So, I’ve been here for about 2 years now, and have never done an “Ask the…” thread…here’s my chance!
A little background…I’m 21, working as a manager at Wendy’s. I’ve been in food service for 5 years now, with my first job being a breakfast cook at McDonalds. I was later a manager at McDonalds, a manager at Sbarros’, and a manager of an overpriced ice cream/burger place in Weston MA. I’ve been all over the place.
Here’s your chance…ask the fast food manager!!
Manager at a Wendy’s, eh?
Why do I get the craptacular positions? Put me on fries one more time and I quit.
Hm, maybe I should start an “ask the cheesed-off Wendy’s employee” thread.
I’ve never heard of Sbarros (am I even spelling it properly?). Is it a chain?
I have a lot of respect for your profession. It looks like very hard work. Is it, and why or why not?
Can I trust that my Big Mac was not tampered with by disgruntled employees? How common is that, anyway?
Have you ever shagged one of your cow-orkers in the meat locker during your fifteen minute break?
Why would anyone give a kid a test on Lot and Lobby on the Saturday before school starts, when it was pouring rain and the parkinglot was dug up and became a giant mud pit?
I failed the Lot and Lobby test. I passed Fries. I didnt get the job.
Not that thats a BAD thing. But it did mean I got to be a dount wench instead. That WAS a bad thing.
Sbarros is a pizza chain. They are usually located at the mall. Typical mall food, mediocre and overpriced. Sbarro pizza is greasy.
OK dude…
Are you going to stay in the fast food business? You could make regional manager, which is a good position actually.
Are you going to college? Probably important if you want that regional job.
What is your turnover at your store? Is your store owned by the children of Dave Thomas (God rest his soul) or a local person?
What do you eat? Surely you are sick of looking at hamburgers, pototoes in varied varieties and chili all day.
Do your employees like or fear you?
How many hours a week on average do you put in?
How do you cover the constant employees who “no show” for work?
Have you read Fast Food Nation, and do you agree with the section on fast food restaurants? Does it tally with your experiences?
I have often noticed that there are more older (40+) workers at fast food places now than I remember 10 years ago. (Maybe I just notice more because I have my fair share of gray now.)
Is this a recent development?
Who is generally a better worker? The teens or the older worker?
As a 21 year old manager do you ever get flack/disrespect because of your age from an older worker? The younger?
Do you still exsist?:rolleyes:
The thing that pisses me off more than anything in fast food is a cashier who doesn’t say THANK YOU. I complain to management every time it happens.
Back in my day (oh god, here it comes…) I worked at McDonald’s and Burger King, and we had BETTER be smiling and thanking our asses off all day. Now I get a grunt and a sneer. How do you ensure your workers are projecting the right attitude?
I was a fast food manager at Burger King for about 2 years, so I can answer some of shep proudfoot’s questions:
1. Are you going to stay in the fast food business? You could make regional manager, which is a good position actually.
I didn’t want to make a career out of fast food and I was wanting to get out of it as soon as an opportunity presented itself. I left when a new owner took over and screwed me and other managers out of a lot of tings.
2. Are you going to college? Probably important if you want that regional job.
I had been out of college for a couple of years and jobs were scarce in my field, so I went into management after working as a lowly crew member. My current job doesn’t reflect what I went to college for, but it’s a lot better than working in fast food (I test printers now).
3. What is your turnover at your store?
I never bothered to look at the actual turnover rate in terms of a percentage, but likemost fast food places it was quite high where I worked. IIRC we probably hired 2 or 3 new people each week and would have just as many quit in that same period. The average employee probably lasted from one to two months.
4. What do you eat? Surely you are sick of looking at hamburgers, pototoes in varied varieties and chili all day.
Surprisingly, I often ate the food we served there (what the hell, it was free for managers). I also gained several pounds because of it.
5. Do your employees like or fear you?
Most of my employees (as far as I know) liked me. I had learned from working as a crew member that being a jackass to your employees doesn’t accomplish anything. I abided by the old rule “treat others as you would like to be treated.” Now, I wasn’t a pushover and people knew that I expected them to remain busy, but they respected me and knew I would be easy to work with as long as they did their job and did it right.
What the hell, I might as well answer some other questions posted here (not to take over the thread that Pammipoo started):
I put in about 45-50 hours a week. We were scheduled to work five 9-hour days a week (which almost always included at least a Saturday or a Sunday, if not both). Most of the time I could get out of there in time, but there were days when I mighe be stuck there an extra hour or two.
As for covering shifts, first I’d have to start calling the people who were off that day (God, how I hated having to do this, especiallya t 6:00 AM). If I couldn’t get anyone to cover a shift then I had five other stores within our franchise to call, and usually I could get somebody from one of these other stores. Having to constantly cover shifts was a non-stop pain in the ass.
I never read Fast Food Nation or any of the other magazines we received in the mail at the store. I didn’t have time to read them, and during my precious off time I had better things to do than to read about things related to my job.
The older workers were definitely better. They were more dependable and performed their jobs better, and they didn’t need as much supervision as the teenagers. This is why I liked the daytime weekday shifts better than the night and weekend shifts, which were primarily staffed with teenagers. There were times I felt more like a babysitter than a manager. I was in my early twenties at the time but I don’t think anyone ever disrespected me because of my age.
Ooh, I like this thread. I was a McDonald’s employee for a little over a year and I always wondered what my managers were thinking. (I got promoted to “Crew Trainer,” too, and I suppose the people I trained were perhaps wondering what I was thinking.)
You know how belligerent customers are always demanding to speak to the manager? How many of those cases are really things that could have been handled by a regular employee, assuming both parties had been relatively polite and clear in their communication? How often do you end up doing anything other than apologizing and/or giving out gift certificates?
Do you man a station at your store on a regular basis, or are you confined to paperwork and other managerial stuff - no food hands-on?
The typical Wendy’s/McDonald’s/Burger King has enough coffee making capacity to float at least one battleship per hour but generally sells considerably less than that amount. Why, then, do they run out of coffee during peak periods and why don’t the cashiers take the extra 30 seconds that will save everyone five minutes by making a pot of coffee when an empty container becomes available after they pour coffee?
cow-orkers. cow-orkers.
I love it.
I’ve worked a few fast food jobs in my life, so I can answer some of these questions as well.
KCSuze, anywhere I’ve ever worked, tampering with food was not an issue. It’s a lot harder to do than you’d think, anyway, because there’s almost always plenty of people who can see you. I don’t worry about it when I go out to eat at all.
Lorenzo, Burger King doesn’t even have “real” coffee. It’s made from a pouch of condensed coffee-like liquid and mixed with hot water when you order it. Be glad when they are out.
All the one question posters…I’ll get to the long ones next 
Catalyst During slow times, start practicing on other stations. Talk to your manager and ask to learn sandwiches, or register or something. I’m sure if you pick it up, they’ll take you off fries, which really do suck.
Violet:It is hard work, but only until you get the hang of it. Once you have a little experience under your belt, you can run a shift in your sleep. You know what people are doing, how they’re doing it, and what they should be doing. You can be in drive thru, the office, and the kitchen, all in the blink of an eye. Super-Manager!!
KC Suze theo nly food tampering I EVER saw was when I was 16 at mcdonalds. Apparently a coworker thought it would be funny, on his last day, to put a piece of broken glass from a pocket mirror in a guy’s burger. He brought it back to complain, and it went to claims court, but he lost because there isn’t any glass products in a McDonalds. Even the coffee pots are supposedly unbreakable, so they figured he planted it trying to make a buck. Years later, I heard from someone else about the disgruntled employee. 99.99% of the time, your food is safe. Even if you’re a real bitch, the employees aren’t going to do anything about it.
jujimojo: Why would anyone give you a test on cleaning the parking lot before hiring you? That’s weird. I’ve never heard of it before. Maybe they were just shorthanded, and needed someone to sweep for them? You’re probably better off working somewhere else
neuromanNot a coworker during work hours, but I did hook up with a customer in the mens’ room. All the coworker stories took place after work hours 
crusoeI’ve read bits and pieces of it, but it was years ago. I remember agreeing with parts of it, but I don’t remember specifically which parts
Guy montag I’m paid for 48 hours a week. I usually pull anywhere from 45-50. I don’t really have to work extra hours too often, unless an emergency comes up
As for callouts, they aren’t really a problem, because the average employee is constantly looking to work more hours than they’re scheduled for, so they’re willing to come in if needed. There are a couple of employees who call every morning just to make sure we don’t need them to come in even though they’re not scheduled.
Anonymous Coward It depends on the worker individually. I’ve had older workers who resent the fact that they’re stuck working low-wage jobs. They come to work, but do little else. While the teenager is happy to have pocket money, they’ll do anything you ask. It also goes vice versa though…the older worker who is entralled to be out of the house, and the teenager who is only working because Mommy and Daddy won’t give them a car unless they work for it. In my experience, age doesn’t really determine anything.
As for my age, I occasionally run into a 40+ who thinks because I’m so young, I don’t know what I’m doing. And I sometimes end up befriending the teenager, because we’re so close in age, so it’s just like one of their friends telling them to mop the floors.
ceefa’s mate Yes, I do
kalhoun I try to make sure my employees are having fun while they’re at work. We laugh a lot, joke around, but when the customers start pouring in, we get to work. I make sure to tell them I appreciate the work they do…Thank you’s, and Great Job!'s. We’ll bring in bags of candy or something, and let employees munch on them in between customers. If we break a record service time or something, we’ll give everyone free meals, or order pizza, or something like that. I’m lucky right now to have a really great group of employees, they’re happy to be there. It makes my job that much easier.
cadbury angel Like 1 out of 10 complaints warrents a manager. Usually, it’s a “I ordered no ketchup, and they put extra ketchup.”, which can be corrected by a cashier. The only things we really want the manager to handle are food safety issues, and if it involves an employee’s behavior. We rarely even get those complaints…I think in 5 years, I’ve had 2 people with food safety issues (both at McDonalds), and one employee complaint, which was at Sbarros. A customer had issue with the fact that my cashier didn’t speak english…there wasn’t a whole lot I could do. We usually just apologize, and offer them a free sandwich on their next visit
At my store, I run a non-essential position. Meaning that while I’m working towards serving the customers, I’m not trapped into register, or making sandwiches, or working the grill. I’m usually bagging for drive thru, or coordinating the front lines…grabbing drinks, putting the sandwiches on the tray, etc. If something comes up, I can pull off, and the cashier/ordertaker can run run for themselves. I can also do my walkthrus, and make sure the store’s running smoothly. I really only have to do paperwork for like 2 hours a day.