manager here?" I tell him I'm the assistant manager, and that the store manager is xxxx and is not in right now. We finish the woman and I start on his sub. Before telling me what veggies he wants, he just says, "Well, this is the slowest Subway experience I've ever had, and you guys don't have like any customers in here."
Not feeling like any sort of confrontation, nor caring enough to explain that he just saw us make three subs for one customer and that the dining room is full of people we've just served, I just say, "Sorry about that, what would you like on your sub?" He rattles off the veggies and as I'm putting them on, he keeps at it. "You guys should really hire some new people, because this place is really slow."
I'm just letting it roll off me, because honestly I'm in a good mood and don't really care that he is in a bad mood. Then the new guy pipes in, and says "Hey, I can't get the register to open, what's wrong?" I say "Hold on, one second." Because I'm finishing this guy's sub up. I finish it, and then look over at the register.
Right now, there is still the woman who has three subs waiting to be rung up, I leave the SC's sub on the counter and walk over to find out what is wrong. The register is out of receipt paper, without receipt paper, the drawer won't open. So I tell my other co worker to fill the receipt paper, and start explaining to the trainee what to do in this situation. This is when the SC out of nowhere yells, "DUDE, JUST FINISH MY SUB, QUIT TALKING TO THAT IDIOT AND GET MY SANDWICH FINISHED."
On his part, this is totally stupid, because his sub is finished No, it hasn't been wrapped. But that takes under five seconds. Furthermore, until the customer in front of him has been rung up, and until he has been rung up and paid, he doesn't need his sandwich wrapped up and in his hands. If he had kept his mouth shut and let me fix the register, then the moment he paid, his sub would be in his hands, easily.
But because he yelled in the store, and called one of the employees an idiot, I decided right then and there it was time to get a little bit rude with this guy. I tell him, "You need to calm down. If you can refrain from shouting or name calling, I'll let you check out. Otherwise you can leave."
He replies, "This is FUCKING RIDICULOUS." Considering I had just asked him to stop yelling, and now he's yelling "fucking" in a dining room that has several small children in it, I've decided he won't be getting a sub from us today. In a calm voice I just tell him, "Alright, out, now." He starts bitching more, "YOU GUYS ARE SLOW AS SHIT, I WANT MY SUB. I'VE WAITED HERE FOR LIKE TWENTY MINUTES, GIVE ME MY GOD DAMN SUB AND I'LL GET OUT OF HERE."
At this point I tell him that he hasn't paid for the sub yet, it isn't his sub. That because he refused to behave, he's not being served by us today. He keeps yelling and at that point I just tell him what I tell people when things get to this point, "If you don't leave immediately I'll call the police and have you removed for trespassing."
Now, this guy's behavior isn't really what interest me, it is just the general concept of berating service workers when you perceive your service to be bad. Me, I work on the general concept that I don't yell or act rude towards anyone who hasn't acted rudely to me first.
I've been in restaurants where I've had to wait a ridiculously long time for my food. One restaurant, it was one hour after we'd ordered, our drinks hadn't been refilled in twenty minutes, our server hadn't updated us on the status of our food in half and hour. I go up to the front of the restaurant and ask to speak to a manager, I explain to him, "Hey, I don't want to be rude but we ordered an hour ago and we haven't received our food or even heard anything about it." The manager comped us the meals and the server apologized.
I have no idea why the service was slow, it could have been the waitress' mind was fried, it could have been a problem in the kitchen, whatever. Either way, the restaurant did mess up. But just because someone messes up service, that doesn't entitle you, as a customer, to name call or yell. That's just my philosophy.
Does it entitle you to make a complaint? I think so, a calm, reasonable complaint like the one I made to the manager.
However, I've gone to dinner with other friends that will flip out over issues like that, or even issues which are less grievous. I've had a friend yell at a waitress over his steak being under cooked, to my horror. I just totally do not understand that, if your food is messed up, or you are unhappy with your service you do have a right to say something but I don't feel any level of bad service entitle you to start yelling--unless you have been treated in an overtly rude manner or something of that nature.
This particular SC, yes, it took him a bit longer than usual to get his sub. Usually, toasting times aren't like 90 seconds, but when a customer has three subs, that might happen. There was nothing we could have done to increase the speed he received his sub.
The woman with three subs, and the guy who was in line when the register ran out of 1s--they were actually delayed by a screw up in the line. They were justified in some minor annoyance--but they remained polite the entire time, and never voiced any real dissatisfaction. Like normal human beings, they recognized sometimes the line moves a little slower. This SC noticed the jam-up in the line, and for some reason he associated that with the reason it took him a little longer to get a sub.
Even if the delay was entirely our fault, that doesn't entitle him to start yelling at the staff, just my opinion.
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