BurgerTales Volume 1: Eat this!

[Shotgun Chuck]

A collection of random fail from today and recently:

In what way does that table number look like a pacifier? Or a toy?

I took someone's special drink order (think it was a kid's apple juice) to them and they told me their kid had got hold of their table number and thrown it into the blocked-off area behind/under the kiddie tubes. I go back and get it for them, and think nothing more of it. Later (but before they get their actual food) I go back into the playroom and see... the kid is putting the number (which has been on the filthiest floor in existence) in his mouth, and the parent is doing nothing to stop it. This apparently continues the entire time they're there, because by the time they leave the number is badly chewed all along one side. After a quick consultation with a supervisor, the number goes straight into the trash and I go straight to the hand sink.

Introducing our newest soda: Valdez Cola!

AKA: Kids and liquid don't mix well.

Yesterday I had to clean up three drink spills, including two annoyingly close together. Today one of the endless ice cream orders managed to become even more annoying via the addition of a soda spill heads-up. Three of these spills are known to have involved kids; the fourth is likely. That is all.

Also: QUIT ORDERING THE FREAKIN' ICE CREAM!

Yes, I know the customers are will within their rights to order juice and shakes and ice cream and all that annoying stuff, but seriously, this is reason number two to hate weekend shifts. The first is that they tend to be wickedly busy; the second is that everyone brings their kids in and makes the busyness worse by ordering large quantities of anything you have to make yourself when you're a cashier. It's got to the point where I reflexively cringe when I see someone come in with kids, because I know that 1. they'll order kids' meals, and not realize that when I ask them if they want apple juice with those I'm actually hoping like heck they'll say no, and 2. they're incredibly likely to camp out in the playroom for hours, then return and order a bunch of ice cream when I'm trying to do something.

It turns out the substitute scheduler is a troll too

Remember the tale of Cool Boss and her endless frustration?

She's working seven days a week now.

Yeah. She's the main closing MOD now, so she literally never gets even single day to recover.

At this point I'm not sure why she doesn't stop threatening to give her notice/just walk, and actually do it. I'm considering telling her so the next time I see her.

This opening MOD/substitute scheduler (we'll call her SubSgt from now on) at least heeded her request to leave some experienced employees for the closing crew instead of hoarding them all for her own opening shift, but I don't care how good the reason is, seven days a week is despicable and should be illegal.

Apparently I'm not the only one

Stopwatch King has apparently threatened at least one other fry cook with early dismissal too. That is all.

[VComps]

I don't care how good the reason is, seven days a week is despicable and should be illegal.

Are you sure it isn't illegal? Many places do stipulate days of rest in their labour codes. IANAL, but I've done a bunch of hiring, scheduling, performance reviews, and assorted other HR related administrivia.

[Shotgun Chuck]

Are you sure it isn't illegal? Many places do stipulate days of rest in their labour codes. IANAL, but I've done a bunch of hiring, scheduling, performance reviews, and assorted other HR related administrivia.

Apparently, here that only applies to minors.

This state's labor laws are worse than useless.

[Captain Neon]

I once worked for a guy that had me working what I came to call 13-day weeks. He also liked to have me come in at 3:00 PM to 12:00 AM Monday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Tuesday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Wednesday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Thursday, 3:00 PM to 4:00 AM Friday, 9:00 PM to 8:00 AM Saturday, and Sunday 9:00 PM to 7:00 AM. This was a salaried position without bonus or OT pay. He acted like he was doing me some huge favour giving me more than 8 hours away on Thursday and Friday, and complained that performance was struggling the 2nd week. While he had me working 70+ hours/week to meet the "needs of the business," he worked about 20 hours/wk between coming in late, taking almost two hours for lunch, and leaving early. Why could I possibly be disengaged, as if it was somehow a failing on my part? I quit that job 6 years ago, and live over 400 miles away, but I still hate that man to this day! What he was doing was legal only under the letter of the law and not the spirit.

[wolfie]

Don't know about 6 years ago, but current U.S. law provides that except for certain listed professions, or managers (NOT "MINO" - if someone doesn't have actual hiring and firing authority, the law doesn't consider them a manager for this purpose regardless of their title), salaried employees are still covered by OT laws. The salary is assumed to cover 2000 hours/year (40 hours/week with 2 weeks vacation), so if someone works over 40 hours/week the additional hours MUST be paid at 1.5x (salary/2000).

[Captain Neon]

I had authority to discipline employees and made more than the threshold for salaried OT. We were required to fill out a timesheet, and my HR Generalist recommended that I put down all of my hours. She told me that it may come in handy in the future.

Yes, the expectation for salaried employees is 2000 hours/year. If only I had an employer that actually believed that. I've held 7 salaried positions in the last 12 years. Only one of them respected my time, all of the rest expected a certain amount of donated time. Three of them offered no bonus whatsoever to even justify as compensation for extra hours.

MO: Manager understaffed department on purpose. We were allotted another salaried employee that he never hired, i.e. I worked my job and the job that was never filled. My boss pocketed 10% of the money that he was under budget. This employer owes me over $80K in unpaid time.

KS: If one of my direct reports did not come to work, and I was unable to convince another employee to cover their shift, I had to work the shift unpaid.

IA: Facility ran 24/7/52. Rotating schedule with another person in my role. One of us was required to be on-site from no later than 7 AM to no earlier than 7 PM. We clocked in and out with our badge at the guard shack. IT monitored when we logged in and out of the company server. I regularly left around 10 PM, but still reprimanded when arriving a few minutes late. No holidays and no vacation. We had vacation time that accrued, but we could never take it since my counterpart and I had to cover if the other was gone. We ended up just shuffling our days off so that we have more than a couple days off at a time. Meetings and training scheduled on our off days were unpaid. I gave notice after 10 months. Accrued vacation time was used to reimburse my relocation agreement. IMHO, this employer owes me over $15K in unpaid time.

[farmkid]

I'm almost always an entertained lurker, but this raised a red flag:

Remember the tale of Cool Boss and her endless frustration?

She's working seven days a week now.

Yeah. She's the main closing MOD now, so she literally never gets even single day to recover.

Does she, as MOD, do all the closing bookkeeping? And she's requesting this schedule, right? People who embezzle often work every day so that nobody else has occasion to get into the books. Her behavior isn't proof of malfeasance, of course, but it's an indication that an audit might be in order.

[Aria]

I just have to ask, why is juice a problem? At the most, don't you just pour it in a cup? At best, wouldn't you have juice boxes on hand?

[Shotgun Chuck]

I'm almost always an entertained lurker, but this raised a red flag:



Does she, as MOD, do all the closing bookkeeping? And she's requesting this schedule, right? People who embezzle often work every day so that nobody else has occasion to get into the books. Her behavior isn't proof of malfeasance, of course, but it's an indication that an audit might be in order.

I never really thought about that, though the few closing shifts I've worked since she ended up on that shift, she spent a lot of time in the trenches with the rest of us. Tills are counted throughout the day, by different managers, as cashiers leave, if that means anything. Also, I get the feeling that she isn't doing this by choice, and we're grooming another recently-promoted manager to take over some of the closing shifts so she can have days off again.

I just have to ask, why is juice a problem? At the most, don't you just pour it in a cup? At best, wouldn't you have juice boxes on hand?

This is a problem because, unless someone decides to be a bro and do it for them, the cashiers have to dispense the juices themselves from a machine behind the counter. Which means, if it's busy and there's only one cashier, there are often only two choices:

1. Do it right away, making people wait to order
2. Wait for a break in the line, which can take 10 minutes easily during a weekend lunch rush; this often results in wandering around the restaurant for way too long looking for whoever ordered the juices. Often, nobody will take ownership, or whoever it is is in the bathroom, or whatever. Often, in this case, whoever it is has already been given their food, so you can't go by table number unless the person who ran the order forgot to retrieve the number (never seems to happen when you need it to).

I usually do option number two, but sometimes I'll pull a #1 if I can tell incoming traffic has reached critical mass.

[Slave to the Phone]

I haven't worked your job, but I think I'd rather get the drinks out of the way first so I didn't have to spend more time wandering around looking for the one who wanted it.

The people behind the person who ordered the apple juice will be able to see that you are filling someone's order before moving on to the next customer. Or not. Some people will yell no matter what.

[Shyla]

I believe it is legal but never having a day off is despicable. If she requested to work close every day, maybe see if an audit is needed. But it sounds like they're making her do it. She may want to check the law to see if she is owed overtime. The salary threshhold is changing soon.

I would just fill the juice right away. It has to be done anyway. You're filling a paid order so the next person will have to wait.