Employees have to eat too...

[Dreamstalker]

...and unlike you, don't have all day for lunch.

Not entirely sucky, save for the fact that despite planning things out I didn't get enough time to actually eat my lunch...but J saw a bit of what happened and let me scarf down half my sandwich after clocking back in.

The store doesn't actually open until Tuesday, but this past week was a dry run for the restaurants and food counters. Basically free food in exchange for comment cards. Intended for friends and family of employees, but after the first 2 days I think it mutated to cover "anyone who manages to sneak in". That or the press got ahold of the info and printed it somewhere as 'hey guys free food'. From what I hear, most of the kitchens were completely in the weeds. There's 'lunch rush', and then that which is far beyond any lunch rush I've ever witnessed.

The rotisserie counter's been a mob scene (amazing prime rib sandwich...I'm gonna be in trouble when they start charging for it), and I finally got to get to it on break on Wednesday. I'm at the head of the line, start to order...cashier gets distracted by another employee who isn't in line but is on the customer side of the counter, a non-employee barks an order, and the cashier takes his down first before I can actually say anything (not that it mattered much as we both got the same thing, but still annoying). The 'line' was a bit nebulous and poorly organized to begin with.

Customer who cut ahead of me later sees me at the end of the station waiting for my food, and apologizes for cutting with "I thought you worked here." ...yes, but I'm on break.

[wordgirl]

My dad taught us something that always made me proud he was my dad. If we were in line at a store and a employee came up, clearly on break, he'd always tell them to go ahead. His logic was that they probably only had 15 minutes or so and they didn't need to spend it standing in line. (Plus, a standard grocery shop for our family frequently involved two carts -- there was a good chance someone behind us would be waiting their entire break and then some.)

The idea of someone thinking they could elbow another human being aside just because that person happened to be an employee would have made him furious. Miss ya, Dad.

[Food Lady]

Your dad and I think alike, wordgirl. I was upset one time when a McD's manager kept urging customers to go before an employee, even the ones she was ahead of. I flat refused to do so. I pointed out that the employee was ahead of me. That really ticked me off. I should've reported that manager to corp.

[Dreamstalker]

I did mention something to one of the QSR managers (who I think has a crush on mom) later that day. The store's closed on Monday to go over various operational aspects, and he told me that will be covered; at least when it comes to the quick-service, nobody should be allowed to cut in front of an employee (ideally, there would be a separate order register for employees on break during rushes). I blame the co-irker who was hanging out there; gave the impression that any worker over there was just there to talk/ask a question.

Even a half-hour break isn't that long when you consider that the time clock, QSR counters, and break room are about as far apart as the three locations can possibly be. There really should be a timeclock in back; I can't imagine many people like the idea of wasting nearly half their break fighting the crowds (whether or not they're clocked out).

[Lace Neil Singer]

Back when I worked at the pet store in the garden centre, I used to take my lunch break outside, even if it was cold, cuz the chances of getting interrupted were greatly less than taking my break in the cafe (there was no staff break room). Even so, I still had customers bugging me to do stuff for them when I was sat outside on a bench, clearly eating lunch; I just used to tell them that, since I was on an unpaid break, they would have to come to the pet store at two pm for assistance. Some customers were actually surprised to learn that I needed to eat lunch at lunchtime.

[Slave to the Phone]

Where I currently work, we can sneak out the back door without customers seeing us which is nice. They still get mad that we are allowed to take breaks while people still waiting in line, but at least they can't catch us as we are leaving to yell at us. (There are people waiting all day long, if we waited until nobody was waiting, we would never be able to take a break.)

[Food Lady]

^ The problem with my job is that the timeclock is in full view of the front end so customers know when I'm clocking out to leave or go to lunch. Sometimes they look angry about that. I didn't make the schedule, people.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Where I work now, we can take our breaks round the back so that we are safe from customers. XD

[Dreamstalker]

All the non-register computers on the floor have timeclock functionality, but during a lunch rush the worker ants can't use the two that may be closest (terminals for the 2 restaurants that are generally taken up by restaurant concerns). The main one is up front at the service desk, as far as physically possible from the break room.

I did time it out; it takes me 2 minutes (without getting food) to get from the break room to the timeclock. With getting food at the fastest counter it took nearly 12. What some coworkers have started doing is to get QSR food before break if there isn't a line and stashing it in the fridge. I should ask Rotisserie Guy if we're allowed to order and pay for food when the counter opens, then he can make and hold it until a break (or just make it when we show up, although that might be seen by some SCs as 'line-jumping').

[Food Lady]

^ I have an expensive insulated food bag, thermoses, and a thermos food jar for such reasons. There are times when I have to go through the drive-through, but I try to keep that to a minimum for money reasons.