I had quite a day at work today. Mostly due to one particular employee, who shall remain nameless. Here’s how things went down:

One of the crew reported that she thought she saw X eating while on assembly. I watched X, and pretty soon he appeared to have a mouthful of something he was chewing. I walked to where he was and said, “What are you eating?”

He gulped, and said, “Nothing.”

Later, another crew member said he’d been seen making something on the assembly table, then taking it back to the crew break room. I meandered back there, and found two wrapped food items on the table, along with a couple of cups of beverage.

He was sent on break, went to the drink station, and filled another cup with beverage. I asked, “Did anyone ring that up, since you’re on break?” He responded “no”. I asked if he had something to eat for his break. Again, “no”, and he headed to the crew break room.

I followed him, and he was unwrapping the food items that I’d already seen in there and taking a big bite. I confronted him.

“You told me you didn’t have any food to eat for your break. So what’s that you’re eating? Did that get rung up?”

“No. I don’t have any money.”

“So, it’s OK to just take food and eat it?”

“Well, I made it!”

“No. McDonald’s made it, and it’s not your food to take. Did you ask anyone if you could have it?”

“No.”

“Well, let me tell you this. If you had told us you are broke and hungry, we could have seen to it that you had something to eat. However, you’ve just lied to me by telling me you didn’t have any food in the first place, and you’ve just stolen food from the store by making it and bringing it back here to eat.”

I talked to the other manager on duty, we wrote him up and sent him home. We can’t fire anyone; it’s not within our authority. But we can discipline this kind of behavior.

Before he left, he made sure to tell everyone within earshot how mean I am for all this. It matters not what he thinks. See, we don’t let our crew members go hungry just because they don’t have any money. We gladly give them food if they need it for their breaks and have avenues to take care of that. Lying, and stealing the food, are not the avenues.

Technorati Tags: Lying, stealing

Posted: January 30th, 2008 under Flights of fancy.
Comments: none

When my husband passed away in 2005, we were all terribly grieved. One of his nephews was especially broken-hearted. At the funeral, through tears, he told me he had wanted to come see Danny with the last trip other family members made over here, but waited. He planned to come on the next trip. There was no next trip, for Danny passed away before it happened.

I assured him that Danny knew he loved him, and that it was OK that he wasn’t able to come for that one last visit.

A couple of months ago, one of my brothers passed away in another state. It was sudden, and I haven’t seen him in several years. My sister was able to go see him a few months before he died, but she was extremely grieved that she hadn’t gone back soon enough. She thought she’d have more time.

I go to see my elderly Mother as often as possible, and I’ve warned the powers-that-be at work that I will go see her, whether I’m scheduled to work or not. So, they might as well arrange my schedule to make that possible or risk being short handed some days. However, I realize there will come a time when Mom won’t be there. Suddenly, she’ll be gone and I’ll be wondering about that one last trip to visit her, and why I didn’t go sooner.

But this morning, I was pondering these things and came to a conclusion. Whenever we last see a loved one was the last trip to see them. There are always deep desires to keep going back “one more time”, but we’ve already had our “one more time”. There really isn’t anything to regret or beat ourselves up over. We’ve done our best to be faithful and loving. We’ve done our best to show the person we care. We know we loved them. They know we loved them. “One last trip” wouldn’t have stopped the inevitable.

I know for myself, in relation to my Mother, I am greedy about the time with her. I want it all. There’s just no way to have it all.

Posted: January 29th, 2008 under Uncategorized, Flights of fancy, Outreach.
Comments: none

The furnishings in our McDonald’s are pretty tough. They take a lot of abuse from customers and sometimes crew, in the form of chairs being slammed up against table edges or doors being pushed too far open, until they hit a wall. And, yes, we’ll clean up after you.

However, nothing is completely indestructible and nothing stays clean forever without diligence on the part of employees. So, just for fun, here are few tips for potential customers.

• It’s not necessary to allow your kids on “heelies” to fly through the lobby and slam themselves into the drink station and sometimes other customers. We promise we won’t shut down the drink station while you’re waiting for your food.
• The trash bins are for trash, not trays.
• While you may think it’s thrifty to leave condiment cups of ketchup on the tables for the next customers to use, the fact is we are going to throw them away. You can save us, and in the future yourself, some money by only taking the ketchup you’ll actually consume.
• There are trash cans in the bathrooms. You don’t have to leave your drink cups and soggy napkins on the bathroom vanities.
• Our parking lot is not the local dump. Please place your used cups, beer cans, soda cans, dirty diapers, empty cigarette packs, used Kleenexes and junk mail in the appropriate trash receptacles.
• We’re very proud of how your children are learning to read and write, but letting them stick their fingers in ketchup and writing things on the windows, the table, and the chair seats is not appreciated by us or by the next customer who happens to sit down where you were.
• Accidents do happen, and we’re eager to clean up spills or sweep up dropped food anytime. It’s not fair to us, though, to spill or drop stuff, walk through it, grind it into the floor, track it across the lobby, then leave, complaining of how dirty the restaurant is. Just give us a heads-up about the accidents. We’ll replace your food and your drink for free, and clean up the mess for you.

Our last corporate inspection placed our store at #1 in the nation, with the highest score ever achieved. That doesn’t come by accident, but by a whole team of managers and crew doing their jobs to the very best of their abilities and caring about the customers, the store, and each other. It’s very disheartening, though, to know that many customers don’t even view us as really human, as is demonstrated by their attitudes toward us.

Technorati Tags: McDonald’s, employees, drink station, restaurant

Posted: January 27th, 2008 under Work, Business and finance.
Comments: none

Every so often,