F-You job x 127136721 carry the 2

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

I can't stand it(anymore).
The stupidity.
My stupidity.
The collective stupidity.

I've been working this franchise fast food restaurant job since Sept. 2003.

I've had lots of ups and downs.

For the last 8-9 months its been all downhill.

My boss is pretty young. His brother, a few years older and wiser oversees the store on the other side of town.

I hear him(boss) constantly banter on about "going home and sleeping because I had X(insert any number under 8 for X) hours of sleep the night before," "If anything happens, call me(he leaves his phone in the store so he can't pick up)," etc.

He admits to being lazy, but walking around showing people a bad example isn't right. Our current crop of workers have become the laziest and worst of the bunch.

They had great workers before and during my time on the job, and slowly but surely people leave-quit-get fired, and the teens/bad workers get hired. Nobody trains them correctly, if they train them outside of one week at all. Someone butts in during training, throwing off their learning to do the job. Someone shows them shortcuts which leads to bigger messes and things not done correctly.

I don't say much, since I barely have time to. I'm usually cleaning up messes other people stupidly made and my boss doesn't tell em anything for doing it.

It's getting to be too much.

This morning my boss came in dead(tired), 2 hours of sleep he said. Only me and him in the store at 10:15 and the store opens at 10:30. Nobody else comes in until after 10:30. Boss doesn't say anything, hell he's dead tired and will soon enough go home to sleep, then come back and laugh about it.

No rice. No rice = no food for 20 minutes at least. I'm both opening the store by bringing out our food, then making the food that was ordered, then cleaning towels, then trying to find time to go make the rice. Daily routine compounded with stress since there are 5 plates of food ordered and enough rice for 4.

The closing shift should have left the damn pot with at least 1/2 of it filled with rice. It isn't that hard to do, just common sense and paying attention. They never do, the boss doesn't care and nobody cares of the cause/effect of what happens in the morning because of it. Boss won't scold his workers, they joke around and have fun together at work. I don't.

Health inspector comes in. Many repeat violations. Boss even says he doesn't stay in the store long/doesn't sleep much, admitting that he's irresponsible to some degree.

At 5 or so when the next shift is coming in, I'm stuck refilling/filtering the fryer oil in the small kitchen. I'm talking like a 5-6 feet wide hallway like kitchen here, with about half that for walking room.

5 people standing around. I'm in the middle, they're getting in my way. Hell, I'm the only one doing anything that's considered work and trying to hurry up and get out of there. Nobody is making it any easier. 3 people shouting back and forth about their cars, how their mom just bought them new parts/paid for their car payments and how dope their car is now.

2 others talking about what the health inspector did, and trying to clean up the other side of the kitchen.

Orders are still coming in, and I have both hands full, but nobody cares to make the orders, so they're much longer than usual.

I lack social skills. I don't talk to these people outside of work. Hardly anybody talks to me at work either. If they do, its in a Spanish/English mix. Better than nothing, but when they go back to speaking Spanish/not joking around, who do I talk to?

I'm considered the loser. The guy who has to work hard while these guys make more and more messes day after day, with no repercussions. They have college/girlfriends/cars/friends/etc. and I don't. I work hard since I have to, to pick up their slack, and so this place doesn't explode/get shut down one day-also if I was as lazy as them I'd be fired by now.

They can close the store by leaving food out all night(12 hours) not cleaning their area, not putting food back in its place-and leaving empty pans instead, not cleaning the towels/wash rags, etc.

They don't know where to find food in the freezer after working for 6+ months, or its just that they're bastards and never look/care to and only bitch when things don't go their way/something runs out.

I'm getting too many grey hairs, swearing a billion times a day, getting too stressed out.

Hell, I know of a serious violation this place committs outside of the health code inspections, yet no one has spoken up yet about it.

My boss' brother has kept me from being fired/quitting twice now. I remind him of himself he said. And I can't get this wage at a similar job, and I have no skills/experience of worth.

I close the store every now and then, cleaning as many things as I can, hoping to set a good example for my co-workers, but I'm not one to tell people what to do, or even get a chance to. Why should they listen to me?! I'm only a few years older, walk to work/take the bus, don't have friends.(but have been working longer, have seniority, and know WTF I'm doing)

I work with my boss' brother every now and then too. He respects me more for what I do, but has a hard time telling his brother what to do. There have been stupid mistakes, fire, etc.

A third store is opening soon(dear gawd).

Stick it out longer here?
Speak up hoping someone will listen?

Quit, go to college, do something else?

Or just go through the routine, hoping the place won't explode.

The answer may be obvious, but for me its tough sometimes, ya know?


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: HAYABUSA-FMW- on 2005-08-03 22:44 ]</font>

[navci]

Quit.
Even if it pay less at a similar job. If you don't have a family to support, I'd say the money is not worth the kinda stress you're in.

Plus. I am sure you can work a similar job. You now have the experience, especially what NOT to do. I don't think you lack social skills, what you lack is a place where you don't feel like you are a piece of shit.. a very busy piece of shit.

Quit. Find another job.

[Blitzkommando]

I'm just going by what you have said in this topic and some of your other rants, just a heads up.

If you did know the answer, you wouldn't be here right now, asking those questions. Or, not so much knowing, but, confirming. And I can understand that. Those are all big decisions, and all require thorough consideration. Based on your other actions, you seem to take pride, if just a little, in doing the right thing.

Sometimes doing the right thing is tough, very tough. But in the end, you feel better about the situation and yourself. Now, I know none of what is happening is your fault, and you should too. And, I really think you do know that. Don't blame yourself for any of it, because in the end, you aren't them. They are the ones that are not taking their jobs seriously. You should be proud of yourself, because you do what needs to be done, even if your coworkers refuse to. That in and of itself, takes real dedication. Look at what you have done. Look at all that you fixed. It's like children, they will always break things, and you as the senior staff, or the parent, must fix them. In the end not only are you helping them, even without thanks, you are helping yourself. You are learning things, how to run the place, how to fix the things that break. Look at all that has been fixed, not at all that has been broken. You will feel better about the situation, or at least I hope you do.

In any event, you know what is the right thing to do. Good luck to you, and take pride in your decisions.

[roygbiv]

Quit, go to college (or cc), get some skills and do things that you are interested in doing!

And then find a job where people are interested in the work that they are doing also and you don't have to work with a bunch of people who are just lazy.

[anwserman]

Quit and find a job at another fast-food joint. When you say you have no skills... well, from what I've heard you have the skills to manage a place yourself.

http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

I work in food retail, and I wish I had employees like you. Anyway, you have skills - what you need is confidence in yourself.

P.S. You'll get that type of money quickly as you do now if you work as hard as you say you do at any other place.

[Daikarin]

Your boss is as incompetent as the noobs he hires to replace the good workers. He has no sense of responsibility, something proven by the health inspector and the rice matter. You work double than the other guys who only slack off and talk during work. You take care of orders when you have your hands full, and others don't when they have their hands empty.

How can you be a loser? Look more like a future boss to me. No skills? What about those slackers who get payed off the same or more than you and don't do half your job? THOSE are the losers. Don't be fooled by their girlfriends, cars, etc. I'm a virgin myself, I can only afford a car in some years and I'm a bit shy myself. But that's not how you judge a man, and you know I'm right about this.

Now, you should present these arguments to your boss. You may be shy to tell harsh truths, I was too. But there can be nothing that gets in the way of facts. Go to his office or house, (when you catch him on) slamm your fist in the table and say

"Sir, this can't go on like this. I'm beggining to grow sick of the way this is being taken care off. You're never present to know what's going on, something I find irresponsible.

Maybe you're busy, maybe you're not, but you're the freacking boss, and you can't leave the [place you work at] to me and a bunch of noob slackers.

The newbies are being poorly trained and being encouraged to slack off duties. I can't instruct every newbie that you hire, especially because that would mean making them GOOD workers, something which I fail to see there.

The [place you work at] breaks through a serious number of health code inspections and other kinds of inspections, something that could be proven with the visit of yours truly, the all-mighty health inspector. Yet, after this visit, it repeats itself. I'm not black mailing nobody, just wanted you to be aware of this which I consider to be important.

Your brother has kept me from being fired twice, but I'm beggining to want to quit. This place puts me under a lot of stress, since I work my honest butt out, and only get my paycheck for it, something that other guys get by slacking off all week.

I have nothing against the other workers except for the fact that they don't work right, and that doesn't affect ME, that affects YOU and the [place you work at]'s business.

Now, I see two possible scenarios.

One, the most obvious, is that I quit. I'm seriously tired of watching so many stuff which I find unfair, and unprofitable to the whole team. I may not gain as much money working somewhere else, but at least I would be acknowledged for my work, and in time, if I keep working hard as I do here who knows if I can get paid more.

Two, we do something about this. And something isn't just saying "Yeah, I'll do something", it's actually doing it. Because honestly, if this problem affected only me, I would just stick with scenario one. I'm afraid this can affect the [place you work at]'s business on the long run, with the lack of work and justice I see around here. Slackers are treated on the same level as honest workers.

I've been holding off these thoughts for a long time. Your brother can confirm everything I said here, altough I don't need him to.

I have my rights."

Depending on his answer, either quit or keep working there.

If it doesn't work out, just quit. Go somewhere where they can recognise your work. You won't get paid the same wage on your first days, but who knows what would happen if you work hard. I always believe, virtue is it's self-reward. So just keep doing your job as best as you can, no matter where you work at (or not).

[Arislan]

Quit, agreed, but for your own sake, line another job up first. I don't care if you think you can 100% get a job at another place before you quit this one, go do it. Just tell the new place that you can't work until X day, since you need to get out of the place you are first. Most interviewers tend not to even question why you're at another job, or why you want out, and if they do, be honest.

[InfinityXXX]

Just quit and go to college. College is very important and no job should stand in the way of education but their could be factors that could prevent you t ogoing to college.

Just by reading your post, it seem stressful.(where do you work at anyways?) Stress is bad and can even kill you.

Lots of friends make fun of me and say i'm stupid cause i quit TCIM and Mazzio's Call center this summer(good pay. brought home checks $500 and up), but i have a philosophy. I believe that you should work at places that make you happy and if it doesn't then the job is not right for you.

But if theres some part of you that wishes to stay,(I'm guessing since you've been there for a while) then i would speak to the boss. Since you say your quiet they'll more than likely listen to hear what you have to say.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Thank you for your advice all of you. It really does help me with this, I appreciate it very much.

I've been planning on quitting forever. Just throw up a note that says 2-weeks notice and my name; On the bulletin board that is overflowing with requests for days off(which seriously fucks up everyone's schedule since with this lackluster attitude towards working, someone has to pick up the slack). This also means nobody ever gets a permanent schedule, which we all used to have and enjoy, due to last second requests/switching schedules mostly from these lazy teens. They even had the nerve to ask me once, having me end up with less hours and feeling used because of it.

What's funny is, I just take it. I hardly ask for days off, the most being due to a death in the family a year ago. I have come to work sick, and sent home, even when the owner asked me to stay. Other jerkos ask for holidays off months in advance and I get stuck working Christmas Eve, day before Thanksgiving(with major cleaning) twice, July 4th, New Years' Eve and other national holidays.

I have burned my hand on the barbeque grill and come to work, not even close to fully healed, emotional as hell and sent home. I dunno why I even wanted to work soo badly then, with a major injury.

My first day, I cut off a piece of my finger after my current boss kept me nervous by joking that I would "cut off my finger(by chopping the food that way)". First week, dropped something very heavy and hot, almost hurting my boss badly. I thought I was fired right then and there.

I was weaning off of depression pills when I got my job, a get off your ass and do something ultimatum by my parents or GTFO the house.

I was a terribly emotional person at work, being very destructive at times. Yet however crazy I was, boss' brother wanted to keep me due to the "quality" of my work he said.

I was given a raise-beyond the regular/mandatory 3 and 6-month raises, my boss said due to him, one other co-worker, and myself running the store by ourselves during a peak hour one day. Hell, we wen't out to eat together that night afterwards.

I dunno how to speak up, since they've taken in my crazy self, and given me some self worth in life.

I'm expecting something major to happen pretty soon with the opening of the 3rd store.

My boss(es), and adult co-workers can't be late night partying/casino poker playing all night forever. They can't ignore health code violations anymore. They can't ignore the teens acting like this is some afterschool hangout.

There shouldn't be any more excuses. Workers with more seniority than I(working since the store first opened) have complained about lack of pay/hours/competent workers. They have long talks, and some find second jobs to pay their rent if simple demands are not met.

The owner(father of my bosses) used to help out during the extremely busy days(which there are less of now due to plenty of business competition) and was sweating hard in that tiny kitchen. He was trying to ask for water, but nobody heard him-or just ignored him. Hell, I took it upon myself to go grab him a bottle of water he wanted from the front of the store, why not? He's paying all of us, what kind of person ignores such a simple request?

His son(boss)later tries to give him a cup of ice water instead, and he refuses saying he likes the bottles better(cleaner/easier to drink and save). They were arguing over it earlier concerning a menial profit issue I think.

I had a talk with my boss once when I was really low and ready to quit and he said "even my dad likes you" probably due to the water incident in part, no? outside of my working habits.

A co-worker who opened the store, as in helped build it from scratch(interior anyway), argued/gave me hell when we were getting paid the same wage and he found out. How some kid with no chef's degree/training walked in here and made the same as him. But my bosses say he's sloppy(and I agree). They won't promote him to a manager(too many things would go wrong), and one day they might for me. For now I just am in charge when they are not around, regardless of whether people realize it or not. I asked for a paycut to help alleviate stress/BS from him and others and my boss' brother refused, saying I earned it, they gave it to me, he is just jealous and shouldn't have anything to do with it since he doesn't own the store.

I was starting to learn some things about ordering, and running the store more indirectly, and that guy butted in and took major offense. My bosses haven't talked about it with me since. They said if it wasn't for my anger issues, they would want everyone in the store to be like me.

But nobody is perfect, and I'm glad they took my negatives with my positives and have kept me around this long.

I could be worse off, I do get at least 2 days off a week. Some people certainly can't say that right?
If this suddenly makes me sound like a whiner, fine.

My bosses say its pretty easy to find workers passable enough to work here. How anyone can do it and its an easy job, outside of a select few who have been fired. I beg to differ, and know how hard their jobs are too at times, and their balancing of life outside of work when we are open 7 days a week-12 hours a day. The only exception being major holidays, which are first talked about in advance to see if it will be busy enough/worth it to open.

I might be the glue holding this place together and it won't feel too great watching it fall to pieces is all upon leaving. Even a silent 2 week notice note will be blown out of proportion, and will evoke some heavy words. I may not be ready for this yet.

I think I'll hold on a little more, hoping for the best with this third store, pride/stupidity or not- this seems like a bad idea to drop a quitting notice soo close to a store opening.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: HAYABUSA-FMW- on 2005-08-04 23:51 ]</font>